Podcast Summary: Acquiring Minds – "Getting Unstuck by Buying a Business"

Host: Will Smith
Guest: Christian Bateson
Date: December 22, 2025

Overview

In this episode of Acquiring Minds, host Will Smith interviews Christian Bateson, who shares his journey from the depths of professional and personal misery in the finance world to finding autonomy and fulfillment as the owner of a construction cleaning business. Christian dives deep into his background, the emotional struggles that led him to entrepreneurship, the nuances of buying and operating small businesses, and reflects on both his successes and lessons learned from a less successful acquisition. The episode serves as a candid testament to the transformative power—and challenges—of entrepreneurship through acquisition.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. From Wall Street to Rock Bottom

• Background (03:15–10:00)
  • Raised in a large, blue-collar family in rural New Mexico; received scholarship to Phillips Academy, then attended Dartmouth.
  • Seduced by Wall Street following college; worked in M&A at Bear Stearns (1999–2002), traveled the world, returned to work in derivatives.
  • At 31, earned nearly $1M in 2007—"obscene amounts of money"—but felt unsatisfied.
  • Bear Stearns goes bankrupt; Christian loses job at JP Morgan amid the 2008 crisis while expecting a first child and sees "no bid for [his] job skills."
    • Memorable moment: "I was 32. I had a pregnant wife ... There was really no bid for my job skills at that point." (12:33)
  • Experiences the bubble bursting first hand, reflecting on the insular mindset of finance.

2. Decade of Grind and Growing Unhappiness

• Transition to Sales (16:27–23:00)
  • Joins Imperial Capital as a distressed debt salesman—an ill-fitting, high-pressure role.
  • Struggles with substance abuse, sleep deprivation, and a toxic work environment.
  • Learns valuable, if difficult, lessons in sales and the grind of "learning by failure."
  • Hard-won advice: "You learn more from failure than you do from success." (19:09)
  • Experiences betrayal over commissions, learns important lessons in management and ethics:
    • "Nothing leads to rationalization of bad actions more than money does." (26:09)
  • Emotional and physical toll of the job leads to a personal low—"the darkest hour."

3. Discovery of Acquisition Entrepreneurship

• Turning Point (28:39–32:38)
  • Discovers BizBuySell via a friend, stunned by the economics of small business acquisition.
  • Practical lessons learned about business downside from years trading distressed assets.
  • Realizes buying a business is a viable path out of misery: "If I buy a business and it goes bankrupt... I won't feel worse than I do now, so what the hell?" (31:26)
  • Moves to Atlanta for a better business environment with wife and young children.

4. Searching for the Right Business

• The Acquisition Process (34:45–41:54)
  • Favors service businesses with stability, daytime work hours, physical aspects, and simple operations.
  • Conducts a disciplined search: avoids tech, retail, and overly fast-growth scenarios.
  • Emphasizes importance of jurisdiction: Georgia is "one of the easiest" states for a small business.
  • Finds "Resolute Construction Cleanup Services" on BizBuySell; negotiates the price over six months, holding strong on terms and leveraging negotiation lessons from trading days.

5. Deal Structure & Financials

• Transaction Details (49:26–54:14)
  • Deal Stats: 2018 revenue ~$2.5M, ~$500k SDE. Purchased at $1.5M (plus $500k AR), financed with an SBA loan (10 years, prime+2.5%), $411k equity.
  • Key insight: Use of a stock purchase over asset purchase to preserve long-standing contracts—sometimes against "standard" recommendations.
  • Advice: Be patient, avoid defined timelines, and recognize the variety among SBA lenders.

6. First Five Years: Growth, Crisis, and Leadership

• Operating Lessons (55:08–68:39)
  • Year One: Overwhelmed, but energized. Emphasizes freedom and agency as a business owner.
    • "The way I would describe it ... when you have a boss ... you die just a little bit inside. ... I never feel that way anymore." (56:04)
  • COVID-19: Revenue down 30% in 2020, but business survives due to low variable costs and PPP/SBA support.
  • Rapid growth post-pandemic. 2023 revenue rises to $3.75M; projected $7.5M for 2024 after landing a transformative data center contract.
  • Stresses importance of granting field managers autonomy, inspired by military leadership philosophies and "Extreme Ownership" (Jocko Willink).

7. Human Nature, Team, and Communication

• People Management (69:17–76:53)
  • Honest about discomfort managing field teams and gaps in personal style vs. front-line employee culture.
  • Bridges language and cultural divides (he is fluent in Spanish, which is an asset with his workforce).
  • Strives to combine "playing to his strengths"—finance, operations, communication—while pushing himself into discomfort for growth.
    • "I try to put myself in uncomfortable situations more and more ... because that's where personal growth comes from." (76:53)

8. Second Acquisition – Not All Milk and Honey

• Learning from Mistakes (81:22–101:48)
  • Acquires an $800k janitorial business for $625k; ignoring red flags about key-person risk and lack of management bench.
  • Experiences rapid revenue decline post-COVID as demand falls and critical founder leaves.
  • Lesson: "Don't ever buy a service business unless it has a manager."
  • Despite challenges, keeps business afloat, but reflects on importance of not forcing a deal.
    • "You never can tell how good or bad [a business] is until you buy it ... You just have to kind of keep grinding and ... never give up." (101:08)

9. Philosophy, Finance, and Life Balance

• Reflection and Advice (103:17–109:55)
  • Aspires to $100M in revenue and $10M in EBITDA, but acknowledges the ambiguity of goals: "I could retire now and be very happy. But like, I love what I do… the money is just like a way to keep score." (105:52)
  • Emphasizes the advantage of real-world, "gray hair" experience in running a business; sees humility and life lessons as core to success.
  • Recommends that owning a small business is "the most positively life changing career thing you can do," if you’re ready to accept the risk.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On hitting rock bottom:
  "It can't be worse than this, right? If I buy a business and it goes bankrupt and I have to file bankruptcy, like, I won't feel worse than I do now, so what the hell, you know, I have no downside." – Christian (31:26)
• On learning from failure:
  "You learn more from failure than you do from success." – Christian (19:09)
• On ethics in finance:
  "Nothing leads to rationalization of bad actions more than money does." – Christian (26:09)
• On autonomy as an owner:
  "I never feel that way anymore. If I'm gonna do something, I do it like 100% A plus Christian Bateson style, or I just say I'm not doing it … you get so much agency in your life." – Christian (56:04)
• On negotiating with sellers:
  "If I keep repeating my price, he's going to come down to my price. And that's exactly what happened." – Christian (39:54)
• On delegation and culture:
  "Tell [people] what to do, but don't tell them how to do it. Just like, make people figure things out, give them autonomy." – Christian (68:40)
• On being uncomfortable:
  "I like doing things that make me uncomfortable because that's where personal growth comes from." – Christian (76:53)
• On human nature and endless striving:
  "As you get closer to that number, the number just, just changes to a bigger number ... The money is just like a way to keep score." – Christian (106:51)
• On legacy and meaning:
  "My brother Jordan passed away at 40 years old of ALS ... what are you afraid of? ... you might as well live life to the fullest and grab onto it while you're here." – Christian (113:10)

Important Timestamps

• 03:15: Christian’s upbringing, scholarship, and Ivy League education
• 07:29: Wall Street career and fallout after 2008 crisis
• 16:27: Transition to sales and the grind at Imperial Capital
• 28:39: Discovery of acquisition entrepreneurship and BizBuySell
• 34:45: Search and criteria for the "right" business
• 49:26: Details of the Resolute acquisition and SBA financing
• 55:08: Year one of ownership—realities and empowerment
• 57:47: COVID crisis, business resilience
• 62:37: 2023 revenue, transformative contract, and new scale
• 69:17: Learning leadership, communication, and culture as an owner
• 81:22: Second acquisition—why it struggled and lessons learned
• 103:17: Personal philosophy, goal setting, and reflections on meaning

Suggestions, Reflections & Resources

Books Mentioned

• Shoe Dog (Phil Knight)
• Extreme Ownership (Jocko Willink)
• Meditations (Marcus Aurelius)
• Can't Hurt Me (David Goggins)

Advice for Listeners

• Be honest about your strengths and weaknesses. Play to your strengths but regularly push yourself into discomfort for growth.
• Don't force deals. The best acquisition is sometimes the one you don't do; avoid emotional attachment.
• Respect the power—and dangers—of leverage and downside risk.
• Finance skills help, but aren’t essential. Math and comfort with numbers are crucial, but the details can be learned or delegated (use Fractional CFOs as needed).
• Delegation is everything. Empower managers; don't micromanage. Push responsibility down the chain.
• The path isn't obvious—but it's incredibly rewarding. Buying a business can change your life, especially if you feel stuck.

Contact:
Christian welcomes outreach from aspiring entrepreneurs via LinkedIn or SearchFunder.

Closing Thought

"If you're willing to take a risk on the most positively life changing career thing you can do, then small business ownership is for you. It’s just a question of whether you’re ready." – Christian Bateson (112:26)