Nick Huber, known as "the sweaty startup guy," discusses his journey from running a college storage business to acquiring Support Shepherd (now Somewhere.com) for $52 million. He details how he structured this independent sponsor deal with innovative terms, including a seller note and different investor tranches. Nick explains how he's built businesses using international remote workers, particularly from South Africa, Colombia, and the Philippines, creating significant cost advantages. He also shares insights on building his Twitter following of 400,000, managing online criticism, and balancing media presence with business operations. Currently, he's focused on growing his three main companies while navigating the challenges of entrepreneurship.

• Nick Huber, known as "the sweaty startup guy," acquired Support Shepherd (rebranded as Somewhere.com), a Filipino recruiting agency, for $52 million in May 2024, structuring the deal as an independent sponsor.
• The acquisition involved buying 58.25% of the business, with 39.25% funded by outside investors ($20.3 million) and 18% through a seller note directly to Nick, allowing him to potentially own 39.229% of the company if successful.
• Nick structured two investor tranches: one with a 20% carry for investments over $1 million and another with a 30% carry for investments under $1 million, meeting with 100 potential investors to secure funding from 38 people.
• Somewhere.com is an international recruiting company that helps businesses build worldwide remote teams, with revenue growing 26% in Q1 2024 despite challenges after acquisition.
• Post-acquisition, Nick shifted the company's focus from 80% Philippines-based placements to 40% South Africa, 40% Latin America, and less than 15% Philippines, targeting specialized talent for sales, finance, and operations.
• The business faced significant challenges after acquisition, including SEO collapse (leads dropped from 1,500 to 700 monthly) and Twitter algorithm changes that severely reduced Nick's ability to drive traffic to the business.
• Nick's self-storage business (Bolt Storage) saw a 14.1% revenue increase and 20%+ NOI growth in Q1 by switching from Filipino to South African sales teams, improving conversion rates from 32% to 41%.
• Nick runs his real estate private equity company with 50 employees for $1.5 million in annual overhead, compared to competitors spending $5 million for similar operations, demonstrating the cost advantages of his international workforce model.
• Nick invests $350,000-$400,000 annually in his media team of 7 people who manage his content across Twitter (400,000 followers), newsletters, podcasts, and other platforms, while also supporting his portfolio companies.
• Nick's portfolio includes 63 self-storage properties, Somewhere.com, and Re Cost Seg (a cost segregation firm generating $750,000+ monthly revenue), with a total of 325 employees across his businesses (only 22 Americans).

oday's guest may be someone you've heard of.

Nick Huber, the Sweaty Startup guy.

One of the early voices in the boring businesses trend, Nick exhorted his followers to stop equating entrepreneurship to tech and Mark Zuckerberg, and instead recognize all the opportunities available in any town to anyone willing to work.

Now that's old news to you listener, but Nick was early with that message, and it was influential to me personally.

Well last year, news broke that Nick had acquired Support Shepherd, a recruiting agency for Filipino talent that was well known across Twitter and in small business and entrepreneurial circles.

It was a high-profile $52m deal.

And Nick, in this interview, unpacks exactly how he structured it, how he pulled it off.

So today you will learn how a first-time sponsor puts together an acquisition like that.

Nick doesn't come from a finance background.

He'd never bought a business before.

Yes, he had acquired a portfolio of self-storage real estate assets, so he had dealmaking experience.

But this was at a different level, in a different space, with different investors.

And he figured it out as he went. He got help from his smarter, more experienced friends. He had calls with over 100 investors, some of which lasted all of 5 minutes as they quickly dismissed him.

But he got it done, and my takeaway from his story is his ability to learn in real time as he charged after an ambitious target, to not be cowed by inexperience or not using the right vocabulary.

And there's a lot more in this wide-ranging conversation; we talk about building a media platform and being an influencer.

I really enjoyed it and think you will too.

And as you'll hear, my partner in Minds Capital, Niklas James, co-hosted the interview, since we're also publishing it as an episode of the Minds Capital Podcast. Nick's acquisition of Support Shepherd was, after all, an independent sponsor deal, the very type that we cover every week over on the Minds Capital Podcast.

OK, here is buyer & co-owner of Support Shepherd (now rebranded Somewhere.com), Mr. Sweaty Startup himself, Nick Huber.