The Deal that Didn't (Fully) Die

Hello searchers!

A couple of months ago, a partner and I were under LOI for a business. Unfortunately, as many have experienced, all was not as it appeared once we got under the hood. We ended up walking away during due diligence. It was very disappointing, though we fortunately found the issues before we had gone too deep into our pockets. However, I got fairly discouraged and thought about 'the one that got away' fairly often.

Several months later however, the broker called me back and said he had found a different buyer, but was looking for a CEO to run the business. In many ways, it was tempting. The business had some good bones, but the finances didn't support much debt. I ended up going to meet with the buyer, who offered the position, as well as the opportunity to grow this business that I already understood well.

When I got home and talked to my wife about it, she pointed out that regardless of the title, I would just be taking another job. Without the power of ownership/equity & the lion's share of the upside, did I really want to work for the new buyer? Wasn't that defeating the point of search? Of course, she was right. I called the buyer and backed out of the deal, and dusted off the old search playbook.

Starting back over after a broken deal is hard, but the journey is still worth it.