Bart Lorang

You can turn $100,000 into a $50 million business through acquisitions. This is closer to capital allocation than traditional entrepreneurship. Here's the deal structure. First, the capital stack. You buy a business the same way you buy a house. Equity in, bank covers the rest. With SBA loans: 90% loan, 10% equity. A million dollar business might require $100K to $200K down. Target companies with $1 to $3 million in earnings. Go to sellers that are NOT at market. Brokered deals are competitive and sellers want cash at close. This only works off-market. Here's what you propose: Seller keeps 20% equity in a new entity. Asset sale, their company moves into newco, they keep running it at fair market salary. You write them a check for 60% via bank loan. Remaining 20% is a seller's note: 10% straight note, 10% performance earnout. From the bank's perspective, you created 40% equity. The truth? It's really only 20%, and it's the seller's. Your money in? Approaching zero. But you own 80% of Enterprise Value. Why would a seller agree? Tell them: my goal is to make your 20% as valuable as the 80% we're giving you today. What are the odds you double the value on your own in 3 to 5 years? Now stack earnings. $2 million average per company. Buy 10 just like this. $20 million combined earnings under one entity. Centralize marketing, accounting, HR, governance at HQ. You bought each at 4 to 4.5x. A $20 million earnings business sells for 7 to 7.5x or more. That's multiple expansion, just by combining them. Close the first one. Negotiate the next $100K for the next business. Then newco sells to PE for 7, 8, 9x your $20 million in earnings. That's the path from $100K to $50 million. If you're considering buying a business in the next 12 to 24 months, we built Acquisition Lab for exactly this. walkerdeibel.com

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Myth: Technology replaces the broker. We love good tools. We also know what tools cannot do: carry a seller through a hard decision. A CRM can automate reminders. It cannot resolve partner disagreement. A nurture sequence can educate. It cannot confront avoidance. An AI assistant can organize. It cannot create accountability. The broker’s value is not “information.” It’s decision guidance. If your brokerage is leaning into tech, pair it with readiness thinking so automation supports the middle instead of masking it. #PipelineManagement #SellerReadiness #BrokerLife #PredictablePipeline https://lnkd.in/ePsBhSuN

~Introducing ALIGNCAP. Most founders don’t struggle because their ideas are weak. They struggle because their timing, narrative, or positioning is misaligned with the capital they approach. ALIGNCAP exists to work before the pitch. We help early-stage founders: assess investor readiness clarify their narrative understand fit before outreach avoid premature or misaligned fundraising We don’t promise funding. We don’t sell access. We focus on alignment. Because the right capital, at the wrong time, can do more harm than good. Alignment over capital. — ALIGNCAP Founder–Investor Alignment Platform

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The most successful funds I’ve seen are boring operationally. Predictable. Structured. Disciplined. Investors don’t want surprises in operations. They want surprises in performance.

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Fundraising? Nail Your “Use of Funds” Story Many founders fumble here: They raise $500k but can’t explain exactly how they’ll use it. Investors want to know: ✅ How much will go to growth? ✅ How much for product development? ✅ What milestones will this funding unlock? Your “use of funds” isn’t just a slide in your deck. It’s a reflection of your priorities and execution plan. Clarity here = confidence from investors. Before you pitch, ask yourself: “Can I explain exactly how every dollar raised will drive us forward?” Founders, how did you allocate your last funding round? Let’s learn from each other. #FinArchitect #InvestorReady #StartupFunding #FounderTips #VCInsights

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Founders are often optimistic about growth. Sometimes, that confidence leads to funding ideas that don't fully pan out. Royalty-based growth capital is structured to limit downside risk compared to traditional venture-backed paths. Vik Thapar of Cypress Growth Capital explains that, even if outcomes fall short of early expectations, founders often still exit with meaningful results because they retain the majority of ownership. 🎙️ Tune into the Private Equity Value Creation Podcast: https://lnkd.in/gxkEsH3Z 👇🏽 Find Us Here https://lnkd.in/gTdPMk8P #privateequity #privateequitypodcast #privateequityvaluecreation

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A Founder, a venture builder and a startup CEO walk into a bar... Nah, not going there, but let's look at something as simple as getting something done. Founder: How can I get this done? VB: Who do I know who can get this done? CEO: Who can I pay to get this done? Different mindsets but also at different points in the startups lifecycle.

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Excited to join Midday Connect tomorrow to talk broadly about how investors actually think when evaluating founders and companies and what we think about Symphonic Capital! If you can't make it, I recently wrote about what we look for specifically—how we back AI companies closing gaps in healthcare, finance, and workforce. Written with stories from four of our portfolio founders. Read "AI as Infrastructure" here: https://lnkd.in/eDNqG7K2

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Most people do not understand AI. ChatGPT, Claude, Grok, and Gemini are all elite. Just in different ways. But none of them are business specialists. They can help you monetize. They cannot think like an operator whose money and reputation are on the line. So I built JT1. Just in Time AI. The most advanced business knowledge LLM backed by powerful business system commands. Then I asked the obvious question. Why are people using 4 AI websites with 0 shared memory? That is friction. So I combined the Big 4, JT1, and your brain into 1 command center. Power 5. 1 place. 1 memory. 1 operating system that compounds decisions and builds vectors over time. Then that intelligence trains AI Employees so execution stops breaking. And instead of paying 100 dollars plus per month across tools, you can access all of it for as low as 70 cents a day. If you want to try it, link is in my profile. Thoughts?

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