How I Bought 12 Service Companies (Without Investors) | Nick Haschka Interview

Very first acquisition in November 2016

As of March 2024, they manage a portfolio of 12 companies.

All done with their own capital.

(Except the one they did in late 2023)

95% of acquisitions have been owner succession & retirement driven buy-outs.

Cub Investments with Nick Haschka makes long term buy & hold equity investments in growth-oriented field services companies.

Most importantly, all this while raising three beautiful children.

Their biggest competitive advantage – looking for companies with an extremely small universe of buyers.

“What we do is very different from corporate America, strategic consulting, investment banking, PE, McKinsey….”

We discuss:

— Finding the absolute best deals

— Location as your biggest advantage

— How to get the buyer to sell the business

— Doing everything with their own $$$

— Using SaaS as a difference maker in those boring businesses— Post-acquisition before and after

— Finding a perfect co-founder

00:00:00 - Intro

00:00:19 - Current portfolio and Nick’s dream acquisition...

00:02:10 - Background story and why small business PE is not for most people

00:05:50 - How Nick finds the best deals

00:10:55 - Location and industry knowledge as your biggest advantages

00:13:30 - Red flags when acquiring a company

00:16:25 - 2023 and raising capital in a short 4 weeks

00:24:40 - What made the biggest difference in their MOST successful deal

00:32:07 - Craziest post-acquisition stories

00:39:30 - Founders relying on their memory,not CRM

00:44:19 - Partnership with the co-founder

00:51:01 - The work never stops - how to manage it all

My full conversation with Nick Haschka, the co-founder of Cub Investments.

Follow PrivatEquityGuy on Twitter: ⁠⁠https://Twitter.com/PrivatEquityGuy⁠⁠

Join HoldCo Builders weekly newsletter on finding deals, raising capital, and growing small niche manufacturing businesses: ⁠⁠https://privatequityguy.beehiiv.com/subscribe

⁠⁠Nick on Twitter: ⁠https://twitter.com/NickHaschka

This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as a basis for investment decisions.