Bought The Biz

Episode 24 | Garth Fasano with guest, George Vallone What happens when you buy a tiny business in the middle of a global mess and turn it into a scalable growth engine? In this episode of Bought the Biz, Garth sits down with George Vallone, owner of Nuveldy's Apartment Turnover Services, to unpack the real story behind buying a small cleaning business in 2021 and transforming it into a specialized...

Episode 23 | Christi Loucks with guest, Karl Hughes In this episode of Bought the Biz, Christi Loucks interviews Karl Hughes, founder of Draft.dev and owner of The Podcast Consultants. Karl explains why he prefers the "buy vs. build" strategy, choosing to acquire his podcasting company to skip years of startup grind and instantly gain 80 client relationships. He also shares why "asset-light" digit...

Episode 22 | Christi Loucks In this solo episode, Christi reflects on a season of life that's stretching her in every direction: five months pregnant, raising a toddler, and running two businesses. After reading Toxic Grit by Amanda Goetz, she finally found language for a feeling she couldn't shake: the pressure women feel to do it all, and the realization that most versions of ambition were never...

Episode 21 | Garth Fasano & Christi Loucks Banks love pro formas. Operators pay for them. In this episode, Garth and Christi pull up the exact pro forma Garth used to get his SBA loan approved and explain where it worked, where it broke, and which assumptions were quietly wrong from day one. They talk through the numbers he nailed, the risks he underestimated, and the realities no spreadsheet capt...

Episode 20 | Garth Fasano & Christi Loucks with guest, Evan Stewart Buying the business is the easy part. Leading it is not. In this episode of Bought the Biz, Garth and Christi sit down with Evan Stewart, owner and CEO of Direct One, a 70+ employee commercial print and direct mail company. Evan shares what it really felt like stepping into a production-heavy business, realizing he was the least k...

Episode 19 | Garth Fasano When I bought Top Dog, I thought I was buying a boring, predictable business. A classic ETA play. What I actually bought was responsibility—hundreds of thousands of dollars in payroll, outcome-based contracts, and no safety net. In this episode of Bought the Biz, I walk through the early days after acquisition, the mistakes I made as a first-time operator, and the moments...

Episode 18 | Christi Loucks with guest, Raj Kankaria Getting laid off and served divorce papers in the same moment usually ends a chapter. For Raj Kankaria, it started one. In this episode of Bought the Biz , Raj shares how personal chaos forced clarity and ultimately pushed him into buying and scaling Lone Star Attorney Service. We unpack the real operator lessons that don't show up in glossy acq...

Episode 17 | Garth Fasano & Christi Loucks In this episode of Bought the Biz, Garth is in the hot seat. After acquiring a cash flowing call center business through a traditional ETA search, Garth made a decision that most operators never plan for and many would avoid. He transformed the business from a people heavy services company into an AI powered SaaS platform. Garth and Christi walk through t...

Episode 16 | Garth Fasano & Christi Loucks So was an MBA actually worth it if your goal is to buy and run a business? In this episode of Bought the Biz, Garth and Christi unpack the real value of business school through the lens of entrepreneurship through acquisition. Drawing from very different MBA experiences, they talk candidly about what translated into ownership and what simply did not once...

Episode 15 | Garth Fasano & Christi Loucks Cash flow is where the theory of small business ownership meets reality. In this episode of Bought the Biz, Garth and Christi dig into one of the most uncomfortable but unavoidable parts of owning a business: getting paid. They unpack working capital, late payments, collections, unpredictable revenue, and what it really feels like to manage payroll and pe...

Episode 14 | Garth Fasano & Christi Loucks When you buy a small business, you don't just inherit customers and revenue. You inherit habits, unwritten rules, and some truly bizarre surprises. In this episode of Bought the Biz, Garth and Christi reflect on the strange, funny, and occasionally uncomfortable things they discovered after stepping into ownership. From nonexistent holiday policies and gl...

Episode 13 | Garth Fasano & Christi Loucks with guest, Marci LaRouech In this episode of Bought the Biz, Garth and Christi sit down with Marci LaRouech, the new owner and CEO of Seay HR, a sixty-year-old HR consulting firm. Marci opens up about the emotional shift that hits the morning after closing a deal—the moment when the weight of ownership settles back onto your shoulders. For Marci, that we...

Episode 12 | Garth Fasano & Christi Loucks In this episode of Bought the Biz, Garth and Christi get uncomfortably honest about pricing. How do you know when it is time to raise prices, change your model, or simplify your packages. How do you do it in a small business where every client and every dollar feels personal. They compare complex outcome based and consumption models with simple retainers,...

Episode 11 | Garth Fasano & Christi Loucks   In this episode of Bought the Biz, Garth and Christi break down what they wish they had known before signing their acquisition documents. From surprise lender pullouts and nineteen percent debt to due-diligence must haves and emotional landmines, they share the real pre close challenges that don't make it into the search fund playbooks. They walk throug...

Episode 10 | Garth Fasano & Christi Loucks   New owners walk into a maze of legacy tools, habits, and hidden dependencies. Garth and Christi unpack how to triage urgent vs important, when to keep a "weird" CRM config, why email deliverability and payments can sink you, and how to pace org and process changes without breaking morale. Practical tactics include deep-slice audits, choosing platforms v...

Episode 9 | Garth Fasano & Christi Loucks with guests Joe Comer & Kurt Oleson What happens when one leader steps in from the outside and another grows from within—then they become co-owners? In this episode, the CEO and COO of Custom Channels share how they navigated that transition, set priorities, and made meaningful change without losing momentum. It's a story about collaboration, clarity, and...

Episode 8 | Garth Fasano & Christi Loucks Garth and Christi get candid about blending parenthood with small business ownership. Christi shares the timing whiplash of buying a company, doing IVF, and having Wyatt one year to the day after close, plus what it means to add baby number two while her husband is running his own mountain operations business. Garth opens up about long hours, raising a see...

Episode 7 | Garth Fasano & Christi Loucks with guest, Jason Trinka Garth and Christi sit down with Jason Trinka, the longtime operator and GM of Top Dog, before and after the acquisition. They unpack the messy middle of a surprise transition where Jason learned about the sale after close and chose to lean in rather than walk away. The conversation traces how trust was built through autonomy, authe...

Episode 6 | Garth Fasano & Christi Loucks Everyone dreams of being the CEO — setting strategy, driving vision, and leading from the top. But for small business owners and ETA operators, the reality looks very different. In this episode, Garth and Christi pull back the curtain on what it really means to run a business day-to-day: rebuilding CRMs, managing payroll surprises, rewriting comp plans, an...

Episode 5 | Garth Fasano with guest Quintin Graves What happens when your dream acquisition suddenly bleeds $50K a month? In this episode of Bought the Biz , Garth talks with Quintin Graves, owner of Scout Security in Denver, about the rollercoaster ride of buying and running a business. From hustling his way into an off-market deal to hiring (and losing) a GM, facing down terrifying negative cash...

Episode 4 | Garth Fasano and Christi Loucks In this episode of Bought the Biz , Garth and Christi pull back the curtain on the emotional roller coaster of running a small business after acquisition. From the thrill of landing a marquee billion-dollar client to the gut-punch of losing customers in the same hour, they dive into the highs and lows that define entrepreneurship through acquisition. Chr...

Episode 3 | Garth Fasano and Christi Loucks Buying a business means you inherit more than revenue—you inherit people, culture, and relationships that didn't choose you. In this episode, Garth and Christi dive into the messy, rewarding process of building trust with an existing team after acquisition. From navigating cultural differences across continents to rethinking compensation, shifting compan...

Episode 2 | Garth Fasano and Christi Loucks You finally own it. Now the record scratches. Garth and Christi unpack the real first weeks after close. How to plan your internal comms, announce to a leadership team before the all hands, pace one on ones, coordinate with the seller, and choose the right timing for customer announcements. Virtual setup choices, culture signals, and why transparency bea...

Episode 1 | Garth Fasano and Christi Loucks In this episode, we set the stage for Bought the Biz by exploring the real leap from searcher to operator. Yes, there are the highs of meeting customers and shaping strategy — but there are also the surprises, like spending weeks just figuring out payroll and compliance across 20 states. This show is about those lessons. The goal is to help new owners an...