Acquisition Lab members together at the annual summit

The home of acquisition entrepreneurship

Search, fund, buy, and operate in one place. Start for free. Join when you’re ready for more support.

Attendees at an Acquisition Lab summit session, seated at round tables and listening to a speaker

Learn. Decide. Search.

Learn what it takes to buy a business

At the Lab, most of what you need to understand the acquisition path is available here for free. Read the library, use the tools, and search on-market businesses across the US before deciding whether you need to go deeper.

Learn

FREE

Learn the fundamentals, work through a full syllabus, and build a clearer view of the acquisition process before you pay for anything. No email address or signup required.

Browse the library →

Find a Business

COMING SOON

Search every on-market deal in the US from one place, with listings pulled from 500+ broker mailing lists and 320+ listing sites. Free users see full details after 30 days. Lab members see them the day a deal lists.

What we offer

One place for the whole acquisition journey

Most buyers have to assemble the support around an acquisition as they go. At the Lab, everything works together from the start.

FREE

Learn

Free education for everyone. Members add live onboarding and classroom support.

Learn more →
COMING SOON

Find a business

Every on-market deal in one search. Members see full details the day a deal lists.

THE FLAGSHIP

The Lab

Where the real deal work happens. Members get deeper access to Advisors, sourcing, and everything else under this roof.

Learn more →
Optional

Fund

Optional funding for qualified buyers and deals. Pitch a live acquisition or secure committed capital before you search.

Learn more →
Optional

Operate

A finance and back-office team for new owners, starting before close and continuing after the transition.

Learn more →
Free

Events

Meet acquisition entrepreneurs in person. Join free roundtables, quarterly meetups, or the annual summit.

Learn more →

Most of what we offer is available for free. Joining the Lab adds the programs, experts and extra support to your ETA journey.

The Flagship

Test the deal before you bet your house on it

The Lab gives you people to call when the deal gets real. Advisors, members, sourcing support, and a vetted deal team can help you test the opportunity before you commit capital and risk.

Selective, both ways

The Lab is selective because membership only works when the people in it are serious about buying.

Every applicant talks with a Member-Owner, and either side can decide the fit is not there yet.

Transparency first

The Lab is not built to make money from keeping you in the funnel.

Membership runs at breakeven, Advisors have no stake in your close, and our profit comes later through optional Fund and Operate services.

See how the Lab makes money →

Built for buyers who want to own & operate a business

The Lab is for you if

  • You’ve decided to buy and operate a business
  • You expect to acquire within roughly 12 to 24 months
  • You have the time and capital to follow through
  • You plan to operate the business after you close

We aren’t a good fit if

  • You want passive income without running the company
  • You’re buying because you dislike your current job
  • You want to move fast regardless of deal quality
  • You’re not fully committed to acquisition as your path to ownership

Still deciding? Meet Lab members at a live roundtable.

Buying a business is hard, but doing it alone is harder

Bring the hard questions to people who have seen them before. Members share what they know, and Advisors challenge the deal. Nobody needs you to close.

Our community is invested in every member’s success. We even invest in some member businesses.

Get on the same page with serious buyers

Members begin with a shared foundation for evaluating deals, which makes it easier to compare notes and get useful answers when the search gets real.

See real deals in progress

Real deals get discussed while they are still live, so you can see how other buyers evaluate risk, question assumptions, and decide whether to keep going.

Search without a hard deadline

A longer search does not cost you more. Lab membership lasts for life, so there is no financial deadline pushing you toward the wrong business.

What members say

Ask the people who have been through it

"That very healthy challenge of, 'Are you sure you want to do this?' And, 'Here are all the reasons why you shouldn't and how it could go wrong,' really built confidence in me."

Jeremy Fremin bought a decades-old, family-run crane repair business on his first LOI. Lab members helped him test the deal from every angle so he could close with confidence. Read Jeremy’s story

"Without the Lab, I never would've had the guts to pull this off."

Scott Meier bought Budsies and runs it today. His whole story is on film, start to finish. Read Scott’s story

Want the unvarnished truth? Join a roundtable and ask members about their experience.

We were here before the category got crowded

Buy Then Build was published in 2018. Acquisition Lab opened in 2019. We were helping up-and-coming entrepreneurs before most of today’s gurus and masterminds showed up.

AS FEATURED IN

  • Forbes
  • MIT
  • Inc.
  • Entrepreneur
  • Fast Company
  • Harvard Business Review

Why we built it this way

Buying a business is the largest financial bet most people will ever make, and most of what surrounds a first-time buyer is built to profit from the dream rather than the deal. Courses, done-for-you shops, and list builders all profit whether you ever become an owner or not. Acquisition Lab was built the other way around. The education is free to everyone. So are the decision tools and the platform that gathers on-market deals from hundreds of sources. Learn, decide, and search before anyone asks you for anything.

The Lab was never a course. It is a vetted community of capable professionals who have committed to buying, a standing board of advisors who will talk you out of a bad deal as readily as into a good one, capital for member deals, and a back office for after you close. The advisors are paid hourly, with no stake in whether you close. One public fee, paid once, for life. The fee runs the Lab at breakeven, and the Lab profits later, through fund equity and the back office, only after you own a good business.

We are an open book, just talk to our members. And there is no clock. Walking away from a hundred wrong deals costs nothing here. Buying the wrong business costs everything, anywhere. The only failure we recognize is the wrong business, so nobody in the Lab earns a dollar by keeping you dreaming.

Choose your people.

The bet is yours

Choose your people