Husband, Father of 4 (5, 4, 2, 2mos), Bought a biz. Time to grow it!
Tampa Bay, FL
Joined August 2010
- Tweets2.5K
- Following658
- Followers641
- Likes3.6K
Pinned Tweet
Deal closed. If I knew almost 4 years ago it was going to take this long, would I have persisted, or even started? Not sure. I just kept going forward. I'm grateful to my wife for her patience.
Now, I don't want this to sound like a "victory speech" - I know the hard (and fun) part begins now, and I'm excited to execute on the vision I have for this brand!
There were so many points in my search where I decided "I'm just going to start something new" - but that always felt like quitting, I knew what the incredible opportunity the SBA program offered. A chance to "buy time" in market, buy a business who had product-market fit, employees, systems - and improve on those.
I did a lot of this within my consulting as a Fractional CTO, helping companies save/grow revenue through tech/software. I plan to do the same for my new acquisition.
I have owned/operated dozens of small businesses in my career thus far, including Ecom, Events, Tech, Consulting. I did not come into this naively. I've bought/sold many smaller ecom businesses, always with cash, had no idea about the SBA program. I learned about SBA through @walkerdeibel - absorbing his book, all of his YouTube content years ago, engaged in the free Acquisition Lab community.
I want to give a shoutout to my deal team for busting their ass to get this one done.
LOI signed 7/2
Term Sheet 7/13
Approval 8/20
Funded 9/30
Loan Broker: @SBA_Matthias at Pioneer Capital Advisory, He's been the first guy I called about a potential deal for the past 3 years. We've became good friends through this journey. He's built out an incredible team of killers and know how to get a deal done... and even best of all, his team costs you nothing.
Bank: Pathward - Jeff is a true deal guy, who is open to creative solutions to find out HOW to get a deal done instead of WHY it can't be done. @JeffStelmachSBA
Attorney: @Lawyer4Deals Rob Fafinski is the man, and always sticks to his word. If he said he was going to get me something today, he did it. He's got an incredible team behind him, shoutout to Jennifer and Frankie!
Business Insurance: NewRisk Co - These guys made the process painless @MrJoshFro
Life Insurance: Life for SBA - Ana Ferrari is the absolute best in the business when it comes to life insurance. She made this painless. Not on X but [email protected] is her email.
Equity Partners: @GrantHensel Grant gave me a chance to show them my deal even if not squarely in their usual box, and I'm excited to have @entrepreneurcap participating as the lead investor on this ride. I also have several other awesome investors which I'm grateful for.
Some fun stats of my search:
1,353 days
1 Amazing wife
3 Children born (started with an infant lol)
672 NDA's signed (thanks GrokBot)
23 Offers sent
5 Offers accepted
4 Dead deals
1 Acquisition.
Now, as I look at those numbers, it kind of looks a little ridiculous, but there are a lot of details between the lines. I'll have plenty of stories to elaborate and talk about later.
Happy to connect with anyone else on this path, my business is DTC Ecommerce primarily, with a fast growing wholesale channel. My DM's are open.
Will be posting more as I learn, and of the things I've learned.
Til next time!
James Walbridge retweeted
Great time at the 2026 Chicago Kellogg ETA conference with Valerie Stash, Rafael McFerran-Lopes and Andrea Parada
Fun Acquisition Update Day 10:
Shopify (finally) got everything transferred over, payouts unlocked, we should get paid next week after the holiday weekend.
To anyone acquiring a business with debt, raise double whatever you think you might need or want and put extra cash on the balance sheet.
You won't miss that extra 10% equity.
Fun Acquisition Update Day 6:
We still haven't been able to collect a dime from any sales and unable to get @Shopify to help us transfer the business ownership, been 6 days, they're holding well over 6 figures hostage and @ShopifySupport has been unable to get it done - @tobi (hail mary)
Fun Acquisition Update Day 6:
We still haven't been able to collect a dime from any sales and unable to get @Shopify to help us transfer the business ownership, been 6 days, they're holding well over 6 figures hostage and @ShopifySupport has been unable to get it done - @tobi (hail mary)
Shoutout to Avnit at @TreewalkQOE for the QoE!! (didn't know you were on Twitter!)
This annoys me almost as much as putting the United States below every third world country in a country dropdown
You can only watch five movies for the rest of your life. Here are mine:
-Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (Extended Edition)
-Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (Extended Edition)
-Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (Extended Edition)
-The Shawshank Redemption
-Office Space
What if the big swing was the fun we had along the way?
A convo with @RomanEcom changed my life.
We both have dedicated a decade to building ecommerce brands.
And we both succeeded.
We own top 1% brands by any metric- revenue, profit, growth.
But those brands are basically worthless.
Let me explain:
Ridge is an amazing business.
Multi 9 figures in revenue.
I’ll even grow 9 figures this year.
But if I take my foot off the gas, revenue will fall 70%.
We are an acquisition machine.
We lack network effects.
A wallet sold today does not guarantee a wallet sold tomorrow, this year, or next year.
If anything, at scale, the more wallets you sell the harder the next wallet is to sell.
I’ve out executed everyone.
Built a 1% brand
And we will trade on a multiple of earnings, like a car wash or a storage unit lol
A generational brand, one that could last 50 years, and the multiple will be the same as your local HVAC roll up.
These businesses need to be built for cashflow.
That’s how they are sold, that’s how you will be rewarded for running them.
If you want revenue, there are publically traded brands, great brands, like gap, trading for a fraction of annual revenue.
If you want to sell something-
It needs compounding network effects.
Where a customer added helps get the next customer.
Where a signed deal will bring more signed deals.
Where the more you add, the better the margin gets.
Build in Ecom for fun, for cash, to learn.
But for the big swing, you need a network effect.
James Walbridge retweeted
My team at @PIONEERCAPADV closed four SBA 7(a) loans between August 14 and September 9. About $11 MM in 7(a) debt, plus $4.5 MM in companion facilities.
None were simple acquisitions. A few notes on what each one taught us about running a financing process as a team.
James Walbridge retweeted
This guide is 40 pages long, includes 9 case studies of what real business owners are building with AI in their businesses.
I lost track of how much time I spent writing it but it’s really good and also covers a lot of the soft topics like how Answer Engine Optimization works today, Risks and Dangers of AI in your business, etc
Commenting the link to download the guide below!
@RandBusiness put together a cool report on what a bunch of SMB owners are doing.
My thoughts (and link to the report) here.
newsletter.girdley.com/p/blo…
Best biz banking for a ~$10m/yr Ecom brand?
@mercury / @tryramp / @FlexSuperApp / @rhobusiness / other?
@Seanfrank @BillDA @MehtabKarta (appreciate any tag ins here)
James Walbridge retweeted
@CBarrett_CPA of Midwest CPA and I recently co-hosted a webinar on the SBA guideline changes
Below is a link to the video on YouTube with the webinar
If you have specific questions on it, please feel free to email me at [email protected]
youtu.be/WF2-6ODNQms?si=nBhQ…
James Walbridge retweeted
I am looking to add a U.S. based BDR to my team at @PIONEERCAPADV
Substantial earning potential. W2 role. Please feel free to apply or share if interested. This person will report directly to me.
linkedin.com/jobs/view/44562…