Today's guest took over a business for free.

He didn't buy it, not at first.

Elias Youssef came across a Denver water heater company that was losing money. The owner was more than $1 million in debt, and he'd been putting payroll on credit cards. No bank would lend against that business, and Elias himself wasn't willing to put his own money into it.

But the business seemed fixable.

‍So he pitched the owner on a structure borrowed from real estate: the lease-option.

Under a management services agreement, Elias took full operational and financial control of the business, along with a three-year option to acquire it.

Listen for how that buyer-friendly structure works, and why the seller agreed to it.

Elias ran the business for 16 months and did fix it. Then he exercised his option to take ownership of what he had turned into a profitable business now doing between $3m and $4m in run rate revenue.

Between a seller note and a borrowed equity injection, he has essentially none of his own money in the deal.

Also listen for how Elias builds his teams. With no capital and no track record, he cold-called the man who built Arizona's second-largest HVAC company and offered him equity in exchange for advice. That mentor, and the credibility he brought, has been crucial to Elias's success landing the deal, then turning it around.

Elias has since done the same for a young searcher, who used a nearly identical structure to take over a plumbing company.

Much to learn in this episode.

Enjoy the conversation with Elias Youssef, founder and CEO of Frost & Flow.