Why owners talk to me
The biggest transfer of business ownership in history is already underway. Around $10 trillion in business value changes hands as Baby Boomers retire, roughly 10,000 of them hitting retirement age every single day, all of them 65 by 2030. There are about 12 million Boomer-owned businesses, and most have no plan for what's next. And here's the part that should stop you cold: the Exit Planning Institute says 70 to 80% of businesses that go to market never sell. Not because they weren't worth buying, but because they couldn't find the right buyer at the right time. That's not a market problem. It's a positioning problem. The businesses that actually sell are the ones with a clear story and a brand that makes a buyer believe before the first call.
Margins are tightening, talent is scarce, and consolidation is everywhere. The owners who lean into this moment find freedom, growth, and real enterprise value. The ones who wait usually sell tired. Tired sells at a discount, if it sells at all.
My four-part model
I buy and integrate agencies that lean heavily on the owner, then build the freedom back in without breaking what made them great.
Shared infrastructure cuts cost and tightens operations from day one.
Cross-selling across the portfolio creates revenue neither of us makes alone.
We build something together. Most owners stay on, on their terms.
Why me, not a PE roll-up
I've sat on every side of this table. When my father passed, I came home as the family's advisor and led the 2024 sale of DCJ Enterprises, the FedEx logistics rollup he, my mom, and my brother built over 20 years into a 20-plus-route operation doing $2.5M in annual revenue. I earned my way into a boutique PR and communications agency in 2021 through a SEED deal, doubling the revenue instead of writing a check, bought it outright in 2023, and rebranded it. I leveraged that into Born & Bred in 2024 and still run it today. I sit on the DealCon Advisory Board and I've emceed the CEO M&A Intensive. 30 years in digital media, 127 agencies built, and a coaching credential I actually use when it's time to integrate. My agency's been named Adweek's fastest-growing twice, and the brands we build are backed by funds like General Catalyst, a16z, Accel, and Tiger Global. I'm not a financial buyer hunting for costs to cut. I'm an operator who's been where you are, looking for partners.
Read how I bought a $3.5M agency with a cold email →
The AI question nobody's answering for you
A gray tsunami is hitting our industry, and most owners are going to let their business die instead of sell it. Hundreds of thousands of agency owners are in their 50s and 60s and ready to move on, and most don't even realize they can sell. So they'll just wind it down. And AI is speeding it up. You're already on the calls, building the pitches, running payroll and the website, and now someone's telling you to rebuild the whole operation around AI too. A lot of owners are going to quietly opt out.
I think there's a better ending. I've ridden every technology shift in this industry for 30 years, and AI is just the newest one. When we talk, the question isn't how you survive AI alone. It's how we build an agency with AI in its DNA, together, and turn what you spent decades building into an asset with an off-ramp instead of an expiration date. No broker and no PE roll-up is having that conversation with you. I am.
Read my full thesis on AI and the agency endgame →
What a first call looks like
The first thing I'll ask is why you booked the call, because that tells us what you actually want. Then I'll tell you straight whether you fit what I'm looking for and what would make you worth more, whether you sell to me or to anyone else. No hard sell, no games. You'll get my honest read on your agency, and where it goes from there is entirely up to you.