Today’s guest, David Dowda (Dowda Holdings), went from burned-out insurance salesman working 80-100 hour weeks to buying his first business doing just $30,000 a year - fully seller-financed.
Ten years later, he owns nine companies across multiple industries - all acquired with zero outside equity and often minimal cash down.
TIMESTAMPS
0:00 How he bought a $30k revenue business with zero cash down
3:00 Rolling up a beach town with chairs, linens, golf carts and a coffee shop
8:03 Buying a construction company 6 hours away with no experience
10:31 Sponsor: CapitalPad - investing alongside small business buyers
11:58 Flipping the construction business for a 300% return in 18 months
17:19 Scaling a moving company
22:15 Sponsor: SpaceBar Studios - b2b newsletter
35:04 Creative M&A structures with 100% seller finance, bank debt and earnouts
42:57 Building teams, promoting from within and making businesses “transition ready”
52:05 Why he believes multiples will compress on Main Street
1:02:13 Managing personal guarantees, stress and four kids under five
1:06:20 Next chapter raising capital to buy $5-20M companies
Sponsors:
https://capitalpad.com/
https://www.spacebarstudios.co/inquire
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This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as a basis for investment decisions.
