Acquiring Minds

Episode: Exiting for Millions vs. Long-Term Hold
Host: Will Smith
Guest: Don Grigg, CEO and Co-owner of Big Adventures
Date: February 16, 2026

Overview of the Episode

This episode explores the contrasting paths of buying, growing, and exiting a business for a transformational sum versus building a business into a lasting, values-driven, family enterprise. Don Grigg—who acquired two struggling manufacturing businesses in the early 2000s—shares his journey turning one into a multimillion-dollar exit and evolving the other into a thriving kayak manufacturer he still oversees today. The conversation is a deep dive into the realities of entrepreneurship through acquisition (ETA), the tough choices around exits, growth, and what truly brings fulfillment as an operator and owner.

Don Grigg's Background: From Operator to Acquirer

[05:33–14:07]

• Roots in Operations: Don started his post-MBA career running a small division in brick manufacturing, discovering a love for operations, direct impact, and hands-on management.
  • Quote: “I love being with the people in the plants, around the machinery, doing things, trying to understand how things work and how to try to make them better.” (07:08, Don Grigg)
• No Early Entrepreneurship Plan: Ownership wasn’t initially on Don’s mind. Becoming a business owner came organically from exposure and roadblocks in his career.
  • Quote: “Ownership was nowhere in my head. We, you know, just, I just wanted work that was running a small business.” (08:45, Don Grigg)
• Inspiration for Acquisition: Work with a private equity group exposed Don to business buying and sparked the idea of owning, though ETA/search wasn’t a recognized pathway at the time.

Taking the Leap: Searching Against Conventional Wisdom

[14:07–19:44]

• Personal Circumstances: By 2001, Don had three young children and had only personal savings to invest—no sponsors or external capital.
• Focus on Problem Companies: Lacking capital, Don targeted small, underperforming companies, despite what would today be contrarian advice.
  • Quote: “I had no sponsor and so I didn’t have no sponsor telling me that that was a bad idea also.” (18:10, Don Grigg)
• Key Criteria: The two companies he acquired in plastics had to be “fixable and scalable”—often a matter of luck as much as analysis.

The Two Acquisitions: Case Studies

[21:13–31:00]

1. Plastics Recycling Business

• 2002, Six Employees, ~$500K Revenue (losing money)
• Business premise: Recycled plastics for flower pot manufacturing.
• Early Surprises:
  • Capital equipment needed was pricier than expected.
  • Key potential customer was less creditworthy (and not as reliable) as due diligence suggested.
  • Quote: “As an mba, we’re trained to think that we can [fix any business], but... there are bad businesses and there are good businesses.” (18:59, Don Grigg)
• Don’s business plan was “in the trash within six months.”

2. Plastics Molding Business

• More Established: 18 Employees, ~$2M Revenue (also losing money)
• Core was custom molding for manufacturers, with an additional small in-house kayak business.
• The kayak division was tiny but “foreshadowed” what would become Don’s main business.

Both deals closed within six months and were about 1.5 hours apart, requiring Don to juggle significant hands-on management.

Turning Around and Exiting for Millions

[31:00–49:34]

Growth of the Recycling Business

• Don realized the actual bottleneck was not selling but securing supply—sourcing cheap, scrap plastic and refining it into usable feedstock.
  • Quote: “I learned that the trick to this whole business was figuring out where to source scrap and how to buy it cheap. Because if you could make it, you could sell it.” (35:36, Don Grigg)
  • Focused on scaling the business through more suppliers and additional washing capacity.
• Scale Achieved: From 6 employees to 50, revenues to ~$10M in just six years.

Exit and Reflections

• Exit: Sold to Illinois Tool Works after they made an unsolicited “offer we couldn’t refuse.” (44:56, Don Grigg)
• Personal Impact: Financially life-changing; employees and partners also benefited.
• Cultural Downside: Post-acquisition, the company became less creative, more standardized, and less profitable. Employee morale and culture suffered.
  • Quote: “It did feel like losing a family... it didn’t feel great, honestly, you know.” (50:12, Don Grigg)
  • “Once you sell out, often it doesn’t go great or potentially doesn’t go great. In that case, that’s what happened...” (50:12, Don Grigg)

Building a Life’s Work: Scaling the Kayak Business

[53:29–67:05]

The Alternative Path: Long-Term Hold

• Early Years: Focused on making the custom molding operation profitable and scaling the kayak product line.
  • Quote: “The first order of business in a custom business is to kind of make sure that it’s very job shopping, right? So you want to make sure that the jobs you’re working on are profitable.” (54:10, Don Grigg)
• Key Business Model Insights:
  • Custom molding: Sticky customers, very profitable only at scale, hard to grow new business.
  • Kayaks: Product business, allowed for expansion and brought scale to the factory.
• Resilience and Growth: Survived the 2009 recession; pursued growth by acquiring other kayak brands (2015: Native Watercraft, Liquid Logic; 2018: Bonafide Kayaks; 2022: Cool Tops Canopy).
  • Quote: “If you don’t have your toe in the water, nothing’s going to happen.” (63:54, Don Grigg)
• Current Scale: $15M+ in kayaks, $7M in custom molding, total employees ~110. (64:35)
• Staying Power: After 20+ years, Don remains focused on stability, people, and culture.

Core Reflections: Exiting vs. Holding

[67:05–75:22]

Personal Perspective

• Mission: Set up the business for long-term, stable, “soft” transitions between partners—eschewing a hard, private-equity-style exit. (67:37)
• Lessons on PE and Sponsored Search:
  • PE in lower-middle-market manufacturing is often a poor fit, struggling to balance profit extraction with the needs of niche businesses and their people. (70:01)
  • Sponsored search structures risk creating forced exits that may not serve the company, employees, or founder’s original intent. (72:13)

ETA as Life’s Work (and for Whom)

• “Search is about running a company, not buying a company then exiting a company five years later.” (72:43, Don Grigg)
• If drawn to the acquisition and deal: do PE; if operations and people motivate you: ETA can be deeply fulfilling.
  • Quote: “You can create a family business that reflects your values, that allows you to exercise your entrepreneurial gifts and creative energies... It’s incredibly rewarding and you can make that your life’s work.” (74:00, Don Grigg)
• Reality of the Job: “95% execution and 5% strategy... granular items, little blocking and tackling every day.” (74:00, Don Grigg)
• Don’s advice: “Get some experience with it.” (75:28, Don Grigg) Those with an operational background, especially in family or small business settings, tend to thrive.

Family Legacy: The Next Generation

[76:29–78:49]

• Don’s own children have recently bought a business together: Continuing the path inspired by their father’s example and now benefited by ETA popularity and community.
• Pride in “having built something that will outlive you,” and in a company known for its loyalty to employees and community.

Memorable Quotes & Timestamps

• “I love being with the people in the plants, around the machinery, doing things, trying to understand how things work and how to try to make them better.” — Don Grigg (07:08)
• “I had no sponsor… so I didn’t have... someone telling me that was a bad idea.” — Don Grigg (18:10)
• “As an MBA, we train ourselves to think that, you know, we can fix anything. But after a lot of experience... there are bad businesses and there are good businesses...” (18:59)
• “If you could make it, you could sell it.” — On the plastic recycling business' supply-driven nature (35:36)
• “It did feel like losing a family... it didn’t feel great, honestly, you know.” — On the downside of selling (50:12)
• “Search is about running a company, not buying a company and then exiting a company five years later.” (72:43)
• “You can create a family business that reflects your values... and you can make that your life’s work.” (74:00)

Important Segments & Timestamps

• Don’s Operators’ Journey — [05:33–14:07]
• Searching Without an Ecosystem/Sponsors — [14:07–19:44]
• The Two Acquisitions — [21:13–31:00]
• Turning Around and Exiting — [31:00–49:34]
• Long-Term Hold & Family Business Philosophy — [53:29–75:22]
• Family Legacy, Next Generation — [76:29–78:49]

Final Thoughts

Don Grigg’s story is a rare, candid account of both “dream” ETA exit and the sometimes more deeply rewarding reality of building a company for the long haul. Listeners are left with a nuanced understanding: while exiting for millions is possible, the true richness of ETA might come from creating a stable, values-driven enterprise—one measured by its culture and continuity, not just its sale price.

Find Don’s company:
Native Watercraft | Bonafide Kayaks

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