A café in Barcelona.
Four weeks. Six cities. Somewhere between 50 and 100 people.
About a dozen proper conversations.
LOIs signed: zero.
An LOI is a letter of intent: the first written offer to buy a business. Not the deal itself, just the moment you put a price on paper.
Next stop, home. The trip's over.
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Where I left it
Last issue I worked out my clock.
I started searching in August. In Stanford's study, the searchers who went on to buy signed their first LOI around month seven, on average. For me, that's February.
Two and a half months in, I had zero. I called it a failure.
It still is. But the meetings weren't wasted.
I know exactly what I'm looking for: a small Italian business that makes things for luxury brands, under €10 million in revenue, profitable.
I know who to ask. A handful of advisers in Italy who have sold businesses exactly like that.
And I know how to check a company before I ever call it.
Here's the thing though:
a meeting feels like progress. It isn't.
A dozen proper conversations, and not one of them ended in an LOI. That's the easiest way to spend six months and never sign one.
And honestly, the thing on my mind most of the month wasn't a deal. It was how my team was doing back home.
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The plan, from Monday
One market. Italian fashion and luxury suppliers. Not "Italy." Not "anything good." One market, until I've been through every company in it.
Build the list myself. Every company that fits. The owner's name. Roughly how old they are, and whether a son or daughter works there. An owner in their sixties with nobody to hand it to is a different conversation from one in their forties.
Read the accounts before anyone calls. Italian limited companies have to file their accounts publicly every year, and anyone can buy a copy online. So I know the revenue and the profit before the first conversation, not three calls in.
Warm introductions only. No cold emails to owners. Every approach goes through people I'm already working with in Italy, people the owners already know.
One number. Five calls with sellers in the next month.
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What you can steal
Indian companies file their accounts too.
Before you take a call about any private company in India, log in to the MCA portal, pay ₹100, and read what it actually filed. Revenue, profit, who owns it.
Most people take the seller's number on the first call.
You don't have to.
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One word
Last issue I asked if you'd search alone or with a partner. The one reply made the case for alone. That's where I've landed too, for now.
This one's for everyone, and it's the reason I'm only doing warm introductions:
If you owned a small business and a stranger wrote asking to buy it, would you reply?
Yes or no. Hit reply, I read everything.
– Dev
P.S. - Four weeks of coffee chats. Zero LOIs. This count is to keep me accountable.
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Selling a business? [email protected] - tell me what it does and what it makes.
Want the Indian deals themselves? That's Kautilya's India Deal Sheet — what's actually for sale, every week.
Further along, and want someone to find and buy one for you? Reply "Kautilya".
