ometimes people in our world of entrepreneurship through acquisition (ETA) will reflect:

"Ya know, it's not like this ‘search’ thing is new. People have been buying small businesses forever."

Today's guest Matt Huggins reminds me of that.

Because Matt, whose holdco is projected to gross $20m this year, did not get his MBA.

He wasn't on Searchfunder.

He didn't read the HBR Guide to Buying a Small Business.

Instead, the outdoorsman was elk hunting with a friend, and they asked themselves:

What could they do professionally that would give them the freedom to spend more time in the mountains hunting?

‍Buying a small business was the answer they arrived at — and they did it.

Flash forward 15 years, and that first acquisition (which went terribly, by the way) has been parlayed into a holdco of multiple businesses, some acquired, others Matt and his team started from scratch.

But listen for how Matt has done that.

You'll hear that this wasn't a grand holdco plan. It wasn't all mapped out.

Often Matt was simply responding to market demand or an opportunity that found him.

By meeting that demand or saying yes to an opportunity (reluctantly sometimes), Matt built multiple businesses over years.

Here is his story. Matt Huggins, owner of the Peak Group Companies.