Want a quick estimate of how much your business is worth?
With our free valuation calculator, answer a few questions about your business, and you’ll get an immediate estimate of the value of your business.
You might be surprised by how much you can get for it: https://flippa.com/exit
--
In this episode of The Exit Podcast, host Steve sits down with Lee Smith, an acquisition entrepreneur at Verdani Capital with 12 years of M&A experience. Lee shares hard-won lessons from acquiring 20+ businesses and reveals what buyers really look for when evaluating companies for acquisition.
KEY TOPICS COVERED:
The #1 Red Flag Buyers See (And How to Fix It)
Lee reveals why owner-dependency kills deals and how to build transferability into your business 2-3 years before exit
Inside the Valuation Process
Real multiples for blue-collar businesses (2-4x true profit, not EBITDA) and why adjusted earnings can backfire
Deal Structure That Works
How Lee structures acquisitions to align incentives: buying 60-80% stakes with future upside potential that often doubles the founder's payday
The Biggest Deal Mistakes
From buying distressed companies to discovering hidden equity agreements 30 minutes before closing—lessons learned the hard way
The £1 Business Acquisition Strategy
How Lee has purchased 20 businesses for just one pound, including a remarkable turnaround that saved a founder from £500K in debt
When Concentration Risk Isn't a Deal-Breaker
Strategic approaches to handling clients that represent 60-70% of revenue, including key customer clauses in SPAs
Building Trust in M&A Deals
Why "two ears, one mouth" matters more than spreadsheets when structuring successful acquisitions
The EOS Framework for Integration
Using simple systems to manage acquired businesses without disrupting teams or culture
--
Lee Smith is a values-driven entrepreneur and dealmaker with more than 25 years of experience and a respected track record in UK M&A. After completing his first acquisitions in 2014, he went on to buy and turn around nine underperforming companies before founding Verdani Capital, where he continues to acquire and scale larger UK businesses. To date, Lee has completed 26 acquisitions across sectors such as Manufacturing, Professional Services, Construction, HVAC, and IT Services, supported by training from leading M&A mentors in the UK and US. His current portfolio generates over £2M in annual profit with a clear path toward £10M, strengthened by three strategic exits in 2024. Grounded in spirituality and conscious leadership, Lee combines substance, strategy, and long-term thinking in every partnership.
Website - https://www.leeasmith.co.uk/
--
The Exit—Presented By Flippa: A 30-minute podcast featuring expert entrepreneurs who have been there and done it. The Exit talks to operators who have bought and sold a business. You’ll learn how they did it, why they did it, and get exposure to the world of exits, a world occupied by a small few, but accessible to many. To listen to the podcast or get daily listing updates, click on flippa.com/the-exit-podcast/
All content for The Exit - Presented By Flippa is the property of The Exit - Presented By Flippa and is served directly from their servers
with no modification, redirects, or rehosting. The podcast is not affiliated with or endorsed by Podjoint in any way.
Want a quick estimate of how much your business is worth?
With our free valuation calculator, answer a few questions about your business, and you’ll get an immediate estimate of the value of your business.
You might be surprised by how much you can get for it: https://flippa.com/exit
--
In this episode of The Exit Podcast, host Steve sits down with Lee Smith, an acquisition entrepreneur at Verdani Capital with 12 years of M&A experience. Lee shares hard-won lessons from acquiring 20+ businesses and reveals what buyers really look for when evaluating companies for acquisition.
KEY TOPICS COVERED:
The #1 Red Flag Buyers See (And How to Fix It)
Lee reveals why owner-dependency kills deals and how to build transferability into your business 2-3 years before exit
Inside the Valuation Process
Real multiples for blue-collar businesses (2-4x true profit, not EBITDA) and why adjusted earnings can backfire
Deal Structure That Works
How Lee structures acquisitions to align incentives: buying 60-80% stakes with future upside potential that often doubles the founder's payday
The Biggest Deal Mistakes
From buying distressed companies to discovering hidden equity agreements 30 minutes before closing—lessons learned the hard way
The £1 Business Acquisition Strategy
How Lee has purchased 20 businesses for just one pound, including a remarkable turnaround that saved a founder from £500K in debt
When Concentration Risk Isn't a Deal-Breaker
Strategic approaches to handling clients that represent 60-70% of revenue, including key customer clauses in SPAs
Building Trust in M&A Deals
Why "two ears, one mouth" matters more than spreadsheets when structuring successful acquisitions
The EOS Framework for Integration
Using simple systems to manage acquired businesses without disrupting teams or culture
--
Lee Smith is a values-driven entrepreneur and dealmaker with more than 25 years of experience and a respected track record in UK M&A. After completing his first acquisitions in 2014, he went on to buy and turn around nine underperforming companies before founding Verdani Capital, where he continues to acquire and scale larger UK businesses. To date, Lee has completed 26 acquisitions across sectors such as Manufacturing, Professional Services, Construction, HVAC, and IT Services, supported by training from leading M&A mentors in the UK and US. His current portfolio generates over £2M in annual profit with a clear path toward £10M, strengthened by three strategic exits in 2024. Grounded in spirituality and conscious leadership, Lee combines substance, strategy, and long-term thinking in every partnership.
Website - https://www.leeasmith.co.uk/
--
The Exit—Presented By Flippa: A 30-minute podcast featuring expert entrepreneurs who have been there and done it. The Exit talks to operators who have bought and sold a business. You’ll learn how they did it, why they did it, and get exposure to the world of exits, a world occupied by a small few, but accessible to many. To listen to the podcast or get daily listing updates, click on flippa.com/the-exit-podcast/
The Hustler’s Playbook: Peter Korbel’s Journey from Food Trucks to a Tech Acquisition
The Exit - Presented By Flippa
37 minutes 9 seconds
1 month ago
The Hustler’s Playbook: Peter Korbel’s Journey from Food Trucks to a Tech Acquisition
--
Want a quick estimate of how much your business is worth?
With our free valuation calculator, answer a few questions about your business, and you’ll get an immediate estimate of the value of your business.
You might be surprised by how much you can get for it: https://flippa.com/exit
--
In this episode of The Exit, serial entrepreneur Peter Korbel shares how a decade of reinvention, from running a colorful D.C. food truck to founding a Manhattan coworking space, ultimately led him to build and sell Storrmy, an on-demand luggage storage startup acquired by London-based Stasher.
Peter reveals how Storrmy began with a simple frustration: nowhere to drop off his gym bag or Airbnb guests’ luggage. Armed with hustle and $500K in seed funding, he personally signed up 100 stores on foot, grew to over 600 partner locations across the U.S., and turned a profit within a year. But when COVID-19 hit, travel stopped overnight. Rather than quit, Peter rebuilt, and positioned Storrmy for acquisition by a competitor he’d nurtured a relationship with for years.
His exit story blends sharp business instincts with deep personal reflection, including the loss of his father and the importance of staying organized, transparent, and resilient. Today, Peter channels those lessons into 135 Madison, his consulting firm helping founders raise capital, and his new Substack, Startup Anatomy. His advice: “It’s all a hustle. Every lesson compounds if you just keep going.”
--
Peter Korbel is a seasoned business consultant and tech founder with over 15 years of startup experience, known for turning bold ideas into thriving ventures. With one successful exit to his name, he’s launched and led companies including Washington D.C.’s first food-truck operation, one of the world’s earliest on-demand luggage storage platforms, and Blender Workspace, a high-end co-working hub for entrepreneurs in New York City. A Columbia University graduate with an MBA from The George Washington University, Peter now advises founders and investors across Manhattan and the Bay Area, blending sharp strategy, creative execution, and an unmatched entrepreneurial network.
Website - https://www.135madison.com/
--
The Exit—Presented By Flippa: A 30-minute podcast featuring expert entrepreneurs who have been there and done it. The Exit talks to operators who have bought and sold a business. You’ll learn how they did it, why they did it, and get exposure to the world of exits, a world occupied by a small few, but accessible to many. To listen to the podcast or get daily listing updates, click on flippa.com/the-exit-podcast/
The Exit - Presented By Flippa
Want a quick estimate of how much your business is worth?
With our free valuation calculator, answer a few questions about your business, and you’ll get an immediate estimate of the value of your business.
You might be surprised by how much you can get for it: https://flippa.com/exit
--
In this episode of The Exit Podcast, host Steve sits down with Lee Smith, an acquisition entrepreneur at Verdani Capital with 12 years of M&A experience. Lee shares hard-won lessons from acquiring 20+ businesses and reveals what buyers really look for when evaluating companies for acquisition.
KEY TOPICS COVERED:
The #1 Red Flag Buyers See (And How to Fix It)
Lee reveals why owner-dependency kills deals and how to build transferability into your business 2-3 years before exit
Inside the Valuation Process
Real multiples for blue-collar businesses (2-4x true profit, not EBITDA) and why adjusted earnings can backfire
Deal Structure That Works
How Lee structures acquisitions to align incentives: buying 60-80% stakes with future upside potential that often doubles the founder's payday
The Biggest Deal Mistakes
From buying distressed companies to discovering hidden equity agreements 30 minutes before closing—lessons learned the hard way
The £1 Business Acquisition Strategy
How Lee has purchased 20 businesses for just one pound, including a remarkable turnaround that saved a founder from £500K in debt
When Concentration Risk Isn't a Deal-Breaker
Strategic approaches to handling clients that represent 60-70% of revenue, including key customer clauses in SPAs
Building Trust in M&A Deals
Why "two ears, one mouth" matters more than spreadsheets when structuring successful acquisitions
The EOS Framework for Integration
Using simple systems to manage acquired businesses without disrupting teams or culture
--
Lee Smith is a values-driven entrepreneur and dealmaker with more than 25 years of experience and a respected track record in UK M&A. After completing his first acquisitions in 2014, he went on to buy and turn around nine underperforming companies before founding Verdani Capital, where he continues to acquire and scale larger UK businesses. To date, Lee has completed 26 acquisitions across sectors such as Manufacturing, Professional Services, Construction, HVAC, and IT Services, supported by training from leading M&A mentors in the UK and US. His current portfolio generates over £2M in annual profit with a clear path toward £10M, strengthened by three strategic exits in 2024. Grounded in spirituality and conscious leadership, Lee combines substance, strategy, and long-term thinking in every partnership.
Website - https://www.leeasmith.co.uk/
--
The Exit—Presented By Flippa: A 30-minute podcast featuring expert entrepreneurs who have been there and done it. The Exit talks to operators who have bought and sold a business. You’ll learn how they did it, why they did it, and get exposure to the world of exits, a world occupied by a small few, but accessible to many. To listen to the podcast or get daily listing updates, click on flippa.com/the-exit-podcast/
