Deals Down Under

About Deals Down Under

Deals Down Under is the podcast for aspiring and active acquisition entrepreneurs in Australia. Each episode, host Dimitri Nikolakakis sits down with founders, operators, and dealmakers who have bought, built, and scaled businesses the unconventional way — without starting from scratch. From first acquisition to complex roll-ups, we dig into the mechanics of deals, the realities of ownership, and what it actually takes to buy your way into business in Australia. If you're tired of startup culture and ready to build wealth through acquisition, this is the show for you. Your Host: Dimitri Nikolakakis is an entrepreneur based between Cape Town and Melbourne, with a background spanning digital marketing, business acquisitions, and deal structuring. After building and scaling a performance marketing agency, Dimitri pivoted to acquisition entrepreneurship — aiming to buy, structuring, and operate businesses rather than building them from zero. He has spent the past several years working on a roll-up and acquisitions in Africa. Deals Down Under is his effort to document and better understand the Australian acquisition landscape — a market full of opportunity that remains almost entirely undocumented — and to build the community of operators and dealmakers that should exist around it.

Publisher

Dimitri Nikolakakis

Category

business

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

3 Jun 2026

Latest episode

7 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

13 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   7 Oct 2026

   How To Find And Buy An 8-Figure Business By Building An Army Of 52 Unpaid Interns | Paige Kohalmont

   If you have bought a business, and are open to sharing your story on the show, please email hello@dealsdownunder.co (mailto:hello@dealsdownunder.co) If you want to sell your business, I'm buying. Please email hello@dealsdownunder.co (mailto:hello@dealsdownunder.co) Connect with Paige Kohalmont here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paige-kohalmont/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/paige-kohalmont/) Paige Kohalmont had an operations career, an MBA, and no interest in starting a business from scratch. So in January 2022 she did something almost nobody in Australia was doing: she raised $500K from 18 investors and went searching for a business to buy and run herself. That's a search fund. Two months in, a broker called with a deal. It took until April 2023 to get the keys to Austral Herbs, a dried botanicals importer with 550+ products from around 30 countries. Along the way a big four bank changed its terms at the last minute, forcing a pivot to a non-bank lender, and Paige moved her young family to a tiny regional NSW town to run the business on site. Paige walks through the real mechanics: how 52 part-time interns screened 1,200+ businesses, how she staged due diligence to limit cash at risk, how the cap table works when not every investor funds the acquisition, and what happened after she took over. If the US playbook of SBA loans doesn't apply to you, this one is for you. IN THIS EPISODE: 52 interns screened 1,200+ businesses, yet the deal came from a broker Raising $500K from 18 investors before she'd picked an industry The staged due diligence that kept her cash at risk low When a big four bank changes the deal at the 11th hour Where $500K of search capital actually goes (it's not the search) Moving a toddler to a remote town to run a business with zero documented processes It took 18 B-doubles to move the stock From no KPIs to tracking 64 a week TIMESTAMPS: 0:00 - From her mum's business to an MBA and search funds 2:20 - Why she searched with no industry or location limits 4:08 - The "traditional" search fund criteria 6:03 - Talking to investors before you've decided to search 8:04 - 18 investors and the advisors she gathered along the way 9:50 - Building the HubSpot funnel and outreach system 11:41 - How 52 interns were recruited and managed 14:45 - 1,200 businesses contacted, but a broker found the deal 16:16 - Nobody understood search funds: convincing brokers and sellers 18:37 - February 2022 to April 2023: the long road to completion 20:27 - What Austral Herbs actually does 23:09 - Staging due diligence to limit cash at risk 27:18 - The cap table: investors who don't fund the acquisition 29:18 - Choosing advisors and keeping investors updated 31:37 - Where $500K of search capital actually goes 33:23 - Big four bank vs non-bank debt in Australia 37:11 - Moving the family to run the business on site 38:58 - Inheriting a business with no processes documented 42:07 - Relocating the business to the Central Coast 47:39 - Growth, systems and tracking 64 KPIs 51:23 - Systems-led vs sales-led growth 53:41 - What's next: more acquisitions and Green Storm Foods 55:53 - Where to find Paige Deals Down Under is the podcast about buying, selling, and growing businesses in Australia and New Zealand. Subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts.

2. 

   29 Sept 2026

   3 Acquisitions Took Him From $250k to $6m in 2 Years With No M&A Experience! | Dan Canham

   If you have bought a business, and are open to sharing your story on the show, please email hello@dealsdownunder.co (mailto:hello@dealsdownunder.co) If you want to sell your business, I'm buying. Please email hello@dealsdownunder.co (mailto:hello@dealsdownunder.co) Connect with Dan Canham here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dan1canham/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/dan1canham/) Dan Canham was made redundant three times in 20-odd years of corporate and consulting work. So in 2023 he backed himself and started Tomorrow Strategy Co. Then his first four clients finished their projects and moved on, and he had to rethink the whole model. His answer was to own the services his clients kept asking for. In two years Dan has acquired BWS Recruitment (a 30-year-old Melbourne recruiter), AT+M Marketing (a 41-year-old Tasmanian agency) and WellsGray Recruitment. He went from a consultancy turning over about $250K to a group at around $6M in revenue, with roughly 25 people across Sydney, Melbourne and Tasmania. He had no M&A background when he started. Dan doesn't dress it up. He walks through how each deal was structured, from deferred payments and seller finance to leveraging his home equity, how he runs businesses in other cities through general managers, and where it's been genuinely hard. He's still looking for more established Australian service businesses to buy. IN THIS EPISODE: The $250K consultancy that became a $6M-revenue group in two years No M&A background: the YouTube, books and trial by fire behind three deals Why he won a 41-year-old agency without being the highest bidder Leveraging home equity for a deal, and how the bank conversation went Seller finance: a third up front, the rest over three years Running Melbourne and Tasmanian businesses from Sydney, without being absent Why cross-selling across your own businesses is harder than it sounds The first 90 days after settlement: decision, decision, decision TIMESTAMPS: 0:00 - Three redundancies and starting Tomorrow Strategy Co 2:03 - Learning acquisitions with no M&A background 4:59 - Search criteria: 10-15+ year old service businesses 7:33 - Buying BWS Recruitment: deal structure and deferred payment 8:28 - Self-funding the first deal and setting up a holdco 9:41 - Hiring a general manager for a business in another city 12:50 - Running Melbourne from Sydney: is distance a problem? 13:56 - How the general managers are incentivised 14:47 - The first 90 days: decision overload 16:53 - The stabilisation year: don't change too much too fast 17:45 - Finding AT+M Marketing in Tasmania 20:56 - Marketing agency risk: retainers vs projects 23:02 - Structuring the deal: all up front, home equity 23:37 - How the bank conversation went 25:11 - Cross-selling across the group 27:12 - Buying WellsGray: seller finance over three years 29:22 - Managing three businesses at once 30:26 - What's next: more tuck-ins and an MSP 32:50 - The biggest challenges of the last two years 33:49 - Going from $250K to $6M in revenue 35:09 - How much growth is acquired vs organic 36:00 - Outside capital and ten more deals 37:57 - Where to find Dan Deals Down Under is the podcast about buying, selling, and growing businesses in Australia and New Zealand. Subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts.

3. 

   26 Aug 2026

   He Bought a Business for $5M. 18 Months Later, He Sold It for $25M | Shane Cheek

   If you have bought a business, and are open to sharing your story on the show, please email hello@dealsdownunder.co If you want to sell your business, I'm buying. Please email hello@dealsdownunder.co Connect with Shane Cheek here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shanecheek/ Shane Cheek spent more than two decades as a founder, advisor and investor in technology — roughly 15 years in venture capital and private equity across Australia and Southeast Asia — before deciding he no longer wanted to run other people's money. Instead of starting from scratch, he set out to buy a business that had already found product-market fit. In August 2021 he acquired Intouch Data, a Brisbane software company serving hotels, and by January 2023 he'd sold it to a PE-backed strategic for a figure between $20M and $30M. This episode is the full arc, told with real numbers. Intouch began in 2002 extracting guest data for hotels, evolved into a software (ETL) provider, a guest CRM, and finally a business-intelligence tool that helps hotels optimise revenue the way an airline optimises seats. Shane walks through exactly how he bought it: ~$3.5M ARR, ~4.1x earnings, all-equity, with the family office putting in 100% of the capital while he put in the sweat (no salary) toward a 50% earn-in. He explains the dividend recap he ran months later with Long Reach Credit that handed most of that equity back, leaving only ~$1.5M at risk. Then the value creation: rebuilding sales, billing and systems, de-risking a key-person technical founder, landing a global Accor rollout across ~2,500 hotels, winding down a legacy product, and — crucially — renegotiating the customer contracts that had blocked strategic buyers, which unlocked the exit. He bought on an EBITDA multiple and sold on a revenue multiple, and he's candid about why he won the deal without bidding highest (an all-cash-at-close offer). If you want a masterclass in structured, non-traditional acquisition, this is it. IN THIS EPISODE: - Buying a $5M software company with none of his own cash - The truth about software multiples (he paid under 4x) - The seller dynamics that scared off every other buyer - The customer contracts that blocked strategic acquirers - Winning the deal without bidding the highest price - Landing a global Accor rollout across ~2,500 hotels - The dividend recap that handed his equity back in months - Family-office capital + his sweat = a 50% earn-in - Renegotiating contracts to unlock the exit - Bought on earnings, sold on revenue: $5M to ~$30M in 2 years CONNECT WITH SHANE CHEEK: TIMESTAMPS: 0:00 - Intro 0:35 - What Intouch Data did (hotel data to BI) 2:26 - How hotel "business intelligence" makes money 3:50 - Shane's path: 15 years in VC/PE to buying his own business 5:25 - The truth about software multiples (he paid under 4x) 7:26 - Finding the deal — and nearly rejecting it 10:14 - The two sellers: a retiree and the key technical owner 11:53 - The customer contracts that blocked strategic buyers 14:13 - The reality of "hands-off" ownership 16:42 - Landing the global Accor rollout (~2,500 hotels) 18:45 - Closing in 90 days and beating higher bidders 21:19 - The numbers: ~$3.5M ARR, ~4.1x, all equity 21:49 - Bringing in debt for a dividend recap 26:42 - The structure: family-office equity, his sweat, a 50% earn-in 28:03 - What a dividend recap actually is 30:13 - Two years of value creation before the exit 32:41 - The exit: Cove Hill and a >5x revenue outcome 38:01 - Bought on earnings, sold on revenue 40:20 - Why he was also looking at light industrial 42:38 - How the family-office partnership came together Deals Down Under is the podcast about buying, selling, and growing businesses in Australia and New Zealand. Subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts.

4. 

   5 Aug 2026

   He Left the Army, Raised a Fund, and Bought a Fire Company | Matthew Williams

   If you have bought a business, and are open to sharing your story on the show, please email hello@dealsdownunder.co (mailto:hello@dealsdownunder.co) If you want to sell your business, I'm buying. Please email hello@dealsdownunder.co (mailto:hello@dealsdownunder.co) Connect with Matthew Williams here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthew-williams-98474256/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthew-williams-98474256/) ---------------------------------------- Matthew Williams spent 20 years as an Australian Army pilot before swapping command for contracts — an MBA, stints at Deloitte and Babcock, then a jump into entrepreneurship through acquisition (ETA). In December 2023, Matthew and his search partner Patrick Prendiville closed on AFS, a 30-plus person fire and security services business in Melbourne, through Wattletree Capital Partners — a self-raised search fund with zero broker on the seller's side. In this episode, Matthew breaks down what it actually looks like to search with a partner instead of solo: how they split roles, funded two salaries out of one deal, and had to aim bigger (above $2M EBITDA) to make the math work. He also gets specific on the unglamorous stuff — six months of proprietary cold outreach, an LOI-to-close due diligence slog, and the office move, software migration, and hiring binge that came after. If you're weighing a self-funded search against raising a fund, wondering whether a partner is worth the split, or trying to figure out how "boring" businesses like fire services actually grow without a sales team — this one's for you. ---------------------------------------- IN THIS EPISODE: - Why two ex-corporate operators picked fire and security over anything flashier - The real reason a partnership meant hunting for bigger deals, not smaller ones - What six months of cold proprietary outreach through HubSpot actually looked like - Why buying from a seller with no advisor made the deal slower and "clunky" - The unsexy 12-month punch list after close: office move, new software, new GM - How they grew revenue without touching the sales team - Why they're now competing with private equity for their next deal - The one piece of advice Matthew gives every first-time searcher before they raise a cent ---------------------------------------- CONNECT WITH MATTHEW WILLIAMS: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthew-williams-98474256/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthew-williams-98474256/) Wattletree Capital Partners: https://www.wattletreecapital.com.au (https://www.wattletreecapital.com.au) ---------------------------------------- TIMESTAMPS: 0:00 - Introduction 0:23 - From army pilot to MBA to ETA 2:53 - Meeting his search partner, Pat Prendiville 5:28 - Splitting responsibilities in the search 8:22 - Researching the industry before finding the deal 12:25 - Why buying with no seller-side advisor was clunky 17:54 - The business they bought: team structure and size 22:40 - The first 12 months: office move, new IT, new GM 26:29 - Growing revenue without growing the sales team 33:05 - The biggest advice for first-time searchers 37:38 - What comes after the first successful search 39:39 - How to connect with Matthew --------------------------------------- Deals Down Under is the podcast about buying, selling, and growing businesses in Australia and New Zealand. Subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts.

5. 

   31 Jul 2026

   She Cold-Called 450 Investors to Buy a $20M Business With No Fund Behind Her | Ashley Alfs

   If you have bought a business, and are open to sharing your story on the show, please email hello@dealsdownunder.co If you want to sell your business, I'm buying. Please email hello@dealsdownunder.co Connect with Ashley Alfs here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashley-alfs-detwiler-67ba094/ ---------------------------------------- Ashley Alfs walked away from a half-raised traditional search fund and went out on her own — cold-calling owners, driving industrial parks, and building her own LBO model from scratch. Four months later she had an off-market deal on the table: Autolift Garage Doors, a $20M-turnover, $4M-EBITDA manufacturing business in Sydney. With no deals background and no fund behind her, Ashley raised the entire capital stack herself. She talked to 450 investors, met with 115, and closed with 12 — funding a debt-and-equity structure built around a "zero-and-thirty" deal designed to be as simple as possible for outside investors to say yes to. Six months into ownership, she's running a 50-person manufacturing and service business, sitting alongside a three-person board, and rebuilding the growth plan around the company's highest-margin asset: recurring service and maintenance revenue. This one is for anyone who thinks they need a fund behind them before they can start. ---------------------------------------- IN THIS EPISODE: - Why she walked away from raising a search fund path mid-process - The exact outreach system she used to find an off-market $20M deal in 4 months - How she funded a $4M EBITDA acquisition with zero deals experience - Inside the "zero-and-thirty" structure she used to win over 12 investors - What actually happened on day one when the ownership announcement fell apart - The recurring-revenue "flywheel" that made a garage door business worth buying - Why the market she thought was ripe for roll-ups turned out far more fragmented - Her honest advice for searchers stuck in the raise: just start ---------------------------------------- CONNECT WITH ASHLEY ALFS: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashley-alfs-detwiler-67ba094/ ---------------------------------------- TIMESTAMPS: 0:00 - Meet Ashley: from medical device engineer to garage door owner 0:49 - The cold call that accidentally led her into ETA 1:38 - Ditching the traditional search fund raise 3:07 - Searching and raising in parallel 4:27 - The outreach system: 20-30 owners a week 6:14 - Building credibility with brokers as a self-funded searcher 7:11 - Landing on manufacturing and the criteria that mattered 8:03 - The "revenue flywheel" that sold her on Autolift 9:22 - Uprooting the family from Melbourne to Sydney 11:17 - Inside due diligence: building her own LBO model 13:26 - Who pays legal and accounting in a self-funded deal 15:40 - The headline numbers: $20M revenue, $4M EBITDA 18:04 - The "oh sh*t" moment and how the deal got funded 19:37 - The zero-and-thirty investor structure explained 21:37 - Day one chaos: the speech that never happened 24:01 - Where the real growth opportunity actually is 26:38 - The surprising truth about CapEx and ageing equipment 28:50 - Her three-person board and why it works 30:07 - The hardest part of the entire process 33:00 - Work-life balance after taking the wheel --------------------------------------- _Deals Down Under is the podcast about buying, selling, and growing businesses in Australia and New Zealand. Subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts._

6. 

   28 Jul 2026

   The Complete Business Acquisition Glossary: Master the Language of Buying a Business

   If you have bought a business, and are open to sharing your story on the show, please email hello@dealsdownunder.co (mailto:hello@dealsdownunder.co) If you want to sell your business, I'm buying. Please email hello@dealsdownunder.co (mailto:hello@dealsdownunder.co) This one's a solo episode from Dimitri. If you've sat through an ETA interview nodding along while someone throws around SDE, EBITDA, LOI, and Q of E like you already know what they mean, this is the fix. No guest, no fluff, just the vocabulary you need before you can actually follow a deal. Dimitri works through it in four parts: how people structure their search (search funds, self-funded search, independent sponsors), how businesses get valued (SDE vs EBITDA, addbacks, multiples, enterprise value vs equity value), how the deal process runs (LOI, due diligence, Q of E), and how deals get funded outside the US, including why the SBA loan doesn't exist here and why that one gap changes everything about how AU/NZ deals get structured. If you're tired of American acquisition content that assumes SBA financing and small deposits, this is the recalibration for how it actually works in Australia and New Zealand. IN THIS EPISODE: Why "SDE" and "EBITDA" aren't the same number, and why mixing them up costs you money The Stanford-born search fund structure, and why the searcher only keeps 25% of what they build Why self-funded search means no salary and no institutional backing, and how to get taken seriously anyway The one US structure that doesn't exist in Australia, and why that's the whole reason this show exists How a roll-up turns a string of 500K businesses into millions in arbitrage value What actually happens in due diligence, and why the Quality of Earnings report matters more than your word Asset sale vs share sale: the difference that decides which liabilities you inherit TIMESTAMPS: 0:00 - Why acquisition jargon confuses new buyers 1:08 - What "ETA" actually means 1:54 - Search funds: the Stanford model and searcher equity 3:53 - Self-funded search vs the independent sponsor route 5:36 - How businesses actually get valued 7:17 - SDE vs EBITDA: the real difference 8:56 - Addbacks and the multiple, explained 11:08 - Enterprise value vs equity value 12:10 - Asset sale vs share sale 14:14 - Working capital adjustments and the deal process 16:23 - Due diligence and the Quality of Earnings report 17:38 - Funding the deal: why the SBA loan doesn't apply here 18:51 - Vendor finance and seller notes 19:32 - Equity, debt service coverage, and the roll-up strategy 21:56 - Key glossary takeaways --------------------------------------- Deals Down Under is the podcast about buying, selling, and growing businesses in Australia and New Zealand. Subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts.

7. 

   14 Jul 2026

   Give Me 57 Minutes and I'll Teach You Everything About Search Fund Deal Structuring | Japan Mehta

   If you have bought a business, and are open to sharing your story on the show, please email ddu.dimitri@gmail.com If you want to sell your business, I'm buying. Please email ddu.dimitri@gmail.com Connect with Japan Mehta here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mehtajapan/ Japan Mehta took an unconventional route into business ownership. Born in India to two teachers and set on entrepreneurship since he was a teenager, he trained as an engineer — a Bachelor's in Mechanical Engineering and a Master's in Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering in the US — and spent two decades across semiconductors, aerospace, medical devices, construction, oil & gas and now digital infrastructure. He met Pete Seligman a decade ago when Pete hired him to turn around a founder-led business — a job that made him a restructure COO and lit the fire to run something himself. In 2020, mid-COVID, he found a struggling business that needed help, raised the capital, and by mid-2021 was sitting in the CEO seat of what is now Ticketless Parking. Only afterwards did he realise he'd effectively run a self-funded search the whole time. Today it's had the biggest revenue year in its history, and Japan is back in the "searcher seat" hunting bolt-ons — while mentoring and investing in the next wave of searchers. This episode is a genuinely useful clinic on the part that scares most first-time buyers: the money. Japan breaks down how the searcher typically ends up with 20–25% equity (and how vesting works), why he argues a funded search beats going it alone even if you can self-fund, and — using a hypothetical $30M deal — how surprisingly little cash actually has to change hands once you stack equity, debt, vendor notes and earnouts. He's candid about diversifying your equity partners so you don't hand control (and your upside) to one big investor. IN THIS EPISODE: - The engineer-to-CEO path — and the accidental self-funded search - How the searcher ends up with 20–25% equity (and how it vests) - What "exit" really means (it's not just selling) - Why a funded search beats going it alone — even if you can self-fund - How to buy a $30M business without $30M in cash - Diversifying equity partners so you don't lose control - What investors actually want: ~15–20% IRR - How long raising the money really takes (3–6 months) - The $400k phantom loan hiding in the books - "Back the jockey, not the horse" — what investors bet on TIMESTAMPS: 0:00 - An unconventional path: engineer to CEO 3:59 - Finding a struggling business mid-COVID 8:33 - Ticketless Parking vs Duncan: what the business does 10:59 - The searcher's equity: how 20–25% actually works 13:34 - What "exit" really means (it's not just selling) 16:14 - Funded vs self-funded search: the real trade-off 18:00 - Why a funded search is about practice, not just money 26:21 - Do you still need outside investors once you're funded? 27:18 - How to buy a $30M business without $30M in cash 30:33 - Who these investors actually are 33:35 - Racing the clock: raising funds while in due diligence 39:15 - Sale-ready books vs skeletons in the closet 42:27 - What investors want: the IRR rule of thumb 44:22 - "Back the jockey" — what a good searcher looks like 49:09 - How advisors and non-exec directors get paid 52:44 - Where Japan is now: CEO, investor, mentor Deals Down Under is the podcast about buying, selling, and growing businesses in Australia and New Zealand. Subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts.

8. 

   8 Jul 2026

   You Don't Need a Tech Startup to Cash In on the AI Boom | Jason Hew

   If you have bought a business, and are open to sharing your story on the show, please email ddu.dimitri@gmail.com If you want to sell your business, I'm buying. Please email ddu.dimitri@gmail.com Connect with Jason Hew here: https://nz.linkedin.com/in/jasonhew1 (https://nz.linkedin.com/in/jasonhew1) Jason Hew spent a decade learning how good businesses and good deals work — as a PwC chartered accountant and M&A advisor, then in-house at Woolworths Group, then helping scale (and exit) Cashrewards. Instead of chasing a tech startup, he went a different route to entrepreneurship: a traditional search fund, backed by investors and SMEVentures, to train himself as a first-time CEO. In August 2024 he closed the deal — acquiring two instrument-transformer manufacturers in one transaction, WF Energy Controls in Sydney and TWS Energy Controls in Christchurch, then moved his young family across the Tasman to run them. This is a genuinely numbers-rich episode. Jason walks through the whole thing: a full year of searching, ~4–5,000 businesses contacted, five offers made (and four lost to private equity and strategics), a software deal that died on Christmas Eve — and finding the winner on Seek Business on the 2nd of January. He's open about the ~$10M revenue, just-under-$3M EBITDA business he bought at roughly 3.5x, and exactly how he structured it with zero of his own money down: investor equity, big-four bank debt, a vendor note and a one-year earnout. IN THIS EPISODE: - Buying TWO businesses in one cross-border deal — with none of his own money - Why he chose a search fund over "just buying the corner laundromat" - 4–5,000 businesses contacted, 5 offers, 4 lost to PE and strategics - The Christmas Eve heartbreak that led to the winning deal on Jan 2nd - The numbers: ~$10M revenue, ~$3M EBITDA, bought at ~3.5x - The full structure: investor equity, bank debt, vendor note + earnout - Why his #1 growth lever was people, not sales or software - "A supply problem, not a demand problem" — growing without a sales team - Moving a young family across countries for the deal - The #2 hire he wishes he'd made a year sooner CONNECT WITH JASON HEW: LinkedIn: https://nz.linkedin.com/in/jasonhew1 (https://nz.linkedin.com/in/jasonhew1) TIMESTAMPS: 0:00 - From PwC and M&A to buying a business 2:25 - Why a search fund, not a laundromat 4:17 - Getting investor backing before the search 5:57 - The search: broad criteria and a wide net 8:17 - A year of hunting and five failed offers 9:30 - Finding the deal on Seek Business, January 2nd 11:25 - What TWS & WF Energy Controls actually make 13:24 - The numbers: ~$10M revenue, ~$3M EBITDA 14:11 - Why the electrification tailwind sold him 15:50 - The seller: a retiring farmer with 6-7 businesses 17:30 - The deal structure: ~3.5x, with no money down 19:11 - Day one in the CEO seat 21:56 - Making his mark: a people-first overhaul 23:52 - What the HR changes looked like in practice 25:53 - Signs the culture change was working 27:39 - How his day-to-day has shifted 29:20 - Moving the family from Australia to New Zealand 32:36 - Growth: a supply problem, not a demand problem 36:41 - What bolt-on acquisitions could look like 38:28 - Funding a second acquisition in a search fund 39:07 - What he'd do differently: hire your #2 sooner Deals Down Under is the podcast about buying, selling, and growing businesses in Australia and New Zealand. Subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts.

9. 

   1 Jul 2026

   What Acquiring, Building, and Selling a Logistics Company Actually Looks Like | Blake Noble

   If you have bought a business, and are open to sharing your story on the show, please email ddu.dimitri@gmail.com (mailto:ddu.dimitri@gmail.com) If you want to sell your business, I'm buying. Please email ddu.dimitri@gmail.com (mailto:ddu.dimitri@gmail.com) Connect with Blake Noble here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nobleblake/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/nobleblake/) Most acquisition stories stop at the purchase. Blake Noble's runs the full distance — buy, grow, and a clean exit eleven years later. After 15 years in his family's medical device business (he started as a warehouse junior and left as a director), Blake chased a long-held obsession with trucks and, in 2015, bought TransCon: a sleepy 45-year-old transport business north of Auckland with around 16 trucks, ~$2.4M revenue and ~$400K EBITDA. He sold it in January 2026 having roughly doubled the revenue — with fewer trucks than he started with. This is one of the most complete operator stories we've had on the show. Blake is refreshingly honest about the parts most people hide: the New Zealand transport valuation formula he bought (and sold) on, why he cut ties with the vendor after two weeks, the funding mistake that left him at the bank's mercy, and the mid-ownership divorce that forced the sale of the home securing his debt — and nearly sank his capex plans. He explains how a finance broker helped him escape a "flat no" from the bank and restructure into a non-bank asset funder that unlocked the cash flow to finally grow. You'll also get the growth playbook in detail: literally following competitors' trucks to find customers, the $3,000 client who'd never once been contacted in nine years, owner-to-owner selling, Pipedrive, and the counterintuitive "shrink to grow" divestment that lifted the whole business. IN THIS EPISODE: - Why the business he first dismissed turned out to be the best of 11 - The NZ transport formula: 1x assets at market value + 1x EBITDA - Why he cut ties with the vendor after just two weeks - The funding mistake that left him at the mercy of his bank - A divorce, a sold home, and a flat "no" — the moment it nearly fell apart - Escaping the bank for a non-bank asset funder that unlocked growth - "Following the trucks" and other guerrilla ways he won customers - The $3,000 customer who'd never been contacted in 9 years - "Shrink to grow": divesting a third of the business to grow the rest - Selling for a win — and the honest price cut he offered the buyer TIMESTAMPS: 0:00 - Why trucks? From medical devices to a transport dream 2:41 - Buying TransCon: the business he first walked away from 4:05 - The search: 11 businesses and 4 years of groundwork 6:19 - The NZ transport valuation formula explained 8:32 - The numbers: ~$400K EBITDA and a clean ~$1.7M deal 9:00 - Why he cut ties with the vendor after two weeks 12:33 - Funding the deal: cash, bank debt, and what he'd change 17:48 - Forecasting capex when the assets ARE the business 18:29 - Asset utilisation, leasing, and the off-balance-sheet quirk 20:50 - A divorce, a sold home, and a precarious position 21:50 - The bank's flat "no" and the non-bank rescue 24:28 - Day one: moving into a house the owners never left 27:00 - The rebrand a customer pushed him into 37:18 - The revenue engine: following trucks to find customers 40:30 - The $3,000 customer who'd never heard from them 43:00 - Owner-to-owner selling and Pipedrive 47:28 - "Shrink to grow": divesting container cartage in 2020 51:23 - How the final sale came about 57:04 - The honest price cut he offered during due diligence 1:00:19 - His advice to a young would-be business buyer

10. 

    25 Jun 2026

    Give Me 40 Minutes and I'll Explain How to Buy a Business With a Search Fund | Jackson Allan

    If you have bought a business, and are open to sharing your story on the show, please email ddu.dimitri@gmail.com (mailto:ddu.dimitri@gmail.com) If you want to sell your business, I'm buying. Please email ddu.dimitri@gmail.com (mailto:ddu.dimitri@gmail.com) Connect with Jackson Allan here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacksonallan1/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacksonallan1/) Most people assume you need to be rich, or technical, or both, to buy a business. Jackson Allan is neither. After 15+ years in B2B commercial leadership across Australia and the US, he founded the search fund Touchstone Point in 2024 and — 30 days before this conversation — closed on Passmark Software, a 27-year-old company built by a computer scientist that operates at the deep technical interface of hardware and software, with customers like Apple, Boeing and Milwaukee Tools. There's a nice symmetry to it: the deal traces right back to his own roots rebuilding computers as a kid. He did it through the search fund model — raising capital from investors first, then hunting for the right business to step into as CEO, without signing a personal guarantee or putting his own assets on the line. In this episode Jackson pulls back the curtain on the entire search fund model — where it came from, why a first-time buyer would choose it over going it alone, and exactly how the economics work for the searcher (the salary haircut during the hunt, the equity upside after). He's refreshingly concrete about the grind: 2,500 cold outreaches narrowed to 400 replies, 100 conversations, 20 serious looks, and one deal. He breaks down staging due diligence on a cross-border, multi-jurisdictional deal to limit broken-deal costs, the very real "deal fatigue" that sets in after six months, and what the chaotic first 30 days of ownership actually involve. If you're an operator drawn to acquisition but stuck on "I don't have the capital" or "I'm not technical enough," this is the operator-to-operator playbook for a path most people in Australia and NZ have never heard of. (Note: the deal is under NDA, so Jackson keeps specific figures off the table — the value here is the model and the process.) TIMESTAMPS: 00:00 — Intro / thank-you 00:18 — First 30 days and early context 01:59 — Sales background and how it started 03:54 — What Passmark does 07:48 — How you got here from sales 14:09 — Search fund model and investor conversations 23:44 — Founding the business 26:47 — Deal process and due diligence 30:26 — Completing the deal and reflections 32:01 — Looking back after making it through the process Deals Down Under is the podcast about buying, selling, and growing businesses in Australia and New Zealand. Subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts.

11. 

    17 Jun 2026

    The Lazy Entrepreneur's Way to Buy 3 Businesses FAST! | Elisha Nuttall

    If you have bought a business, and are open to sharing your story on the show, please email ddu.dimitri@gmail.com (mailto:ddu.dimitri@gmail.com) If you want to sell your business, I’m buying. Please email ddu.dimitri@gmail.com (mailto:ddu.dimitri@gmail.com) Connect with Elisha here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elishanuttall/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/elishanuttall/) After ten years writing reports at PwC and Grant Thornton telling other people how to fix their businesses — and watching them do nothing with the advice — Elisha Nuttall decided to take his own. In 2022 he and a long-time friend bought their first company, a hand-built aerial manufacturer that was being run on paper. Three deals later, Talanton Holdings owns a group doing around $4M in revenue and over $2M EBITDA, and Elisha is involved in the first two businesses for about half an hour a week. Elisha breaks down every deal with real numbers: the multiples he paid, how he stacked vendor finance against bank debt, why he deliberately offered $100K over asking to win 0% vendor finance, and how he funded two more deals on internal equity and a bit of family money while keeping control tight. If you've ever wondered whether you can actually buy a business and step back to do it again (instead of buying yourself a 80-hour-a-week job), this is the operator-to-operator conversation that shows how the management-team-first model really works. IN THIS EPISODE: Why turning up sweaty and bleeding to the first seller meeting actually won the deal The exact capital stack: 30% equity, vendor finance and bank debt split across the other 70% Why he paid $100K over asking — and got 0% interest for 2.5 years in return The brutal trade-off: not paying himself for two years to pay down debt faster Turning a paper-run, no-systems manufacturer into a quality leader in 12 months The three-tier reporting structure that lets him run multiple businesses remotely How he de-risked a family business (husband, wife and daughter all in senior roles) Surviving COVID, container-rate spikes and supply-chain chaos through every deal TIMESTAMPS: 0:00 - The first deal: a paper-run aerial manufacturer 0:15 - Showing up sweaty and bleeding (and why it worked) 2:32 - The numbers: revenue, EBITDA and a 3.5x multiple 4:00 - Building the capital stack: equity, vendor finance, bank debt 5:12 - "I didn't pay myself for the first couple of years" 5:53 - Why he offered $100K over asking price 8:00 - Who is Elisha? From PwC and Grant Thornton to acquisitions 12:31 - The childcare deal that fell apart at the last step 13:04 - Day one of ownership: a hundred little decisions 16:24 - The big levers: foundations, quality and QA test sheets 22:59 - How a non-engineer ran a manufacturing turnaround 25:15 - Building a management team through promotions 28:40 - Can you really step away? Half an hour a week 30:25 - Keeping customers happy without the owner in the room 40:15 - Funding deal two with vendor finance and family equity 41:10 - Deal two: a 60-year-old powder-coating business 41:19 - Deal three: Signals NZ and the family-business red flag 44:20 - Writing the daughter into the contract 48:04 - The silent partner: his CFO with a day job 49:41 - "Any oh-shit moments?" COVID, shipping and war 50:33 - The lifestyle: $4M of businesses, ~30-hour weeks 54:31 - Headline numbers and what he bought vs. what it's worth now

12. 

    10 Jun 2026

    Two Off-Market Acquisitions, Two Completely Different Seller Experiences | Matt Stevenson

    Matt Stevenson started his career in Big Four M&A before moving into banking — watching businesses fail not because they were bad, but because their owners couldn't manage them. That became his thesis for buying his own. He's now Managing Director of Bizstats, a monopoly SME sales data provider, and NZ BizBuySell, New Zealand's leading business-for-sale platform — both acquired off-market from sellers who weren't looking to sell. The two deals couldn't be more different. Bizstats came from a deceased founder's children who had no idea what the business did; Matt fired the operator after one week. NZ BizBuySell was chalk and cheese — a founder who stayed on, taught him everything, and genuinely wanted him to succeed. In this episode Matt gets honest about twelve months of persistence on two separate proprietary deals, how he funded them, why vendor trust beats any financial metric, and why most people in ETA over-analyse everything and never actually buy anything. IN THIS EPISODE: The year-long search for Bizstats — and why the sellers' ignorance of their own business was the biggest risk How he transformed a Microsoft Access-era business into an automated platform and grew revenue 50% Why he fired the operator after one week — and ran the business alone at 4:30am before his day job Why vendor trust is his #1 green flag — above anything in the financials How COVID house prices unlocked his first acquisition — and why funding is the real bottleneck for most buyers in their 30s Why he took vendor finance on the second deal even though he didn't need it Advice to his younger self: partner up, buy bigger, move faster CONNECT WITH MATT: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matt-stevenson-53208493 (https://www.linkedin.com/in/matt-stevenson-53208493) TIMESTAMPS: 0:00 - Matt's path from Big Four M&A to business ownership 2:55 - Discovering Bizstats: data gold behind a 70-year-old's inbox 4:24 - Settlement date vs. C-section date 4:57 - What Bizstats is and why it was worth buying 7:17 - Multiple and deal structure for Bizstats 8:18 - Proprietary search: wearing a seller down over 12 months 10:06 - Funding the deal: COVID house equity, cash, and bank debt 11:51 - Transforming Bizstats: from Microsoft Access to automated SaaS 14:18 - How AI changed the economics of small business tech 15:38 - Discovering ETA after already doing ETA 18:00 - Finding NZ BizBuySell the same way he found Bizstats 19:31 - Comparing the two deals: size, staff, sophistication 20:28 - Deal structure for NZ BizBuySell 22:16 - Going full time: the first Christmas break he didn't dread 23:20 - Crap moments: misrepresentations and firing the operator 25:37 - Owner trust: the #1 green flag in any acquisition 26:23 - Vendor finance as post-settlement protection 27:13 - How the NZ BizBuySell deal was funded 29:02 - Monopoly positions and why they made both deals easier to back 30:08 - On over-analysers in ETA who never buy anything 31:44 - Synergies between Bizstats and NZ BizBuySell 33:07 - What comes next 34:53 - Advice to younger self: partner up, buy bigger, move faster Deals Down Under is the podcast about buying, selling, and growing businesses in Australia. Subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts.

13. 

    3 Jun 2026

    From Operator to Investor: How Pete Seligman Built a Portfolio of 10+ Acquisitions

    Pete Seligman has been buying, running, and backing businesses since 2013. He started the way most acquisition entrepreneurs do - a mate, some savings, and a bank loan secured against their houses. Today, as the founder of EtA Forum and EtA Central, he's Australia's most active Search Fund investor, directly involved in 15-20 deals and having backed more than 20 searchers across the Asia-Pacific. In this episode Pete gets honest about what it actually takes to build a portfolio of small businesses. There's no ten-step framework and no passive income shortcut - just hard-won lessons on delegation, deal structure, earn-out negotiation, and the mental discipline required to show up for ten different businesses without losing your mind. IN THIS EPISODE: How Pete manages board positions across 10+ companies (and the Bill Clinton trick he uses to stay focused) Why you should never assume you can just "install a CEO and walk away" Why delegation - not deal-finding - is the real reason most small businesses never break through the $20-30M revenue ceiling How Search Fund deals are structured: equity splits, vesting, and IRR hurdles explained plainly Funding options for solo acquirers in Australia without a Search Fund How Australian sellers really feel about earnouts, including a seller who turned down a free $1M Whether keeping the seller involved post-close actually works CONNECT WITH PETE: Website: www.peteseligman.com.au (http://www.peteseligman.com.au) LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/peteseligman (https://www.linkedin.com/in/peteseligman) YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@PeteSeligman (https://www.youtube.com/@PeteSeligman) TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@peteseligman (https://www.tiktok.com/@peteseligman) TIMESTAMPS: 0:00 - Managing multiple businesses: plate spinning vs juggling 2:52 - The Bill Clinton brain compartmentalisation trick 6:46 - The myth of "buy a business, drop in a CEO, walk away" 10:16 - Delegation: the #1 ceiling for small business owners 13:55 - Running two businesses at once 15:52 - Pete's shift from operator to Search Fund investor 18:34 - How Search Fund deals are structured 21:46 - Funding an acquisition without a Search Fund in Australia 24:26 - Earnouts and vendor finance in Australia 27:58 - Should the seller stay on after the deal closes? Deals Down Under is the podcast about buying, selling, and growing businesses in Australia. Subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts.

Contact Deals Down Under

Guest appearances

Books guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.