E:35 Top M&A Entrepreneurs Podcast - Michael Liu - 2 Acquisitions Ecommerce under $1mm in Rev

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Micheal is CEO and Co-Founder at Erdos Ventures.  Micheal is graduate of Techstars LA '21.  Erdos Ventures is a Techstars backed company that leverages technology to appraise, acquire, and activate portfolios of high potential niche e-commerce brands at scale.

00:00 Intro to Micheal Liu
00:15  What / Who is Erdos - why the name origin - finding connections between companies
01:24  His acquisition thesis - what they want to build  - an infrastructure layer for small ecomm
03:27  Putting his money where his mouth is...for now.
04:04   Focused primarily on NON Amazon business-  not going to compete Thrasio Holdings - important distinction between amazon and Shopify business model - Owning the Customers! 
08:12  What he looks for in financial criteria for acquisition - Under $1mm in Topline Rev
10:05  What is it they Erdos brings to a $1mm Rev ecomm business. 
12:23  Going thru a sample acquisition scenario... 1.  Finding the business, 2. Finding the "motivated" scenario - uncovering inexperienced operators - What Thrasio does..
17:14   The challenges of buying an ecomm business under $1mm in revenue
25:15   Decision making with products  - Product Market Fit.  products with Ephemeral connection to customer - no drop shipping - ecomm business owns the product. 
29:48  How he starts the conversation with seller...  reach outs, inbound outbound deal sourcing, understanding the journey - founders story. 
31:38   Terms of offer - seeking transition period sellers,  and 100% buyouts, multiples to $1mm revenue ecomm businesses - do they have a community around product
34:50  Where he gets his guiding principles from,  how he does business,  paying for unseen untapped value
35:37  Source of funds to acquire business,  a bootstrap start, Techstars LA '21 graduate,  actively fundraising for acquisition fund. 
37:45  Closed 2nd acquisition recently,  3rd in closing,  goal is 5 per year.   Deal flow brisk
40:05   Does he have "know when to fold them" - sell.   Traditional thought process - cost of holding the company.   Smart Strategy to Hold the business...for how long...   which eliminates "trending or fad" businesses - more important to ask what problem does the product solve. 
44:01  Results from 1st business to date.. 2X'ed revenue 3X'ed conversion ratio,  dropped time spent on business by 80% with automation
45:38  How he gets his deal flow - 3 main channels to dig for leads MicroAquire, Shopify Exchange, Referrals
47:00 What his needs -  Investors, actively raising capital, connections into eco-systems,  motivated  sellers,