📈 My First Startup Acquisition ($115,000)

At age 22, during my final year at Dartmouth College, I made my first company acquisition.

Purchase price: $115,000

Here's the story of how it happened, and how it's going now:

For context, in 2019 I started Greenbox Storage, a company offers a pickup / delivery storage service for college students.

When students leave campus in the spring, we pickup their things.

When they get back in the fall, we drop-off their things.

Simple business.

There was only one problem:

I didn't realize how good the idea actually was.

My business was growing like wildfire.

While my friends were partying, I was sending marketing emails and creating pickup schedules. In no time, we reached our peak at Dartmouth.

I was searching for my next move...

I didn't have to look far. A couple hours from Dartmouth is Middlebury College.

Luckily, I knew the owner of Middlebury Campus Storage, a company that offers the exact same service as Greenbox Storage.

I had an idea:

I wonder if Tyler would sell his company....

The Acquisition ↓

So I reach out to gauge Tyler's interest in selling. He was interested!

How it went down:

1. We negotiated purchase price

2. We negotiated payment terms

3. We hired a lawyer draft the contract

4. Funds were transferred

5. Acquisition complete!

We paid $40,000 to Tyler immediately and used seller financing for the remaining balance.

50% of the company's future profits were used to pay the outstanding balance.

How it's going now ↓

Our Middlebury branch is now our largest branch.

Middlebury Campus Storage was doing ~$45,000 annual revenue when we acquired it.

This revenue number was substantially lower than it's ceiling.

We grew revenue to:

2022: $83,000

2023: $105,000

2024: $110,000 (projected)

Tyler made an exceptional return on his investment and we acquired a cash-cow.

This acquisition turned out to be a home run for my company. Feel free to email me if you have any questions about this acquisition!

And if you want to take your business to the next level, check out these offerings ↓

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 $1.7M revenue.

2. 1-on-1 Startup Consulting: Serious about launching / growing your startup? Get the personalized help you need. 30-minute and 60-minute session available.

3. Promote your business to 1,400+ subscribers by sponsoring my newsletter.

Cheers,

Collin Rutherford

PS. Never seen anything like this before!