In this video, I sit down with some of Europe’s top 7–8 figure M&A entrepreneurs, operators, and fund managers to unpack how they source deals, close acquisitions, and build exceptional companies.
These conversations were filmed at Rollup Europe, a first-of-its-kind community for serial acquirers.
RollUpEurope is building the home base for Europe’s buy-and-build ecosystem: a place where operators, investors, searchers, and private equity professionals come together to share playbooks, learn from each other, and collaborate on live opportunities.
Their events bring together some of the sharpest minds in acquisitions. I was fortunate to attend their event this summer, where I captured interviews with some of the attendees.
We dive deep into:
• What they’re building right now
• Their biggest deals- acquisitions and exits
• Lessons from their rich acquisition journeys
• How Europe’s acquisition entrepreneurship ecosystem is evolving
The insights shared at the event were exceptional from sourcing playbooks to integration strategies to operating frameworks.
If you’re in M&A, search funds, private equity, or simply fascinated by buying businesses, this video is packed with practical value.
A little background on Pocket Fund: We run both a holding company and a buy-side advisory practice. We’ve acquired several software businesses ourselves and now help private equity funds, searchers, and individual buyers with everything from deal flow and negotiation to due diligence and closing.
This video is packed with practical insights for anyone in the acquisition ecosystem and equally valuable for founders and startup enthusiasts.
Welcome to the first episode of Inside Micro PE: Small Deals, Big Returns
In this episode, Johann Sathianathen shares his real journey from dropping out of college to be Cisco’s youngest full-time engineer at 18, to building, scaling, and exiting his first SaaS startup at just 20 years old.
Johann’s story captures the essence of a new generation of bootstrapped founders and creators who build lean, profitable software businesses without venture capital. While at Cisco, Johann invested his salary into side projects and agencies, eventually creating Qura.ai, an AI SaaS that automated high-quality social media replies.
Within just 12 months, he grew and successfully sold the company through Acquire.com, achieving his first exit while running multiple ventures under his startup studio, Jars Global.
He now leads a global portfolio of SaaS products from his company Jars Global with teams in India, Nigeria and Egypt helping founders build and automate scalable businesses worldwide. His experience is across building rapid MVPs, automating operations, and managing lean teams has made him a rising name in the SaaS acquisition space.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
Whether you’re a SaaS founder, indie hacker or operator, this episode dives into real frameworks and mindsets that help businesses grow beyond just product and code.
Explore Johann’s Work: https://www.johann.fyi/
Qura.ai: https://www.qura.ai/ (SaaS Exited)
Connect with Johann Sathianathen:
Twitter/X: https://x.com/johann_sath
Dev Shah (Host)
Pocket Fund (Micro PE Firm): https://www.pocket-fund.com/
Twitter/X: https://x.com/devlikesbizness