📈 How I Used $6,000 to Buy 10% of a Business

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Anyway, today I want to share with you my entrepreneurship origin story.

It all began one crisp October day, the leaves were changing color, I was wearing a navy blue quarter zip, and the smell of fall was in the air.

Ok, I swear I’m not gonna mess around this entire newsletter.

Here we go for real

I was a freshman at Dartmouth College when I received an email from a company looking for equity partners.

The subject line caught my attention: Gratefull Bed Investment Opportunity.

I clicked on the email and learned that Gratefull Bed (GBC) was a 100% student-run company.

GBC rented full-size memory foam mattresses to students so they didn’t have to sleep on the college-provided twin XL.

I thought it was a great idea and responded to share my interest.

We set up a meeting and I met with one of the equity holders named George.

George walked me through a prospectus, shared all the info about GBC, and shared their targeted valuation.

It turns out that GBC was founded in 2012.

Over the next six years, ownership of the company was sold and passed down to the next generation of Dartmouth students.

They were looking for the next generation.

I was very interested but knew nothing about EBITDA multiples or anything about company valuation.

Still, I was eager to learn. I called my Dad and shared the information from the meeting.

They wanted a $150,000 valuation and wanted to sell no less than 10% of the company.

That meant I would’ve had to pony up $15,000 (which I didn’t have).

After some negotiation, we settled on a $130,000 company value.

As a freshman, I certainly didn’t have $13k to fork over, so I had to get creative.

I had $6,000 of my own money from working summer jobs (warehouse packing, bussing tables, coaching hockey, etc.)

I convinced my dad to loan me $3,000.

Then used seller financing to pay for the rest.

I signed the contract and officially became a business owner!

Looking back, it certainly was a risk at the time.

I invested all of my money into this deal and even took on some debt.

Turns out, it was probably the best decision I’ve ever made.

I caught the entrepreneurial bug… big time.

Making money from running your own business is the most powerful drug out there.

1.5 years later, I sold my 10% and made a solid return on investment.

After I got out, I really missed being an entrepreneur.

Next up, Greenbox Storage.

Whenever you’re ready, there are 3 ways I can help you:

1. The Startup Toolkit: This comprehensive course provides you step-by-step directions for how to launch and grow your startup. Through trial and error, I’ve developed these methods to grow my startup to $1M+ revenue.

2. Offshore Hiring Guide: Learn how to hire inexpensive ($6 / hour) offshore talent in 3 weeks or less.

3. Promote your business to 1,800+ subscribers by sponsoring my newsletter.

Cheers,

Collin Rutherford

PS. The sibling test.