⚡ TL;DR:

On October 1, the SBA changes who can fund your acquisition. If your down payment plan leans on passive investors, the round you sketched this summer may not close as written.

Three things change: how much investor money can count toward your 10% injection, what those investors can be paid while the loan is outstanding, and who is allowed on your cap table at all. The third gate is the one that breaks cap tables quietly, because it turns on facts about your investors you have probably never asked about. One escape hatch exists, and it expires with your loan number.

The deep-dive walks the new rules in plain English and gives you the two questions to ask every committed investor this week.

Read the full breakdown →

A Carlsbad, California manufacturer of precision radio-frequency test equipment (TDRs, vector network analyzers, and SWR meters), designing, calibrating, and shipping every unit from a single 1,930 sq ft facility since 2003. Customers span aviation, military, medical, and cable TV, reached directly and through U.S. manufacturer representatives and distributors.

The operation runs with two full-time and two part-time staff, and the price includes $150K of inventory plus $89K of production and testing equipment. The owner is retiring and offers two weeks of training.

Why this deal stands out: At 1.7x the listed owner benefit, this is the value anchor of the issue: a full 7(a) note covers at 4.18x, the strongest modeled coverage we have run in months, leaving about $942K after debt service. Test instrumentation for aviation, military, and medical customers is a certification-heavy niche where a two-decade reputation and an installed customer base matter more than headcount.

💡 EBIT Take: A 65% margin from a four-person shop means the engineering seat is almost certainly the owner's, so the first NDA questions are who designs and calibrates, what documentation exists, and what a replacement RF engineer costs; subtract that salary before crediting the full $1.24M. The listing also touts a 30-plus-year track record against a 2003 establishment date, and the broker's "Total Income" label needs a line-by-line recast. Two weeks of training is thin for a technical product line; negotiate months, not weeks.

Analyze with AI →

A personal guarantee is part of the financing decision for many acquisition entrepreneurs. Personal Guarantee Insurance can help cover some of the personal financial exposure that comes with it.

Tomorrow (Wednesday), Ink is joining Northwest Bank for a practical conversation about Personal Guarantee Insurance for SBA acquisitions, including how coverage works, what it costs, and how to evaluate whether it fits your deal.

September 9 · 3:00 PM ET / 12:00 PM PT

A fully remote engineering outsourcing firm, founded in 2015 and based in Florida, that places senior embedded AI, software, and data engineering teams with venture-backed and enterprise clients under recurring monthly seat agreements priced at roughly $5K to $12K per seat. Nineteen senior engineers are currently deployed, backed by a vetted network of additional technical professionals and in-country recruiting resources, and teams of up to ten engineers can be assembled in about two weeks.

The owner spends a few hours per week on sales conversations, oversight, and monthly invoicing, with senior client-facing team leads managing accounts and delivery. The listing reports a 100% contract renewal rate, 100% client retention on embedded engineering, and about $240K of monthly recurring revenue, with growth to date driven entirely by referrals and no internal sales team. Partial seller financing is open for discussion.

Why this deal stands out: A 40% margin on staffing-style revenue with 100% renewal on seat contracts behaves more like software than services, and 3.0x cash flow sits well under what recurring-revenue peers command. Modeled coverage of 2.37x leaves about $524K after a full note on a business with no office, no inventory, and a delivery bench that scales without the owner.

💡 EBIT Take: Run the math the listing does not: $240K of MRR against a $60K average monthly value per client implies a short client list, so revenue by client is the first NDA request, and the answer sets the real multiple. Referral-only growth means the pipeline is the owner's network; ask who sourced each active account and structure the transition around introductions, not just invoicing. AI-assisted coding is compressing seat counts across the outsourcing industry, so ask how seat utilization has trended through 2026.

Analyze with AI →

A Central Florida structural contractor that designs, engineers, supplies, and installs custom post-frame pole barn structures across the state for agricultural, equestrian, commercial, and residential clients. The listing cites more than 100 completed builds, 100% Florida-engineered structures rated for 140+ MPH winds, warranties up to 40 years, and a statewide dispatch and drop-shipping hub, with growth mapped through regional crew expansion and adding in-house concrete and site prep. The price includes $275K of FF&E, and the business is marked relocatable.

Why this deal stands out: At 2.0x discretionary earnings, this is the smallest check in the issue with the strongest price-to-earnings ratio: a full 7(a) note covers at 3.48x and leaves about $350K after debt service, and $275K of the sub-$1M ask is equipment. Post-frame construction rides Florida's agricultural and equestrian buildout rather than the residential cycle alone, and the engineering, supply, and install stack keeps margin in-house.

💡 EBIT Take: The public teaser is thin: no founding year, no employee count, and no reason for sale, so the NDA conversation has to establish the basics before the 2.0x multiple means anything. Confirm which Florida contractor license the projects run under and whether the qualifier stays, and ask how the 100+ builds spread across years; at $3.4M of revenue this is large-ticket project work, so backlog, deposits, and work-in-progress timing are the real cash-flow story.

Analyze with AI →

A Central Indiana commercial grounds maintenance company, established in 2000, providing recurring mowing, lawn care, mulching, bed maintenance, seasonal cleanups, and snow and ice management to commercial properties and homeowners associations. Roughly 85 to 90% of revenue is recurring or contracted across about 95 accounts, with commercial agreements running two to three years and carrying built-in annual price increases and fuel surcharges. Seventy accounts have been customers five years or longer, and no customer exceeds about 5% of revenue.

Routes concentrate in four sections of a single metro, keeping stops 5 to 10 minutes apart. The fleet and equipment are owned outright and convey debt-free, with no loans, leases, or UCC filings. The owner is retiring and offers a 3 to 6 month transition.

Why this deal stands out: This is the recurring-revenue anchor of the issue: 85 to 90% contracted or repeat revenue, dense route geography, escalators and fuel surcharges already written into multi-year agreements, and a 25-year record the listing says has been profitable in every year. Modeled coverage of 2.80x leaves about $382K after a full note at a 2.5x multiple.

💡 EBIT Take: The number to attack is the 54% margin, roughly seven times the industry average the listing itself cites, and cash flow swung from $448K to $364K to $594K across 2023 through 2025; get the recast schedule and ask what changed in 2024 before pricing the trend. The listing also notes snow and ice work gets turned away for lack of crew, which is either the first growth lever or a labor-market warning. Find out which before you model year one.

Analyze with AI →

A fully remote digital marketing agency founded in 2019, running $133K per month of recurring billing across 89 direct clients and six white-label agency partners in local-service verticals: dental, HVAC, roofing, plumbing, and legal. Roughly 97% of billing is true monthly recurring revenue (SEO, Google Ads, social media, and hosting on month-to-month retainers billed by card or ACH on file), and concentration is modest, with the largest client at 10.9% of the monthly run rate and the top three around 17.7%.

The unusual part is the paper trail: every figure comes from a transaction-level reconstruction of six bank and credit accounts spanning 42 months, with revenue tying to filed federal returns within $146 in 2023 and $107 in 2024. A seven-person core team plus an offshore bench of roughly ten specialists runs fulfillment under named division heads. The sale is an asset purchase with a structured 90-day transition, and a $100K price reduction is offered for an all-cash close.

Why this deal stands out: Agencies usually fail diligence on churn and books, and this one leads with both: flat total recurring billing year over year, 98.3% revenue retention among retained clients, and financials a lender can trace to filed returns before closing. At 3.8x trailing EBITDA with 97% of billing recurring, the price sits below what comparable retention typically commands in recurring-services deals.

💡 EBIT Take: The listing itself says the trailing twelve months run 3.3% below fiscal 2025 on a softer first half, so underwrite on the $696K TTM number and treat FY2025 as the stretch case. Month-to-month retainers mean retention is earned, not contracted; ask for cohort revenue by client vintage and what happened to the sub-$500 accounts that churned. The two principals still sit atop sales, so center the 90-day transition on the six white-label partners, where one lost relationship can take a full book of accounts with it.

Analyze with AI →