Show Notes
If you have bought a business, and are open to sharing your story on the show, please email [email protected]
If you want to sell your business, I'm buying. Please email [email protected]
Connect with Shane Cheek here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shanecheek/
Shane Cheek spent more than two decades as a founder, advisor and investor in technology — roughly 15 years in venture capital and private equity across Australia and Southeast Asia — before deciding he no longer wanted to run other people's money. Instead of starting from scratch, he set out to buy a business that had already found product-market fit. In August 2021 he acquired Intouch Data, a Brisbane software company serving hotels, and by January 2023 he'd sold it to a PE-backed strategic for a figure between $20M and $30M. This episode is the full arc, told with real numbers. Intouch began in 2002 extracting guest data for hotels, evolved into a software (ETL) provider, a guest CRM, and finally a business-intelligence tool that helps hotels optimise revenue the way an airline optimises seats. Shane walks through exactly how he bought it: ~$3.5M ARR, ~4.1x earnings, all-equity, with the family office putting in 100% of the capital while he put in the sweat (no salary) toward a 50% earn-in. He explains the dividend recap he ran months later with Long Reach Credit that handed most of that equity back, leaving only ~$1.5M at risk. Then the value creation: rebuilding sales, billing and systems, de-risking a key-person technical founder, landing a global Accor rollout across ~2,500 hotels, winding down a legacy product, and — crucially — renegotiating the customer contracts that had blocked strategic buyers, which unlocked the exit. He bought on an EBITDA multiple and sold on a revenue multiple, and he's candid about why he won the deal without bidding highest (an all-cash-at-close offer). If you want a masterclass in structured, non-traditional acquisition, this is it.
IN THIS EPISODE:
- Buying a $5M software company with none of his own cash - The truth about software multiples (he paid under 4x) - The seller dynamics that scared off every other buyer - The customer contracts that blocked strategic acquirers - Winning the deal without bidding the highest price - Landing a global Accor rollout across ~2,500 hotels - The dividend recap that handed his equity back in months - Family-office capital + his sweat = a 50% earn-in - Renegotiating contracts to unlock the exit - Bought on earnings, sold on revenue: $5M to ~$30M in 2 years
CONNECT WITH SHANE CHEEK:
TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 - Intro 0:35 - What Intouch Data did (hotel data to BI) 2:26 - How hotel "business intelligence" makes money 3:50 - Shane's path: 15 years in VC/PE to buying his own business 5:25 - The truth about software multiples (he paid under 4x) 7:26 - Finding the deal — and nearly rejecting it 10:14 - The two sellers: a retiree and the key technical owner 11:53 - The customer contracts that blocked strategic buyers 14:13 - The reality of "hands-off" ownership 16:42 - Landing the global Accor rollout (~2,500 hotels) 18:45 - Closing in 90 days and beating higher bidders 21:19 - The numbers: ~$3.5M ARR, ~4.1x, all equity 21:49 - Bringing in debt for a dividend recap 26:42 - The structure: family-office equity, his sweat, a 50% earn-in 28:03 - What a dividend recap actually is 30:13 - Two years of value creation before the exit 32:41 - The exit: Cove Hill and a >5x revenue outcome 38:01 - Bought on earnings, sold on revenue 40:20 - Why he was also looking at light industrial 42:38 - How the family-office partnership came together
Deals Down Under is the podcast about buying, selling, and growing businesses in Australia and New Zealand. Subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts.
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If you have bought a business, and are open to sharing your story on the show, please email [email protected] If you want to sell your business, I'm buying. Please email [email protected] Connect with Paige Kohalmont here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paige-kohalmont/ Paige Kohalmont had an operations career, an MBA, and no interest in starting a business from scratch. So in January 2022 she did something almost nobody in Australia was doing: she raised $500K from 18 investors and went searching for a business to buy and run herself. That's a search fund. Two months in, a broker called with a deal. It took until April 2023 to get the keys to Austral Herbs, a dried botanicals importer with 550+ products from around 30 countries. Along the way a big four bank changed its terms at the last minute, forcing a pivot to a non-bank lender, and Paige moved her young family to a tiny regional NSW town to run the business on site. Paige walks through the real mechanics: how 52 part-time interns screened 1,200+ businesses, how she staged due diligence to limit cash at risk, how the cap table works when not every investor funds the acquisition, and what happened after she took over. If the US playbook of SBA loans doesn't apply to you, this one is for you. IN THIS EPISODE: 52 interns screened 1,200+ businesses, yet the deal came from a broker Raising $500K from 18 investors before she'd picked an industry The staged due diligence that kept her cash at risk low When a big four bank changes the deal at the 11th hour Where $500K of search capital actually goes (it's not the search) Moving a toddler to a remote town to run a business with zero documented processes It took 18 B-doubles to move the stock From no KPIs to tracking 64 a week TIMESTAMPS: 0:00 - From her mum's business to an MBA and search funds 2:20 - Why she searched with no industry or location limits 4:08 - The "traditional" search fund criteria 6:03 - Talking to investors before you've decided to search 8:04 - 18 investors and the advisors she gathered along the way 9:50 - Building the HubSpot funnel and outreach system 11:41 - How 52 interns were recruited and managed 14:45 - 1,200 businesses contacted, but a broker found the deal 16:16 - Nobody understood search funds: convincing brokers and sellers 18:37 - February 2022 to April 2023: the long road to completion 20:27 - What Austral Herbs actually does 23:09 - Staging due diligence to limit cash at risk 27:18 - The cap table: investors who don't fund the acquisition 29:18 - Choosing advisors and keeping investors updated 31:37 - Where $500K of search capital actually goes 33:23 - Big four bank vs non-bank debt in Australia 37:11 - Moving the family to run the business on site 38:58 - Inheriting a business with no processes documented 42:07 - Relocating the business to the Central Coast 47:39 - Growth, systems and tracking 64 KPIs 51:23 - Systems-led vs sales-led growth 53:41 - What's next: more acquisitions and Green Storm Foods 55:53 - Where to find Paige Deals Down Under is the podcast about buying, selling, and growing businesses in Australia and New Zealand. Subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts.
If you have bought a business, and are open to sharing your story on the show, please email [email protected] If you want to sell your business, I'm buying. Please email [email protected] Connect with Dan Canham here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dan1canham/ Dan Canham was made redundant three times in 20-odd years of corporate and consulting work. So in 2023 he backed himself and started Tomorrow Strategy Co. Then his first four clients finished their projects and moved on, and he had to rethink the whole model. His answer was to own the services his clients kept asking for. In two years Dan has acquired BWS Recruitment (a 30-year-old Melbourne recruiter), AT+M Marketing (a 41-year-old Tasmanian agency) and WellsGray Recruitment. He went from a consultancy turning over about $250K to a group at around $6M in revenue, with roughly 25 people across Sydney, Melbourne and Tasmania. He had no M&A background when he started. Dan doesn't dress it up. He walks through how each deal was structured, from deferred payments and seller finance to leveraging his home equity, how he runs businesses in other cities through general managers, and where it's been genuinely hard. He's still looking for more established Australian service businesses to buy. IN THIS EPISODE: The $250K consultancy that became a $6M-revenue group in two years No M&A background: the YouTube, books and trial by fire behind three deals Why he won a 41-year-old agency without being the highest bidder Leveraging home equity for a deal, and how the bank conversation went Seller finance: a third up front, the rest over three years Running Melbourne and Tasmanian businesses from Sydney, without being absent Why cross-selling across your own businesses is harder than it sounds The first 90 days after settlement: decision, decision, decision TIMESTAMPS: 0:00 - Three redundancies and starting Tomorrow Strategy Co 2:03 - Learning acquisitions with no M&A background 4:59 - Search criteria: 10-15+ year old service businesses 7:33 - Buying BWS Recruitment: deal structure and deferred payment 8:28 - Self-funding the first deal and setting up a holdco 9:41 - Hiring a general manager for a business in another city 12:50 - Running Melbourne from Sydney: is distance a problem? 13:56 - How the general managers are incentivised 14:47 - The first 90 days: decision overload 16:53 - The stabilisation year: don't change too much too fast 17:45 - Finding AT+M Marketing in Tasmania 20:56 - Marketing agency risk: retainers vs projects 23:02 - Structuring the deal: all up front, home equity 23:37 - How the bank conversation went 25:11 - Cross-selling across the group 27:12 - Buying WellsGray: seller finance over three years 29:22 - Managing three businesses at once 30:26 - What's next: more tuck-ins and an MSP 32:50 - The biggest challenges of the last two years 33:49 - Going from $250K to $6M in revenue 35:09 - How much growth is acquired vs organic 36:00 - Outside capital and ten more deals 37:57 - Where to find Dan Deals Down Under is the podcast about buying, selling, and growing businesses in Australia and New Zealand. Subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts.
If you have bought a business, and are open to sharing your story on the show, please email [email protected]
If you have bought a business, and are open to sharing your story on the show, please email [email protected]