Looking for Feedback/Advice

Hi all! A few questions that I'd love any guidance/feedback on. As a background, my brother and I have been searching for about a year, and have had a few heartbreaks on the way (as I assume most people here have). We are hitting an inflection point where we may want to dive into a more targeted search. I am a corporate/finance attorney (with a B.S. in Psychology and a JD/MBA) and he is a supply chain/manufacturing consultant (with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering). Our long-term goal is to have a family-office structure with multiple companies. But landing the first one has been tough, in part because the operator will need about $150-200k salary to comfortably transition. Any guidance would be greatly appreciated. 1. Industry We've put offers in on various companies including a machine tool dealer, custom cabinetry, commercial cleaning, class-based fitness, etc. In other words, we're effectively industry agnostic so long as it isn't a sophisticated enterprise (i.e., geotechnical engineering, construction, etc.). Do you think this is the correct approach? Are there any industries you'd advise we lean towards, as well as industries we should avoid. Any guidance would be greatly appreciated. 2. Deal Size/Financing (I know it can be touchy discussing personal financials... but they're a critical component to our analysis, so its difficult to ask for advice without giving advisors full information) In the last year, our financial situation has drastically improved (thank you Sandisk and Vertiv!!!!!!!!)... we began effectively capped out around 200k total for a down payment, and now could probably come up with about 400k (for the right company). Our unsecured asset base has also increased from about 800k to 1.2/1.3MM (i.e., we can now probably tap into a personal line for about 7-800k). We initially thought an SBA loan made the most sense, and have our pre approvals there... we planned on swinging for a 2MM+ company, but now that we have more capital to play around with, we're starting to think maybe we just get a clean 200-300k SDE company for under 1MM, knowing our asset base can cover that. The only dilemma is that the operator likely needs 150k minimum salary. How would you advise us to proceed? Do we take a big swing on a highly leveraged buyout with insufficient assets beyond the business to cover us in a downturn? Do we go the search fund route and maybe even take a larger swing (and if so, please advise)? Or do we play it safe, ignore golden handcuffs, keep building our combined net worth and then use that as an asset base to buy a more modest company (where the operator may not initially make 200k)? W/r/t a search fund, I'd also love to know what everyone's thoughts are on how easy/difficult it would be to secure funds here. We both went to Ohio State for undergrad, but my JD/MBA is from Capital University... I know a lot of search funds want searchers with more academic acumen. Thank you all so much in advance for all of your guidance!