Hey everyone, Im Tyrus Burton a senior accounting student at MS State University. I’m graduating this December with my accounting degree and am currently mapping out my next steps. My short-term plan is to either transition straight into a full-time role in Audit then Transaction adivosyr/Financial Due Diligence or pursue a Master of Science in Finance (MSF) with a focus on breaking into investment banking. Both routes are mainly to gain hands on deal experience. Long-term, my ultimate ambition is in ETA and building a small holding company. I fully recognize that building a holding co isn't a quick or easy. This is a long term vision I have for my life. Something I want to have by mid 30s-40s, I'm 22. Right now, my main priority is structuring the early phase of my career around gaining knowledge, deal experience, and operational understanding needed to eventually execute that vision. As I finalize my decision between stepping straight into the market versus doing an MSF to position for IB, I’d love to hear from this community: 1. Career Positioning: For those who came through corporate finance/IB, how well did that deal exposure prepare you for your first acquisition? 2. Pathways: Would you recommend jumping straight into full-time finance/accounting roles now, or leveraging an MSF program to pivot directly into boutique IB to get deal experience? 3. Backgrounds: I’d love to hear your own stories what did your early career look like before you made your first acquisition or started thinking about doing so? I appreciate any feedback, advice, or shared experiences!

Hi all, I know a lot of people searching for their first acquisition struggle with keeping track of off-market opportunities, broker emails, deal numbers and next steps. I built a simple n8n workflow to make this easier: 1. Send a deal email into Gmail. 2. AI extracts the important deal information like asking price, revenue, SDE, industry, contact and next steps. 3. The deal is automatically added to a Google Sheets pipeline. 4. The information can then be organized in Notion so everything is in one place. 5. High-priority opportunities can trigger an alert. So instead of having acquisition opportunities scattered across emails, spreadsheets and notes, everything gets turned into a structured deal record automatically. I put the workflow together as a simple starting point rather than trying to automate the entire acquisition process. Hope this helps anyone else building their search pipeline 🙏

Hey guys i wanted to share a deal calculator ive used to underwrite most of my deals over the past year or two i made. Its simple gets right to the point and can serve as a gut check before going under LOI. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/15aoeS6ssP4ZS-75zR4hXqlr1aRMnhGHIRpvGpLg7UNw/edit?pli=1&gid=2044684996#gid=2044684996 LMK if this helps!

Tell us three things: Tell me: 1. Search method (self-funded, traditional, sponsor, etc) 2. Your buy box (be specific so I can refer you stuff I see!) 3. Your biggest pain point in searching. What’s the one thing I (and this group) can help you fix I'll respond to every single one. And read each other's intros too because the person who's stuck on the same problem as you might already be in this thread. I'll go first. 🔹 I'm Jed; an independent sponsor at Sunset Coast Partners focused exclusively on government contracting firms. 🔹 My buy box includes companies with a minimum 35% government contracted revenue (federal or state & local), $2M - $10M EBITDA, and preferably in aerospace, defense, precision manufacturing, or IT/cyber software. 🔹 My biggest pain point is raising capital in a GovCon environment where SBA affiliation rules prevent traditional capital. Simply put, the majority of acquisition money needs to come from me personally or a Small Business Investment Company (SBIC) fund. That's it. It's simple and gives you data on who's joining, what they're searching for, and keeps the feed clear for content that retains people past week one.

Hey all, James Bunting here, out of Broussard, Louisiana (Lafayette area). 1. Search method: Independent sponsor. I'm an operator first. I'm currently co-owner and COO of a federal-focused medical staffing company, and I've founded and scaled multiple (4+) businesses from $0 to seven-figure revenue in healthcare, medical staffing, VA/DoD contracting, and residential construction/real estate. My brother is set to be my post-close operating partner. He brings the finance/accounting depth and hands-on ops. 2. Buy box: - Geography: Gulf South (Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas) is ideal. I'll flex outside the region for a strong business, since I've spent 10+ years running remote teams and operations. - Size: $1M–$3M EBITDA, roughly $5M–$20M revenue - Primary focus: Industrial and construction platforms, including wholesale/supply distribution, that sell products and/or services to GCs and major operators - Also interested in: Aggregates distribution and hauling, and other unglamorous B2B businesses with recurring customers and a real workforce - Ideal situation: A founder heading toward retirement, no clear successor, and a solid #2 or crew leads who'd stay on - Pass: Retail/consumer and software If you come across an industrial, construction materials/services, distribution, or hauling business in the Gulf South, please send it my way. 3. Biggest pain point: capital partners. The deals that fit my background are big enough that I am likely going to need outside equity, so I'm trying to build those relationships before I have an LOI instead of scrambling after one. I'm looking for HNW operator-investors, family offices, and other sponsors or searchers who co-invest. What I've found is that a lot of potential investor partners are already doing deals themselves, so they see me as a competitor rather than a partner. I'd love to hear how others here have found equity partners who back a sponsor and not just a single deal. I'd also like to connect with anyone open to co-investing or sharing deals that fall outside their own box.