How a First-Time Operator Found and Closed a $2M Acquisition Using SearchStreet

The Challenge: Too Many Tabs, Too Little Time

When Jake M. left his corporate development role at a mid-market PE firm in late 2025, he had the skills to evaluate deals but no infrastructure to find them. Like most first-time independent sponsors, his deal sourcing workflow consisted of manually checking BizBuySell every morning, scrolling DealStream alerts over lunch, and spending weekends building research decks in Google Sheets.

After three months of this, Jake had reviewed over 200 listings but submitted exactly zero LOIs. The deals he liked moved too fast. The ones that lingered had obvious problems. And he was spending 25 hours a week just on sourcing — time he should have been spending on investor relationships and due diligence.

Jake needed a system, not another browser tab.

The Discovery: Finding SearchStreet

Jake discovered SearchStreet through a post in an independent sponsor Slack community. Another operator mentioned that the platform had cut his sourcing time by 80 percent and helped him submit three LOIs in his first month.

Jake signed up for the free tier on a Monday. By Wednesday, he had 47 new deals in his pipeline that he had never seen across his manual searches.

Week 1: Building the Pipeline

SearchStreet's AI deal sourcing engine immediately started aggregating listings from nine platforms into Jake's unified pipeline. But the real breakthrough was the AI research briefs.

Every deal that entered his pipeline came with an automatically generated research brief: a two-page analysis covering business overview, financial summary, competitive landscape, industry trends, and a preliminary worth-it score. What used to take Jake four to six hours of manual research was now available in 30 seconds.

In his first week, Jake reviewed 52 deals and flagged 8 as worth a deeper look. Using the platform's filtering tools, he narrowed his focus to HVAC and mechanical services businesses in the Southeast with $500K to $2M in seller's discretionary earnings.

Key metric: 52 deals reviewed in week one versus his previous average of 12 per week manually.

Week 3: The Deal That Clicked

Three weeks in, a new listing appeared in Jake's pipeline: a 22-year-old residential and commercial HVAC company in Charlotte, NC. The AI research brief caught his attention immediately.

The highlights from the automated brief: - $1.8M in annual revenue, growing 8 percent year-over-year - $620K in adjusted EBITDA (34 percent margins) - Low customer concentration (largest customer was 6 percent of revenue) - Owner was 63 and actively seeking retirement - 11 full-time employees with an experienced operations manager - Strong Google reviews (4.8 stars, 340 reviews) - Service agreements providing 40 percent recurring revenue

The worth-it score was 87 out of 100. The brief also flagged two risks: the owner handled all commercial sales personally (key-person risk), and one of the service trucks needed replacement within 12 months.

Jake had found this deal the same day it was listed on DealStream. Because SearchStreet surfaced it instantly with a complete research brief, he was able to reach the broker within hours instead of days.

Week 4-5: From Interest to LOI

Using SearchStreet's valuation tools, Jake modeled the acquisition at multiple scenarios. The platform's industry-specific multiples suggested a fair enterprise value between $1.8M and $2.2M for an HVAC business with these characteristics.

Jake used the built-in LOI generator to draft an initial offer at $2.0M enterprise value with the following structure:

• $400K equity (20 percent down)
• $1.4M SBA 7(a) loan (70 percent)
• $200K seller note (10 percent, 24-month term)

The LOI included a 60-day exclusivity period for due diligence and a requirement for the seller to remain as a consultant for 6 months post-close to transition commercial relationships.

The broker responded within 48 hours. After one round of negotiation on the seller note terms, the LOI was signed.

Key metric: 11 days from first seeing the deal to signed LOI, versus the industry average of 30 to 60 days.

Week 6-9: Due Diligence with Confidence

With the LOI signed, Jake moved into due diligence. SearchStreet's DD toolkit helped him organize the process systematically.

Virtual Data Room: Jake used the platform's VDR to request and organize documents from the seller. Tax returns, financial statements, customer contracts, employee records, equipment lists, and insurance policies were all tracked in one place with version control and access logs.

Financial Analysis: The platform's financial analysis suite helped Jake normalize the seller's financials. He identified $85K in legitimate add-backs (above-market owner salary, personal vehicle expenses, one-time legal fees) and $40K in questionable add-backs that the seller could not substantiate. The adjusted EBITDA came in at $620K, consistent with the initial research brief.

Fraud Detection: SearchStreet's automated checks cross-referenced the reported financials against industry benchmarks, public records, and tax return data. No red flags were identified, which gave Jake additional confidence in the deal.

Quality of Earnings: Jake commissioned a formal QoE report from a third-party accounting firm. The QoE confirmed the platform's preliminary analysis within a 3 percent margin.

The one issue that surfaced during DD was the key-person dependency the AI brief had originally flagged. The owner personally managed all commercial accounts, representing 35 percent of revenue. Jake negotiated an extended transition period: the seller would stay on for 9 months instead of 6, with a retention bonus tied to commercial account renewals.

Week 10-12: Closing the Deal

With DD complete and financing approved, Jake moved to close. The final purchase price was $1.95M after a $50K adjustment for the service truck replacement the AI brief had flagged.

Final deal structure: - Enterprise value: $1.95M - Buyer equity: $390K (raised through a combination of personal capital and three angel investors) - SBA 7(a) loan: $1.365M - Seller note: $195K (36 months at 6 percent)

The deal closed 87 days after Jake first saw the listing on SearchStreet.

The Results: By the Numbers

| Metric | Before SearchStreet | With SearchStreet | |--------|-------------------|------------------| | Weekly sourcing hours | 25 | 5 | | Deals reviewed per month | 48 | 200+ | | Days from listing to LOI | Never submitted | 11 | | Total days to close | N/A | 87 | | Research brief time per deal | 4-6 hours | 30 seconds |

Six Months Post-Close

Six months after closing, Jake reports that the HVAC business is performing ahead of his original projections.

• Revenue is up 12 percent year-over-year, driven by a new digital marketing strategy and expanded service territory
• The operations manager has stepped into a GM role, reducing Jake's day-to-day involvement to 20 hours per week
• Commercial account retention during the ownership transition was 94 percent, above Jake's 85 percent target
• Jake has begun sourcing his second acquisition on SearchStreet, targeting a complementary plumbing or electrical services company in the Charlotte metro area

Key Takeaways for Independent Sponsors

1. Speed is a competitive advantage. Jake won this deal because he saw it first and moved fast. AI-powered deal sourcing compressed his evaluation timeline from weeks to hours.

2. AI research briefs replace analyst hours, not judgment. The automated briefs gave Jake a head start, but he still made the investment decision based on his own analysis and DD. The AI eliminates busywork, not decision-making.

3. Risk flags are features, not bugs. The two risks the AI brief flagged — key-person dependency and deferred capex — both proved real and both were addressed in the deal structure. Knowing about them early gave Jake negotiating leverage.

4. The platform pays for itself on day one. Jake estimates that SearchStreet saved him over 200 hours during the sourcing and DD process. At any reasonable hourly rate, the platform subscription paid for itself many times over before the deal even closed.

5. Start with the free tier. Jake signed up for SearchStreet's free plan and upgraded only after he found a deal worth pursuing. There is no reason to delay.

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*This case study is based on a composite of real user experiences. Names and specific details have been changed to protect confidentiality. Individual results may vary based on market conditions, deal characteristics, and operator experience.*

*Ready to find your first acquisition? [Start sourcing deals on SearchStreet — free.](https://searchstreet.com/signup)*