hen I first heard the numbers from today's guest, I thought I misunderstood.

$200m in revenue, $30m in EBITDA by the end of the year — and the team just did their first acquisition in March??

Some of my more ambitious guests aim to get to $100m in revenue over 5 or 10 years.

So how could it be possible to get to twice that number in 9 months?

Well in today's interview you will learn.

Jordan Dubin and his two partners are rolling up the garage door repair industry.

And Jordan does a phenomenal job of breaking it down.

We hear:

  • their thesis around the garage door industry
  • their strategy of attack to consolidate the industry
  • what they standardize & centralize in their acquired businesses (and what they leave untouched)
  • the deal structure offered to owners
  • and lots & lots of numbers

Speaking of which, do note this distinction between what Jordan is doing and what the typical Acquiring Minds guest does, which helps answer the question how have they done this?

Most Acquiring Minds guests are looking for a single good business to buy, typically using an SBA loan.

By contrast, Jordan and his partners have a very dialed-in thesis in a category (home services) where they had years of experience as private equity associates, and they went out and raised $35m to pursue this vision.

When you have a war chest of $35m, you can make moves in an industry where not a lot of consolidation is happening.

Jordan Dubin with the Right Way Garage Doors team
Jordan Dubin (far right) with the Right Way team of Vacaville, CA

So what Jordan & team are doing here is more in the vein of traditional private equity.

Still. Many, if not most, of the themes we hit on can be applied to your self-funded search:

How to think about an industry. Where an industry is on its consolidation curve, or if it's even on one. How to relate to owners. How to differentiate yourself as a buyer. How to best position yourself to perhaps one day sell the business you're trying to buy. These should be your considerations in a self-funded search as much as they are Jordan's in a $200m roll-up.

This was an exciting story and a rich education — the best kind of interview. I hope you agree.

Here is Jordan Dubin, co-founder of Guild Garage Group.