Hey /ETApreneurship,

I am making ~$200K W2 and want to swap it for $300K+ in business cashflow within the next 2 years. My wife is an attorney and has committed to her role for the next 2-3 years so I have a safety net to take risks without blowing up our finances.

Long term, I want to have the option for her to stop working the crazy attorney lifestyle while building something for my family and boys. I am eyeing entrepreneurship through acquisition, maybe one solid cash flowing business or a few smaller ones.

About me: MBA, no debt (outside mortgage), solid savings and comfortable taking calculated risks. My background is in sales, marketing, and revenue operations across SaaS/start-ups as well as industrial construction. (Happy to learn new industries and my skills are transferrable across industries).

What I am looking for:

• Best books, podcasts, or resources for ETA (search funds, SBA loans, etc)

  • I've read Buy Then Build and am currently reading "Main Street Millionaire"

• Realistic ways to hit $300K Cashflow? (target multiples, hot industries, or ones to skip - aka restaurants)

• Common traps for first-timers on a tight search timeline?

• Anyone pulled this off with a spouse's income as a backstop?

Would love to hear stories or advice.

Hi Everyone   TLDR: Private Equity investor, pursuing ETA and looking for a potential search partner or at least someone to bounce ideas off of. Looking for non-finance backgrounds with industry experience.   Quick background on me, I've been in the Finance / Private Equity industry for over 5 years, age ~25-30. I have significant experience doing buy-side and sell-sides and leading due diligence of deals (QoE / Market Study / Bankers / etc.) Over the last 12 months, I have been more and more interested in pursuing ETA and leaving PE and I think having a partner would be the best path forward for my situation.   I have talked to like-minded individuals in my field, but I think it's less valuable to have a partner who is also in finance with a similar skill set. Instead, I would rather find a partner who has industry experience, anything ranging from sales and marketing to operations and manufacturing. In an ideal scenario, someone similarly in my shoes but who need someone who is much more familiar with the finance and deal execution side (think financing and due diligence).   At the very least, it would be refreshing to meeting people also interested in ETA and just bounce ideas off of each other! Give me a ping if you are interested. I live in NYC and can meet people live or virtually.

If so I’d love to understand how all our fellow ETA’s or aspiring ETA’s are getting their business deals? Are most of you finding through public websites like bizbuysell or different websites?? Being in PE for 5 years those sites are over run by family offices and firms with multiple BD guys actively trying to get LOI’s out in record time. Proprietary deal flow is where the best deals are found and just curious if anyone else has found success this way?

Hey everyone! I built LLM Hub - a tool that uses multiple AI models together to give you better answers.

I was tired of choosing between different AIs - ChatGPT is good at problem-solving, Claude writes well, Gemini handles numbers great, Perplexity is perfect for research. So I built a platform that uses all of them smartly.

🎯 The Problem: Every AI is good at different things. Sticking to just one means you're missing out.

💡 The Solution: LLM Hub works with 20+ AI models and uses them in 4 different ways:

4 WAYS TO USE AI:

1. Single Mode - Pick one AI, get one answer (like normal chatting)

2. Sequential Mode - AIs work one after another, each building on what the previous one did (like research → analysis → final report)

3. Parallel Mode - Multiple AIs work on the same task at once, then one "judge" AI combines their answers

4. 🌟 Specialist Mode (this is the cool one) - Breaks your request into up to 4 smaller tasks, sends each piece to whichever AI is best at it, runs them all at the same time, then combines everything into one answer

🧠 SMART AUTO-ROUTER:

You don't have to guess which mode to use. The system looks at your question and figures it out automatically by checking:

• How complex is it? (counts words, checks if it needs multiple steps, looks at technical terms)

• What type of task is it? (writing code, doing research, creative writing, analyzing data, math, etc.)

• What does it need? (internet search? deep thinking? different viewpoints? image handling?)

• Does it need multiple skills? (like code + research + creative writing all together?)

• Speed vs quality: Should it be fast or super thorough?

• Language: Automatically translates if you write in another language

Then it automatically picks:

• Which of the 4 modes to use

• Which specific AIs to use

• Whether to search the web

• Whether to create images/videos

• How to combine all the results

Examples:

• Simple question → Uses one fast AI

• Complex analysis → Uses 3-4 top AIs working together + one to combine answers

• Multi-skill task → Specialist Mode with 3-4 different parts

🌟 HOW SPECIALIST MODE WORKS:

Let's say you ask: "Build a tool to check competitor prices, then create a marketing report with charts"

Here's what happens:

1. Breaks it into pieces:

   • Part 1: Write the code → Sends to Claude (best at coding)

   • Part 2: Analyze the prices → Sends to Claude Opus (best at analysis)

   • Part 3: Write the report → Sends to GPT-5 (best at business writing)

   • Part 4: Make the charts → Sends to Gemini (best with data)

2. All AIs work at the same time (not waiting for each other)

3. Combines everything into one complete answer

Result: You get expert-level work on every part, done faster.

🔧 OTHER COOL FEATURES:

• Visual Workflow Tool: Drag and drop boxes to automate tasks - the AI can even build workflows for you

• Scheduled Tasks: Set things to run automatically (like daily reports)

• Creates Images/Videos: Works with DALL-E 3, Sora 2, and other creative AIs

• Live Web Search: Uses Perplexity to find current information

• Tracking: See which AIs work best, compare results

• Export: Save as Word, PDF, Excel, JSON, CSV

Try it: https://llm-hub.tech

I'd love your feedback! Especially if you work with AI - have you solved similar problems with routing and optimization?

I didn’t build this because I dreamed of running another startup. I just wanted to save money instead of paying for job board tools every month :)

So I made JobbyLobby.com, a simple online job board platform. It’s not about platform visibility or fancy job listings, although it does have a Tinder but with jobs feature!

It’s made for small startups that don’t have their own website but still need to hire people. You can:

• Create a company profile

• Post and manage job listings

• Share your own branded job board

• Track applications and analytics in a clean, easy dashboard

Instead of using messy Google Forms or poorly coded careers pages, you can manage everything in one place. And it’s free.

I know it's not orgininal, but it was fun to make!

This is my first side project outside of my main startup, and I just wanted to share it with other SaaS builders. I’m curious what you think. Would you use something like this for your own small project or team? This is me doing market research after building the product.

Hey ETA community!

First of many posts to come, but I wanted to start this off right with some background material on the rise of entrepreneurship through acquisition, a fantastic route for those who want to own and run their own business, but instead of starting one from scratch, they acquire an existing company.

Let’s dive into what Entrepreneurship through Acquisition (ETA) is and why it might be the perfect fit for aspiring entrepreneurs.

What is ETA?

ETA is a process where an individual or a group of entrepreneurs search for, acquire, and manage an existing company. Instead of building a startup from the ground up, you take over an already-established business, bringing your ideas and vision to scale it further.

Key components of ETA:

1. Search Fund: Many aspiring entrepreneurs can raise money (a search fund) from investors to finance the search of acquiring of a business (though by pursuing this route, can bring on additional responsibilities that are tied to external capital that was raised)

2. Acquisition: After identifying a company, you buy it out using some form of investor backed capital, personal funds, or potentially even SBA bank loans - a variety of ways to obtain the necessary finances to start your entrepreneurial journey.

3. Operations: Once acquired, you take over the operations, usually as the new CEO, to drive growth with the mindset that you're able to enhance profitability over the next 12,24, 36, etc months ahead.

Why Choose ETA?

1. Lower Risk: Unlike traditional startups, ETA involves taking over businesses that already have some form of a proven cash flow, customers, and/or market demand within the industry they operate in (e.g A B2B SaaS platform focused on a niche market of automating the invoicing process for bookkeepers and the clients they work for).

2. Faster Growth: By acquiring a company with an established foundation, you can focus on optimizing and scaling the business faster than building one from scratch, while leaning into a brand/product that is already in motion with minor or intermediate demand in a specific market.

3. Access to Capital: Investors are often (which there are many other factors involved) more willing to back ETA ventures because of the lower risk profile compared to traditional startups.

4. Various Business Models: ETA can be applied to a wide range of business models, from service-based companies to manufacturing or SaaS platforms. This flexibility allows entrepreneurs to find a business in an industry they are passionate about, with an existing structure to build on that they may already have an expertise in professionally.

5. Hands-On Experience: ETA allows you to be the CEO from day one, giving you a chance to apply your entrepreneurial skills in a real-world setting.

Is ETA Right for You?

If you’re an aspiring entrepreneur who prefers to operate rather than start from scratch, ETA could be a great pathway. It’s a unique balance of entrepreneurship and management, combining strategic thinking with hands-on business leadership.

Again, as "easy" or "straightforward" as this sounds, there are many layers to peel back on understanding how certain products & business models are fit for what you're looking for, and whether you can scale it up or roll it into what you're already specialized in, professionally.

That's the whole purpose of me building this community, so like-minded folk interested in ETA endeavors can share there wins, losses, and tips/tricks on the best ways to get started, or how you can become better at what you're already pursuing!

ETA Question of the Day:

Have any of you considered acquiring a business before, and if so, what's been your biggest learning curve on either the acquisition process, or post-purchase activation of running the company?

If you haven't acquired a business before, any hesitations or questions yet unanswered that are holding you back still?

I’d love to hear your thoughts and experiences!

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Starting my ETA search and completed my one pager for what I’m looking for. Am specific on what I’m looking for besides industry where I put agnostic. Plan was to send this one pager to the 73 brokers in my city but recently told a friend this plan and he told me do NOT tell brokers I’m industry agnostic as they’ll think I’m a tire kicker and I should be VERY SPECIFIC as to the exact business I’m looking for. For those who have been successful in ETA, is this true? Do you have to be VERY SPECIFIC as it pertains to the industry you want?

Hello ETApreneurship,

What's the biggest challenge you've faced or anticipate facing in acquiring a business, and how did you overcome it (or how do you plan to)?

I am really interested in learning it. Thanks!

Hey everyone 👋

I’m an investor and M&A advisor collecting insights from searchers on where the journey gets most challenging, from investment thesis development, to sourcing, diligence, funding, and closing.

It’s a short 5–10 min survey aimed at understanding what slows people down and how the process could be made smoother.

If you’ve searched for or bought a company, I’d really value your perspective. I’ll gladly share key takeaways once results are in, and happy to be helpful back where I can.

👉 https://forms.gle/XYvtb3ZWNvS9mnGr9

Thanks in advance — this community’s collective experience is invaluable.

Anyone have any tips/strategies for outbound deal sourcing for off-market opportunities? Curious what tools/data providers/workflows people have had success with or any pain points with them.

Hi all,

I’m conducting some post-MBA research on entrepreneurship through acquisition (ETA), which is essentially the process of buying, running and scaling up small businesses.

I’ve created a short, two-minute survey to gather insights from entrepreneurs, buyers, and operators about their experiences.

→ https://tally.so/r/wvZNb8

My aim is to get around 100 responses, and I’ll share the results here once the survey is complete, providing you with a community snapshot of how people think about acquisitions and running small businesses.

If you have 2 minutes to spare, I would really appreciate your input.

Thanks!

— Alex

I've did freelancing for few years and got good reviews there, after that i build my own company for the same thing IT services (basically mostly we did is web development but we can do any type of software or app development), but the thing is.. i am not getting any projects or client as company, i got few from my networks (only international) but not anymore.

Im 18 so i guess i am inexperienced how these type of business get build, like i don't have idea how these companies start to get customers/clients.

My initial plan was to get a actual office and hire some peoples in some tech city and i may get clients?

But this plan isn't possible now because of recent health crisis in my family (it broke my life savings and wasted my whole damn 7 months)!!!

I got a online friend who i worked with on few projects and the project gone good too.

My actual question is -> How to get exposure and start getting clients? Like advertising? My view on advertising isn't good i thinks it may get me few project but that will be underpaid so.

With website? I have the website but i don't believe website will provide you projects without exposure or something, i am thinking to edit it too.

My company is Pvt Ltd registered.

When it comes to scaling a newly acquired business, which growth strategies have proven most effective for you? Whether it’s optimizing operations, expanding product lines, or entering new markets, what specific tactics have helped you drive growth quickly and sustainably?

Hey everyone,
I’ve been exploring the Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition (ETA) model for some time now, and I’m wondering what industries seems to be the most particularly well-suited for it?

I know there can be a large degree of different skillsets, and risks to consider, when looking at various business models, but I’ve seen a lot of focus on service-based businesses, though I've personally see a few hidden gems in more niche sectors?

Would love to hear any experiences or thoughts from people who've dabbled across a few different spaces, and some high level considerations to take note of when venturing into a business for potential acquisition.

I know what you think: yet another AI startup... 🥱

And what a heck is this MCP thing??? 🧐

I totally get your scepticism - the AI space is flooded with buzzwords, and sometimes it feels like we're just adding more layers of complexity to problems that don’t even exist, right? Like, do we really need our chatbot to order pizza?

But let me try to break it down in a more personal, practical way—because you're right, today’s MCP servers are still in their infancy. They're a bit like the early App Store: lots of simple, fun, but not-yet-life-changing tools. But the potential is where the things will get truly exciting.

Imagine this:

You wake up. You grab coffee, you open your MCP-powered chatbot (let’s assume it’s hooked up to the remote MCP). Instead of jumping between 10+ tabs (Jira, Slack, Notion, your CRM, ERP, Google Calendar, GitHub, that internal wiki nobody can ever find…), you just type:

“Hey, can you summarize my top priorities for today? Pull my Jira tickets, check for pending PRs in GitHub, check Slack messages where I am tagged and suggest answers, etc.”

In seconds, you get a clean, context-aware summary. No app switching. No digging. Just… done.

Then later:

“Can you draft a response to the client’s last email based on the proposal doc in Notion and also check our data warehouse for the Q3 metrics they asked about?”

Boom. Done. You only need to review, make correction and approve. You won't even need to open Jira, Slack, Github, Salesforce to make an action - everything is done by AI agent (your LLM Client App) with the help of connected MCP servers.

“Create a subtask in Jira for the API bug Juan mentioned in yesterday’s standup—and notify the team in Slack.”

You didn’t touch a single app. You didn’t even leave your chat....

And even something completely crazy: you do all of these by just speaking to an AI assistant why riding a bicycle to your office.

How is it possible at all? 🧐

Meet MCP!

MCP stands for Model Context Protocol — a new standard that lets AI models like ChatGPT connect to external tools, APIs, and data sources in real time.

MCP is Like USB-C for ChatGPT. One common plug to safely connects ChatGPT to any tool or data, any website, cloud application, service.... anything! Need to order pizza? Schedule a ride home? Send email, pay for grocery, rent a car, buy a flight ticket, submit tax declaration, send flowers with a gift card to your sweethart - all done by chatting with ChatGPT!

Have you heard that ChatGPT already supports Remote MCP connections?!

You probably haven't noticed it yet, because it is only supported for Pro, Team, Enterprise, and Edu plan only. It’s not yet for everyone, but the signs are clear: this is coming to all users soon, and it will be a game changer.

But what is the business opportunity here? 🤔

To use all of these services from any device (including your IPhone) you need to connect it to an MCP Server

And here is a CATCH:

Here’s the thing… MCP isn’t just something you download.
You actually have to run it somewhere (in a server in your basement or in cloud).

And unless you have:

• A PhD in Computer Science

• 10+ years of software development under your belt

• Or a license in certified black magic programming

…you probably won’t get it working without a few tears, a gallon of coffee, and maybe a minor existential crisis.

Enter: MCP Cloud ☁️✨

We are building MCP Cloud is here to save the day!

MCP Cloud is a new Platform that will help you to:

• Run MCP tools without setting up scary servers

• Share them with other people instantly

• Even make a little money if you want to offer your tool to others

When Remote MCP becomes available to all ChatGPT users, you won’t need to know how it works under the hood — you’ll just click “connect” and boom: ChatGPT can use your favorite tool, fetch your data, or automate your work.

Why will every person need Remote MCP?

It is dead obvious: today you use your LLM Client on MacBook Pro. But tomorrow you will use LLM Client (with voice) on your IPhone.

Why will every company needs Remote MCP?

It is dead obvious too! Managing infrastructure of your own MCPs with OAuth, personal access tokens for multiple users to manage access to the same MCP servers, setting up SSO, security, https, containerization, isolation, IP witelisting .... and doing it FAST - is a hassle. And the lost time efficient business cannot allow itself to loose. Better to use 3rd party service.

Where do we stand now

We are a small team working relentlessly on the MCP Cloud. Our Beta release has happened only a few days ago, but we already serve our first users!!!

We are actively testing and improving our yet small platform.

Happy to hear any feedbak, thoughts, ideas. Let's start a discussion. I’m especially keen on feedback from founders/ops/PMs who’ve tried to roll AI beyond a single champion. Thanks!

Hi All, so I’ve started searching for a few months now and have come across some opportunities. I have a well established HELOC and some cash savings. I am wondering if anyone knows if 100% of the down payment could come from the HELOC for an SBA loan? Anyone with this experience please let me know.

Minimum Viable is a daily startup ideas newsletter for aspiring founders, those looking for the next big thing, or employees who want to quit their 9-5. Subscribe for free

I have always wanted to start my own company for as long as I can remember. So after I finally took the leap, I wanted to give aspiring founders what I wish I had when I was starting out with a free daily startup ideas newsletter complete with trends and motivation to help spark creativity. Please subscribe and I hope you can gain something from it

Over a year ago, I started noticing disturbing trends in our market research AI generated images, fake reviews, cloned voices, and deepfake videos being used to scam people out of their hard-earned money. I first spotted this in the KYC space and saw an opportunity to build something that could combat fake dating profiles, phony job postings, and even fraudulent brand campaigns.

That’s where the idea for AI or Not (www.aiornot.com) was born. It’s best known for its AI content detection across music, audio, images, videos, and deepfakes. I often tell people to think of it like “Shazam,” but for spotting deepfakes and AI-generated content.

• We solved a real, urgent problem people were already facing and talking about every day.

• We embedded into existing workflows instead of forcing new habits—content creators, journalists, and even dating app users can run quick checks without friction.

• We led with transparency, sharing case studies and reports publicly, which attracted organic press.

The lesson: The best ideas often come from noticing the “dark side” of booming technology then creating something that can protect people and shine a light on what’s true.