Acquisitions Anonymous - #1 for business buying, selling and operating - A $6M Cashflow Business Built in 18 Months

Episode Date: July 25, 2025

In this episode, the hosts dissect a $25M listing for an ultra-premium executive networking platform with jaw-dropping EBITDA—and even more jaw-dropping red flags.Business Listing – https://www.websiteclosers.com/businesses/prestigious-networking-platform-for-entrepreneurs-business-owners-high-net-worth-individuals-6x-growth-trends-in-2025-34-us-chapters-scaling-to-100/114587/Welcome to Acquisitions Anonymous – the #1 podcast for small business M&A. Every week, we break down businesses for sale and talk about buying, operating, and growing them.💼 Sponsored by Verivend — Designed for independent sponsors and private investors, Verivend eliminates friction in capital movement. From capital calls to distributions, manage your entire investment process with instant, secure payments and automated reconciliation—no transaction limits. It’s like Venmo for dealmakers. Learn more at https://www.verivend.com🧠 Powered by Acquisition Lab — Founded by Harvard MBA Walker Deibel, Acquisition Lab is your blueprint for buying a business. Get expert guidance, world-class resources, and a community of serious buyers to help you navigate search, diligence, and acquisition with confidence. Apply now at https://www.acquisitionlab.comThis week, the team analyzes a high-flying luxury executive networking platform seeking $25M for a business doing $6.4M in cash flow on $8.9M in revenue—all built since 2023. With tiered memberships ranging from $3,750 to $30,000, and claims of 62% net margins and explosive 6X growth projections, the deal promises plenty—but also raises some eyebrows.Key Highlights:- Asking price: $25M, Cash Flow: $6.4M, Revenue: $8.9M- Founded in 2023 with only 4 employees- Explosive growth claims: 6X revenue by 2025- Tiered memberships: $3,750–$30,000 annually- Major churn/transition risk and potential dependence on influencer/celebrity appealSubscribe to weekly our Newsletter and get curated deals in your inboxAdvertise with us by clicking here Do you love Acquanon and want to see our smiling faces? Subscribe to our Youtube channel. Do you enjoy our content? Rate our show! Follow us on Twitter @acquanon Learnings about small business acquisitions and operations. For inquiries or suggestions, email us at [e-mail]

Hello, everyone. Welcome back to another episode of Acquisitions Anonymous. My name is Bill Dallisandro, and today we had the full compliment, all four hosts, myself, Mills Snell, Michael Girdley, and Heather Anderson, and we talked about a wild business. It is a membership organization with $6 million of EBITDA. They are in 30-plus cities around the country, and members pay $10,000 a year to be part of this networking organization, and it has rocketed to $6 million at EBITDA in under two years. So this is a pretty cool one. Obviously, we don't know the name, but this is reminiscent of a YPO or a Vistage or an EO. We think things like that.

So if that interests you or you're a business owner or you're even part of a group like that, I think you're really going to like this episode of Acquisitions Anonymous. Hello, another episode of Acquisitions Anonymous. We don't have 100% beers anymore. And thumbs downing on just the plus inventory line. Hey, everyone. I just want to tell you that this episode is brought to you by Varevend, which is the only platform purpose built for independent sponsors and private market investors who want to move

faster and eliminate friction. VareVend is cool because it combines investment management and secure instant payments into one platform. So that means capital calls, deployments, and distributions. They all work like Venmo. One click, real-time transfers with no transaction limits. and automatic reconciliation. So from raising capital to returning it, VARIVAN handles it all.

Deal marketing, data rooms, KYC and accreditation for your investors, signatures, capital flow, dashboards for your investors, and even fund administration, accounting, and taxes. So whether you're raising a single deal or managing a full fund, VARAVAN gives you the speed and confidence to execute all in one single platform. So you can check it out and learn more at veryvend.com, V-E-R-I-V-E-N-D.com. All right. So I have a listener submitted deal. This is a deal that came in from Rand Larson who bought ScalePath from us.

This is in his space, which is it is a prestigious networking platform designed exclusively for high net worth executives, entrepreneurs, and business owners. The platform has enjoyed skyrocketing growth as its client enjoyed their unique combination of business growth, networking opportunities, luxury experiences, and philanthropy. It did just strike me that I hadn't considered that maybe he's sending me the listing for the business I just sold him. He's flipping it and wants who to buy a back or something? Hey, what do you think about this? What's the sale price?

Let's verify a couple things. Look at the numbers and I'll tell you real quick. Okay. This innovative platform continues to grow as it fosters a holistic environment, giving elite leaders the ability to thrive personally, professionally and now operating 34 chapters across the United States, this company has ambitious plans to expand to 100 cities domestically and internationally. Their impressive financial performances included explosive revenue growth in 2023,

2024, and the trail in 12 months, and the businesses are on pace to grow 6x by the end of 2025. Their high margin model is bolstered by zero cost of goods sold and an optimized operating expense ratio, resulting in a net margin of 62.6% year to date. Whoa. So Heather, what is this business? Do we understand what this business does yet, like at its core? Is this like an EO Vistage type thing? Yeah, something along those lines, obviously, but multi-city.

And they don't tell us what kind of network it is. I guess just high net worth, executives, entrepreneurs. It's some kind of business network, but usually you need some kind of niche within that. It doesn't tell us exactly what it is or we'd probably be able to figure it out, but who it is. but I think that's what it is, right? That's what it sounds like to me. They do have a picture here of two African-American professionals, which may be a clue or it may be a stark photo.

Yeah, I don't know. That's true. Bill, do you have a read on what this one is since you just joined the podcast? Here I am. I'm four minutes late, and you guys on time today. Yeah. I mean, is this an amazing business? Right?

Like, they facilitate networking groups for executives, and the annual membership fee is $10,000, and the lifetime value is $25. to $30,000, which means people stick around for several years. Yeah, and that's not that crazy. I mean, Vistage now is 15 or 18,000. I don't know what YPO is, Bill, is it kind of the same level, or is it cheaper? It's about the same level.

You have chapter and national dues in YPO, so they stack. But yeah, it comes out to roughly the same. Yeah, and then EO is 6 or 7,000, I think, now. When I was in EO, 10 years ago, it was 4, so I assume it's a lot more expensive now. but not out of line. I mean, we need to keep reading this because some of this is like a little bit outlandish, like the launch of their health and wellness course. Yeah.

Keep reading. There's a lot here. Okay. I mean, I think for full disclosure, this is on website closers.com. So. Yes.

So you're saying what? It might be a little bit embellished? I mean, this is not Goldman Sox. Right. Presenting that. Like, let's just say that.

that way. Memberships are tiered into three categories which generate annual pricing ranging from $37.50 to $30,000 a year. The average annual membership fee is $10,000, while the platform's lifetime customer value is considerably higher at $25,000 to $30,000 per member. The company prides itself on a diversified revenue model with no single member or sponsor contributing more than 15% of total revenue. The company is poised for continued growth. A new owner could take advantage of a company solid foundation to scale this platform through global expansion, monetization of a forthcoming mobile app and the launch of an $8,000 health and wellness course. Additional growth avenues include corporate sponsorships, partnerships,

luxury brands, and content monetization through a virtual library and the launch of new courses. They have a, man, this thing gets long, so I'm going to just kind of take and choose some. The one thing that comes out at me is members enjoy exclusive high-end experiences and events, including opportunities to enjoy yacht excursions, supercar racing and wellness retreats. Sign me up. Yeah. Operational efficiencies achieve thanks to the company's team of chapter directors

who operate on commission, which has minimized the need for high payroll expenses. Efficient marketing strategies have enabled the brand to achieve a low customer acquisition cost of $500 per member and maintains strong cash flow with an average monthly new membership sales of around $200,000 and growing with every passing month. The brand maintains a small. exclusivity through strict membership criteria, personal introductions, and high-profile events.

Philanthropy and community involvement further enhance its reputation as a socially responsible network. There's strategic partnerships with reputable firms provide financial support and bolster brand credibility. The broker says that there's explosive growth potential, a great high-margin model, and exclusive community and experiences. And it's quickly emerged as a premier destination for high net worth business owners looking to enhance their personal and professional lives. They've already established significant presence with 34 chapters across the United States. All right. So numbers wise,

they are asking $25 million for this. It cash flows $6.4 million on $8.9 million in gross income. It was established in 2023 and has four employees. Okay. Does this business give you guys the ick? Everybody's kind of looking at each other on camera now to see who's going to be the first one not to talk. It depends.

It depends. I mean, if this is E. No? No. I mean, if this is, it could also be highly scammy. The thing that if I were, this is, this is judgmental, but if I were reading this on a broker that is not website closers, I have significant less ick. But the fact that this thing has $6 million of EBITDA, 6.4 million dollars of EBITDA, and they did not hire an investment bank. And they hired website closers. Just gives me a lot of pause. I'm thinking about listings like this where the teaser is kind of trying to be all things to all people. And the fact that they're throwing out things like, yeah, you got to talk about your growth prospects. But lumping in stuff like, oh yeah, we're going to launch a health and wellness course and get $8,000. I don't know.

I mean, the core membership business model needs to be around reducing churn, signing people up and reducing churn. And you do that through, you know, sticky relationships. Maybe a lot of this is in person. My impression of these types of things is unless you're like a world-class organization at doing it, like EO or YPO, it's just really hard to get this type of clientele face-to-face regularly. There's just a lot of friction around it. And so, I don't know. I just, I get a little bit leery when the, like, the business model drift is happening in the teaser. It's interesting. I mean, their whole business model is kind of fascinating, right? They go find these independent, like chapter market president type folks. They focus with them as 1099s, and then those people go out and sell memberships. So that's kind of the way Vistage works.

I don't know if IPO works that way, but yeah, it's almost quasi franchise. Yeah, they're like independent affiliate type things. You know, the people who are Vistich chairs, they are 1099s. as well, right? They're not employees. They're franchisees, right? I mean, it's almost as simple as that. They're 1099 franchisees. In practice, yes, but I think legally they're not. Yes, yes. I'm concerned about lifetime customer value, you know, they're touting 25 to 30,000 for member, and this has only been around two years. Wait a minute. I totally missed that. This has been around for two years and they have six million in 2023. Yeah. Okay, I'm much more. skeptical now.

But Bill, you could you could race supercars and go on yachts. And who are the women members? I know there's none. Zero. That's a growth opportunity, Heather. It's a growth opportunity. Okay. I mean, membership,

membership businesses are, they can be fantastic businesses. And this hits on it's super high margin. I'm shocked at how quickly it grew, but they use the distributed sales force. And, you know, they're finding a guy in major metros or a gal in major metros who's leveraging their network and signing these folks up. There's a lot to like about the financial dynamics of the business. But you could put, let's just say arguably, obviously, Heather, there's no SBA financing for this just because of the size.

But let's say you put $10 million into this thing and you borrow $15 million. dollars, this business could evaporate overnight. Like, you could have one really bad, you know, group trip and there's, you know, a sexual harassment claim or something. And like the business, I could just see a lot of risk factors. There's nothing tangible. There's nothing durable. The other thing about community, this is a community, right?

Like, it's a community and a brand. And if this sticks is because people make friends inside the community and they fear canceling because they lose access to their friends. Right. So if you can get it to stick, it's great, but you have to build a real community. Owning this business is community management in a big way. And a lot of these businesses I've seen sometimes are built around a personality,

a celebrity, a guru, right? Somebody that, you know, has a certain philosophy. Like, you might see one of these built around like boggleheads, like value investors or like Warren Buffett accolites or like, you know, things like that. people have a unifying philosophy. The problem would be is if the founder of the philosophy is also the seller in this case and he divests the network to you, you're going to have churn like crazy.

And I'm skeptical that for this to be bootstrapped so fast to go from zero to six million of EBITDA in two years, it needed to have some sort of distribution advantage, right? some sort of celebrity influencer, philosophy, whatever it might be, that it's organized around. And I would worry that that makes it unsellable. Are you ready to take a leap into business ownership but you don't know where to start? Well, look no further than Acquisition Lab, the premier resource for entrepreneurs seeking to buy their dream business. Founded by Harvard MBA and acquisition expert Walker Dibble, the lab is your fast-track to success

in the search diligence and acquisition process. With hands-on support, world-class resources, and a community of like-minded entrepreneurs, Acquisition Lab gives you the tools and confidence to navigate every step of the journey. And we're proud to call Walker and Chelsea, the lab's director, long-time friends of the podcast. They're passionate about helping entrepreneurs like you take the next big step. So don't wait to make your business ownership dream of reality. Visit AcquisitionLab.com today to learn more and schedule your free consultation. And when you do, be sure to tell them the Acquisitions Anonymous podcast sent you. What if it's Ryan Reynolds or something like that?

if it's truly like a celebrity driven. I mean, he's got to stay involved then. Yeah, right? But those are risky too. I mean, you see what's going on with the Blake lively stuff, right? Yeah. There's risk there. Like, it's just, you know, what if it was Megan Markle?

Would you be more excited then? Yeah. They haven't said anything here about it having a specific niche. But like, Bill, you know, you and I've talked in the past, and I think you've talked about it on the podcast, one of these that's e-commerce related, that you've really derived a lot of value from and has been like a major, you know, major influence for you. If this is like super niche in some way, I like it more.

I don't think because of how quickly it's grown and kind of how large it is. I can't imagine it being any specific niche and they don't mention it. But I also would like it better if there was a niche. Me as well. You can see that they got some kind of big excitement to get to 6 million Ibadah in two years. something very exciting happened to get that many people signing up. But they haven't gotten them to stick around for very long. It just hasn't been enough time to know if they would.

Why would you sell now when you have a 6x growth opportunity in 25? You know, there's just something about this that doesn't make any sense. Yeah. I mean, I would just say nobody should buy a business has been around for 18 to 24 months, especially one that has ramped this fast that someone wants to sell. I mean, there's just red flags all over the place. This business is too young and growing too fast and is too exciting if it truly is. Why would you be selling this?

So this means one of our listeners should definitely get the SIM and the DMS and tell us all about this. I'm just dying to know at this point. The mystery is just so cool. I mean, this CEO peer group space, it's a bloodbath. Like they're, you know, Vistage, all these different C-12, all of these different folks, Hampton, they are all putting chairs out into the marketplaces, and they're all picking over the same 150, 250 small business folks, and they're all dealing with massive levels of churn in an economy that's not doing that great. Like, it is very, very difficult. I mean, like, you know,

one of these networks that I know really well puts out these kind of like independents like this who are supposed to build local chapters is a 15% success rate of the people that go through training. And they're proud of that. because it's up from 10. Wow. I wonder what Vistage is like. Vistage has always been so weird to me because the Vistage seems to not care at all if your neighbor also starts a Vistage group in your exact same neighborhood

and tries to recruit the same CEOs. It is wild to me that they will spin up so many Vistage groups in the same geography. It's owned by P.E., and they are running it like P.E. would. It's all about the dollars. They don't. I think Vistage. Vistage used to have a brand that was really good. And I talked to other members and they're like, yeah, it feels like a cash grab.

Yeah. I also, I have one or two people that I know, friends that have started, like, exited their business and then sort of were like, you know, they have a lot of entrepreneur friends. And they're like, geez, it would be great to get together. Oh, I could start a Vistage group and like facilitate and maybe make a little bit of money. And I just like, oh, I lose, they lose so much credibility as soon as like, they're like, I'm starting a Vichita group, and I'm like, why? You don't need the money.

Like, why would you associate with that brand? And it kind of shows you how far the Vistage brand has fallen. Yeah, 10 years ago, I mean, I'm no longer remember anymore, but 10 years ago, it was like a step of, it was like where YPO is, right? It was one where you're just like, okay, this is YPO. And then we haven't talked about Tiger 21, but like, it was something where people are like, yeah, I'm a badass if I'm in this. And, you know, a couple years ago, I stopped telling people I was in business.

Well, hence, I haven't joined a group. I'm a consumer of these kind of groups, and I haven't joined one because of all the things you just said. I feel like I don't know which one I would join. I don't know which one would actually be good, worth the money, worth my time, and would have the right mix of people for me. Yeah.

There's, I mean, there is one specifically women called Chief. Have you ever heard of that one? Well, and I don't want a just woman's one either. Jeez, Michael. I don't want that either. No, I didn't mean. Come on, Mills. No, no, but it's anyway, I was just bringing it up because there's a ability to avoid a just woman's one.

Isn't that terrible to say? But yes, I want it mixed. Why is that, Heather? I don't, oh, what can I say? I don't think just having an all-woman business peer group is a good idea. I just never have. I think that it can get a little. it can get a little catty.

I just hate to say that, but it can. And a mixed group, much, much better, always much better. Oh, I think it shows like, you know, diversity in all ways is good, right? It is, yeah. To have men and women and lots of different viewpoint, it creates the best discussions. Exactly. Yeah. My group that I love was a third women, and it made a huge difference.

Yeah. Huge difference. A mix of people. Yeah. Yeah. A lot of these groups have, like, non-solicitation kind of as a core premise. of, you know, hey, we're not there to just generate business, but it's, I think, a natural byproduct. And so if, if in the back of your minds, a piece of it is some business development,

not just like personal enrichment and like growth in leadership and things like that, then you kind of do want to get as broad of a sample size as possible, multiple industries, multiple age ranges, you know, multiple different sectors, all those kind of things. Absolutely. Yeah. All right. So where are we on this one? I'm, here's my vote. I am so, I am so suss on this, but I'm dying for somebody in the audience to get the sip and tell us about it. I am fascinated by it, but there's just, it cannot be 18 months old and this big, and they can't wait to get rid of it. There's something going on.

I think there's got to be some celebrity focused or some trend focused or something that they're really, really worried about their long-term retention. I'm going to steal Mills's word, ick. I think that this is a great, it's very prototypical of what we've seen on website closers. Really, really great business to have started, really tough business to buy. And these people, kudos to them, if they're making $6 million a year in free cash flow, they should just put this thing on autopilot as much as possible and nurse it until the end. And yeah, maybe somebody will come pay you five times, but I just, would be shocked. I just don't understand why they're selling it Mills, right? Like, if you can manage to

start this business, it's an awesome, awesome business. But there's just a lot of risks, transition risks. They don't anticipate four years worth of free cash at this level. Clearly they don't, right? Yeah. But like these businesses can be sold. I mean, obviously Vistage was sold. Like, there's another one called World 50, which has been private equity owned for a long time. there's plenty of these membership orgs that do transfer and maintain enterprise value, et cetera. But I think the ones that do have been around for a long, long time, and the Lindy effect is real

with these types of organizations. You know, the longer it's around, the longer it's going to be around. Super cool. All right. Everybody thinks for being here this week. We will see you in the next episode. And if you enjoyed this, please go tell a friend about Acquisitions Anonymous. We do not have a churn problem like the last deal did. but we would love your help in growing. So talk to you soon.