How I Bought A Multi-Million Dollar Egg Carton Business For $0 | Sarah Moore Interview

1. 0:00 – 8:00

   Intro

   1. SPShaan Puri0:00

      All right, what's up? It's Shaan, and I'm gonna start by reading you a tweet that I did a year ago. It says, "I have a new hero, and her name is Sarah Moore." And the reason that Sarah Moore is my hero, and somebody that you've probably never heard of, is 'cause Sarah Moore was somebody who was a student in college that, uh, you know, she's in her m- young 20s. She has no money, no experience. Uh, the only thing she owned in her life was her car, a RAV4. And she hustled this crazy hustle story of how she basically decided, "I'm gonna buy a business even though I got nothing, nothing to my name." And she spends a year searching through 100,000 businesses, and she finds this niche business called Eggcartons.com. Uh, you- literally, this guy sells the carton that your eggs come in, and she bought this million, you know, multimillion-dollar business with all debt. Um, so she put no money in 'cause she didn't have any money [laughs] . And so, and then she had grown it a bunch since then, and I just said, "I think this is, like, a $20 million business that this woman bought," and, like, wow, what a hustler. So I told this hustle story on the podcast, and it kinda went viral. It blew up. Nobody had ever heard about this story before. She had done no interviews. She has no social media. She was like a ghost. And I, honestly, I didn't even know if it was true, 'cause it's one of these stories that's too good to be true. Uh, here's this cur- girl who comes from absolutely nothing. She talks about this in the interview. Like, she literally had no parents. She was in and out of jail as a kid. Like, she was just trouble. And then she has this turning point in her life that gave me goosebumps. She ends up paying somebody to take the SATs, so she gets into college. She hustles her way through college, uh, finds a way to buy this business, and it's this amazing success story, and two things happened. One, the story kinda went viral. She said that, like, Netflix and others reached out to her [laughs] after the episode went live, that people started showing up on her doorstep, asking them, asking her for advice on buying a business, and, like, honestly, it was kinda bad. Like, it was too much, and please don't do that again because she's like, "Dude, I'm trying to run a business. I don't even know you. You start telling my story, and this went crazy." And so a year later now, she's like, "Okay. At first, I was kind of like, 'Wow, this is crazy.' Then I was kind of annoyed and scared. Like, is this gonna mess up my business?" But then as she started to see the, you know, the upside of telling her story, and she was like, "Look, I still have no social media. I still do no interviews. But you kind of, you were very nice, and you told my story. I will agree to come on and do one interview." And so she's like, "After this, I'm one and done. But I'm gonna come on, and I'm gonna lay it all out there. I will tell you everything you wanna know about buying a business, how I did it, what I did, the good and the bad, all the mistakes that I made. Uh, I'll tell my kind of the life story part two that's the sort of, you know, made for TV. It's, it's, it's unbelievable, her life story along the way." And she's like, "I'm doing one interview, and then that's it. I'm disappearing after that." [laughs] And she did not disappoint. We just finished the recording. Uh, it's one of my favorite episodes we've ever done. She is somebody that I really admire, and I don't use that term lightly. Like, she is really a hustler, super genuine, and her story is, um, is frankly incredible. Like, it's not often I have goosebumps during an episode of a podcast. So enjoy this episode with Sarah Moore. [upbeat music] All right, today's episode is gonna be all about buying a business rather than starting a business. We usually talk about ideas that you should use to start a business. But as you know, like, um, one of our best, uh, friends of the house, Andrew Wilkinson, has told us many times, buying a business could be a better path. But, uh, how the hell do you actually do it? That is the question, and we're gonna talk to somebody who not only has done it, not only has done it successfully, but has really never told her story. You, Sarah Moore, you are basically not on the internet. Welcome to the internet because I first heard your story, and then I went Googling, and I couldn't find anything. You were a ghost. Uh, intentional or unintentional?

   2. SMSarah Moore3:54

      Very intentional. I'm a very private person, and I'm not a fan of public attention.

   3. SPShaan Puri3:59

      [laughs] Well-

   4. SMSarah Moore4:00

      You kinda blew up my spot though, so things have changed a bit.

   5. SPShaan Puri4:03

      Yeah, sorry about that. So we, a long time ago, I don't know wh- how, it was hundreds of episodes ago, um, I came on the pod and I said, "Hey, I got a story for you." I said, "I would love to have this person on as a, as a guest, but you can't find him on the internet." I said, "I think this is a kind of an incredible story." There's this woman who out of college, um, bought a most boring so- sounding business you could think of, Eggcartons.com. And I called you, like, the queen of, queen of cartons or something like that. And I was like, she's the, the queen of eggs, and she buys this business that some guy had been running for, like, 20 years, and, um, she's running it. She's growing it, and I was like, the way she did it with no money down, I was like, her story sounds really interesting. But again, there's literally one, like, text interview of you on the whole internet. So then I, I did, I emailed you and I said, "Hey, I'd love to have you come on." I don't think I got a reply or something.

   6. SMSarah Moore4:54

      Yeah.

   7. SPShaan Puri4:54

      But then I sent you a Google Doc and I said, "Look-

   8. SMSarah Moore4:57

      Right

   9. SPShaan Puri4:57

      ... I just have to know. I gotta kn- I, I need answers to these questions, just for my own personal curiosity." I sent you a Google Doc, and I said, "Just, can you just fill this out?" And to my surprise, you actually did. And so when I came on the pod and I told your story, suddenly a bunch of people were, were very interested in you, g- giving you a lot of attention, and, uh, correct me if I'm wrong, sometimes in not the most nice [laughs] nice way. It wasn't all good.

   10. SMSarah Moore5:20

       Yeah.

   11. SPShaan Puri5:20

       Is that right? [laughs]

   12. SMSarah Moore5:22

       That's correct. I've, I've come across quite the cast of characters.

   13. SPShaan Puri5:26

       And why do you, uh, what do you think, like, what do they say to you? Where, where, how are they finding you, and what do they say to you?

   14. SMSarah Moore5:31

       Some people beg me to talk to them for 15 minutes. They'll offer... Someone specifically offered me $500 for five minutes of my time, and it's crazy because I'm so irrelevant most days. I'm out in Su- in Massachusetts, so there's not much happening here. I'm kind of under the radar. And so all of a sudden, I've now gotten a ton of inquiries from people, and a lot of people want specific information. A lot of people are emailing to say, "Hey, I'm doing this exact thing. How do you get financing?" Or, "Can I get your opinion on this business deal?" Or, "I'm about to close. How did you get a bank to actually do your deal without putting much or any money down?"

   15. SPShaan Puri6:11

       Right, right. Well, hopefully, uh, hopefully this podcast tells your story in a good way, does not create even more, uh, people chasing you down. 'Cause we're just gonna tell all the answers right here so that people-

   16. SMSarah Moore6:21

       Exactly

   17. SPShaan Puri6:22

       ... everybody leave Sarah alone after this. [laughs]

   18. SMSarah Moore6:25

       Yes, ple- I'm serious. Please do not contact my business. You can email me or, or reach out to me on LinkedIn, but please do not contact my business or show up there for that matter.

   19. SPShaan Puri6:36

       Yeah, yeah. Definitely.

   20. SMSarah Moore6:36

       We've had a couple of those. A few stragglers.

   21. SPShaan Puri6:38

       [laughs] There's always a few stragglers. Unfortunately, there's always a few stragglers. Uh, it doesn't help that your story's kinda unique 'cause you didn't come from money, um, and we're gonna talk about that. You didn't know how to do this. It's not like you knew how to do this or you were an expert. You were a total beginner when you started, so that's appealing.

   22. SMSarah Moore6:54

       Yes. Yes.

   23. SPShaan Puri6:56

       Um, you're a woman doing this. I think that's m- more unique. Uh, so there's like, uh, and there's a whole bunch of, like, angles, and then you did it in a kind of a niche that sounds kind of like, you know, like boring businesses have become sexy now, and so you did it in a boring business. And so I think there's a bunch of reasons people are excited. But let's, let's start at the start. So-

   24. SMSarah Moore7:15

       Okay

   25. SPShaan Puri7:15

       ... let's just start with the high level. What did you actually do? You, uh, were in school and you decided, "I wanna buy a business." First tell us why did you decide that? How did you even know that that was a path you could go down?

   26. SMSarah Moore7:27

       Oh, boy. There's a lot of context here. So but to answer your question in the simplest of, of ways is I was between my first and second year of business school and I was talking to somebody about what they wanted to do afterwards and they mentioned something called a search fund, which is where you essentially can go out and buy some grungy business and become the CEO basically overnight without any money or experience. That was very appealing to me.

   27. SPShaan Puri7:54

       [laughs] You're like, "Hey, I fit that criteria. No money, no experience." [laughs]

   28. SMSarah Moore7:58

       Absolutely. Grungy businesses,

2. 8:00 – 14:30

   Why buy

   1. SMSarah Moore8:00

      sign me up. [upbeat music]

   2. SPShaan Puri8:04

      Our software is the worst.

   3. SPSpeaker8:06

      Have you heard of HubSpot? See, most CRMs are a cobbled-together mess. But HubSpot is easy to adopt and actually looks gorgeous.

   4. SPShaan Puri8:13

      I think I love our new CRM.

   5. SPSpeaker8:15

      Our software is the best. HubSpot. Grow better.

   6. SPShaan Puri8:19

      And so you hear this idea and you're like... What was your plan before that? Were you, did you have another plan or like did this replace something [laughs] or you just em- uh, put it in a, in a vacant spot?

   7. SMSarah Moore8:30

      So okay, we'll do a bit of storytelling here.

   8. SPShaan Puri8:33

      Yeah, please.

   9. SMSarah Moore8:34

      When, w- when I was in business school, there was a guy I was working on a project with, and he was incredibly responsive, almost annoyingly responsive, kind of one of those.

   10. SPShaan Puri8:44

       [laughs]

   11. SMSarah Moore8:44

       And I asked, "How are you so responsive all the time?" And he said, "Goldman," and he's referring to Goldman Sachs. And he said, "At Goldman Sachs, there was a rule of 15 minutes," meaning you had to respond to whatever form they reached out to you in within 15 minutes, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. And I said, "Okay, so what if you're in the shower?" "15 minutes."

   12. SPShaan Puri9:09

       Right.

   13. SMSarah Moore9:09

       "What if you're running a marathon?" "15 minutes."

   14. SPShaan Puri9:12

       [laughs]

   15. SMSarah Moore9:12

       "Christmas Day?" "15 minutes." And my favorite, "What if your wife is giving birth?" "15 fucking minutes."

   16. SPShaan Puri9:20

       [laughs]

   17. SMSarah Moore9:21

       And I mean, we laugh, but my, I worked my ass off to get into bus- to even graduate high school, I worked my ass off to be frank. And I'm thinking, "You went to an Ivy League undergrad. You're clearly off the charts intelligent. You have this amazing network of people. You come from money. You have everything that I don't. Why would you choose to essentially sign up to be, frank, someone else's bitch?" Like, I didn't say that to him-

   18. SPShaan Puri9:52

       Right

   19. SMSarah Moore9:52

       ... but that was my thinking. And so I had no idea what I wanted to do, but up until then, I was at HBS, Harvard Business School, trying to fit in with all of these people and sort of find my footing. And after that, I'm thinking, "I don't wanna be like these people. I don't want to do this. I don't wanna be a consultant. I don't wanna be a banker. This is so not me. And if I'm gonna be someone else's bitch, like, that's just not an option for me."

   20. SPShaan Puri10:20

       Right. [laughs] I'm only gonna be one person's bitch, and that's my own. [laughs]

   21. SMSarah Moore10:23

       Yeah.

   22. SPShaan Puri10:23

       That's every entrepreneur ever. There was a guy who, um-

   23. SMSarah Moore10:26

       Truly

   24. SPShaan Puri10:27

       ... there's a guy who we went to college with, he was our nextdoor neighbor in our dorms. Great guy, Sam Soley, and he went to work at, uh, same thing, Goldman or one of these, one of these banks. I don't even know what the hell that was. That's just a foreign world to me. I don't know. Sam's gone and he doesn't p- he, you know, he's busy now. He works 80 hours a week. And he, uh, he read our blog. We used to blog about how we were building our company, and we'd be like, "Yeah, we woke up, we did the, we had these calls and we were pitching this guy, and then we went for a hike," because we lived in Boulder, so, "We went for a hike in the middle of the day because that was awesome. Then we had an idea on the hike and we came back and did it." And it sounded so sexy. In reality, it was honestly pretty lame, but you know, it was like blogging was like social media. It's like Instagram back then. You make it look good. And so Sam quits his job and he moves into our, our bedroom, or moves into our, our, our living room. He lives on our couch, and he's like, "I'm gonna do this." I'm like, "Dude, you were making six figures. You're making zero figures here." And he's like, um, and he, he's like, "Yeah, but it's better." And we, we couldn't really understand the culture. And then he sent an email and we were like, "Hey, Sam, you said something in this email I've never heard before. What you said, 'Hey, can you get that to me ASAP or sooner?'" And I was like, "A- what do you mean ASAP or sooner? ASAP means as soon as possible." And he's like, "Oh, that's a banking thing. It's ASAP or sooner." I'm like, "What the fuck is sooner than ASAP?" [laughs] And I was like, "That's the mentality." I was like, "I get it. I get why you quit. I get why you're out of there because ASAP or sooner is not a way to live."

   25. SMSarah Moore11:47

       Not at all. I, and it honestly blows my mind. Again, given the pedigree of these people, you would think you would shoot for the moon here. You would wanna have this freedom in your life.

   26. SPShaan Puri11:56

       Right.

   27. SMSarah Moore11:56

       But you're literally choosing a form of enslavenet- enslavement in my opinion.

   28. SPShaan Puri12:01

       Right, right, right. Yeah, anytime, uh, you know, I think banking, consulting, these are often brain drains. The talent-

   29. SMSarah Moore12:06

       Exactly

   30. SPShaan Puri12:07

       ... really talented people go there because it's sort of, uh, safe, um, and, and it's like a well-respected path. But if you think about how much How many more cool, interesting things could be built or created if those same talented people went out and, and, and did more entrepreneurship? But you know, whatever. To each their own. So you hear that and you're like, "All right. I'm not gonna do that." And now you're, you hear this idea of buying a business. Okay, but where do you start? How do you even know how to start? And we're gonna go into your full backstory, but like the kind of the high school-
3. 14:30 – 16:00

   Step 1: Scrape the databases

   1. SMSarah Moore14:30

      scenario, literally worst case, I bring someone in midway. But why not at least give it a go on my own and see what happens?

   2. SPShaan Puri14:37

      Right. So what, so what did you do? You, you decide to go out on your own. Um, how do you go about it? What was your process?

   3. SMSarah Moore14:43

      Okay. So step one for me, I'm not built with technology and I didn't have any money, so step one is I'm gonna leverage what I've got around me, which is I'm now at, at a school with a bunch of smart people. So I had one of my smart friends scrape one of the databases with all the private companies within an hour and a half of my apartment in Boston. That's step one.

   4. SPShaan Puri15:05

      [laughs]

   5. SMSarah Moore15:05

      Yeah.

   6. SPShaan Puri15:06

      You're like-

   7. SMSarah Moore15:06

      [laughs]

   8. SPShaan Puri15:07

      You're like, "My criteria is it's an hour and a half away. [laughs] Tell me every private business in this area."

   9. SMSarah Moore15:11

      Truly. And the problem is with these databases, people think, "Oh, you've got all this great information." Not really. The, we estimated just by looking at some financials we actually knew about that the database was accurate about 50% of the time. Accurate meaning the owner's name is correct, the revenue's correct, the employee count, all of those metrics, because they're all self-reported.

   10. SPShaan Puri15:35

       Right.

   11. SMSarah Moore15:35

       So who's actually gonna give you accurate information knowing it could be public?

   12. SPShaan Puri15:40

       Right.

   13. SMSarah Moore15:40

       And so we tried to pare down the list by revenue, but we did it by a multiple of, like, 5X, meaning-

   14. SPShaan Puri15:47

       Mm-hmm

   15. SMSarah Moore15:47

       ... let's say a business, so for instance, the business I'd worked for previously, it said that business did a million dollars in revenue. The business is doing over $100 million in revenue.

   16. SPShaan Puri15:56

       [laughs] Right.

   17. SMSarah Moore15:57

       It, it, there's all this misinformation, but we tried

4. 16:00 – 18:00

   Step 2: Ignore the industry

   1. SMSarah Moore16:00

      to narrow it down somewhat. Anything over, I think, 100,000, or I'm sorry, $100 million we took off the list. Uh, revenue-wise, it was fair game.

   2. SPShaan Puri16:12

      Yeah.

   3. SMSarah Moore16:12

      After that, it was obvious things, and when I say obvious, I mean it, you have to be sure. So that would be a legal firm or an accounting firm or a 7-Eleven. Other than that, again, fair game because my business was actually under farming. So everything else you don't know, it's, it self-selected the industry. We kept the rest there. So we were still left with a pretty massive list of companies.

   4. SPShaan Puri16:37

      And you told me, by the way, you said one of your things is, like, you think industry is overrated. You think people over-index on, "Ah, I'm looking in this space. This is the niche. This is the industry I'm looking in." You don't believe in that and you didn't do that. Uh, wh- why do you think that's the case?

   5. SMSarah Moore16:50

      So initially, here's why. I, I think that from experience. Initially, I did what I think most people do, what investors actually require you to do. You sit there and you have thesis about the kind of industries that would be great businesses, and usually those industries have characteristics that make them stable, which is what you're looking for when you're buying a business with a lot of debt. And what I found is that the industries were absolutely irrelevant. What matters is that you find a business that is established and has been consistently profitable for a number of years. Everything else, garbage. There are so many businesses in amazing industries. Like, let's talk pest control, right? Great industry. You've got people that have pests. They're not gonna say, "You know what? Not a great year for me this year. I'm just gonna let my house be infested." Like, that's not really a thing.

   6. SPShaan Puri17:41

      Right.

   7. SMSarah Moore17:41

      It almost gives you, I think, industries, a false sense of security because you think, "Just 'cause I'm in this pest control business, I'm good," when you're really not. There's way more to it than that. And so what I've found is find a business that's established and consistently profitable. Forget the industry.

5. 18:00 – 22:00

   Step 3: Find a free workforce

   1. SMSarah Moore18:00

      'Cause people could say, "I'm in e-commerce."

   2. SPShaan Puri18:02

      Right.

   3. SMSarah Moore18:02

      So that's, that's a, this is an unstable industry. I worked in the steel industry. You would think that's an absolute hell no. Business I used to work for, it's a hell yeah. It's great, great business.

   4. SPShaan Puri18:12

      Right.

   5. SMSarah Moore18:13

      But industries would tell you otherwise.

   6. SPShaan Puri18:15

      Gotcha. So you didn't look top-down at industry. Instead, you were just like-

   7. SMSarah Moore18:18

      No

   8. SPShaan Puri18:18

      ... "Okay, I have this, you have this list." You remove the obvious outliers, businesses that are way too big for you to buy.

   9. SMSarah Moore18:24

      Exactly.

   10. SPShaan Puri18:24

       And now you have still an enormous list, and here you are, one person sitting on campus trying to sort through this. Um, so what was your approach? What'd you do?

   11. SMSarah Moore18:34

       Well, I wasn't a one-man show here, thank God, or I wouldn't have made it. I hired hella interns.

   12. SPShaan Puri18:39

       [laughs]

   13. SMSarah Moore18:40

       And it, it, I didn't mean for it to get as big as it did, but initially, I had five interns that worked for me, and we actually did the industry approach. We did the painstaking process of look, each intern had to give me 50 companies a week with... They were, they met my criteria. These companies, you found email addresses for, and then we contacted. And there were five-

   14. SPShaan Puri19:03

       But hang on, you had five interns, but you're a college student. You're an intern. What, how did you get-

   15. SMSarah Moore19:07

       Yeah

   16. SPShaan Puri19:07

       ... how does an intern have interns? What, what, what happened here?

   17. SMSarah Moore19:09

       So I made quite the pitch.

   18. SPShaan Puri19:11

       [laughs]

   19. SMSarah Moore19:12

       And the, truthfully, here's what it is. The... Oh, and I swear to you, like, I use what I learn searching every single day, and my interns tell me this all the time. We text each other about it all the time. Private equity, this is private equity, and private equity is an industry where they don't do free internships. You're more of a liability waste of their time than the free internship. So you're not gonna get a free internship at a private equity firm. You need to have actual skills. You need to have investment banking skills probably before you're even at their front door. And so this opportunity is, "Hey, you're gonna get private equity experience, and I'm gonna give you transparency into everything." I'm huge on transparency, so I created a conference line, and I said, "I'm gonna let every single person listen in on these calls whenever they want." So those were calls with all the owners, brokers, accountants, attorneys, anyone from HBS. Anyone that I contacted, my phone was basically tapped 24/7.

   20. SPShaan Puri20:11

       [laughs]

   21. SMSarah Moore20:11

       If you're interested in finance, this is very helpful, actually. I mean, who wouldn't want to... It's like you, Shaan. Sure people would, would, is weirdly enough, want to listen in on your calls when you're talking business, when you're doing business deals. You would learn a lot, I'm sure. So that's a huge portion of it, the learning.

   22. SPShaan Puri20:28

       Ben Graham told Warren Buffett... Warren Buffett was, he admired Benjamin Graham, and he wanted to go work for him, and he said, "I'll work for you for..." Warren Buffett says, "I'll work for you for free." And Ben Graham goes, "Your price is too high."

   23. SMSarah Moore20:39

       [laughs]

   24. SPShaan Puri20:39

       And, um, because it, it, you're right. It's the time, the energy. So for, for, for a lot of people, they're not even g- they're gonna say no to a free, uh, for, to somebody who's willing to work for free because the time and energy it takes to train somebody and give them that access is too expensive, um, relative-

   25. SMSarah Moore20:55

       Exactly

   26. SPShaan Puri20:56

       ... to the free labor. But you were smart. You made it a different... You were in the opposite position. You're like, "I do need help. I do need free labor." And, um, you rebranded yourself as private equity, which technically you were, but-

   27. SMSarah Moore21:08

       Absolutely.

   28. SPShaan Puri21:09

       [laughs]

   29. SMSarah Moore21:09

       Private equity, for sure.

   30. SPShaan Puri21:11

       [laughs] It's like, "Where's your office?" It's like, "It's in the cafeteria. We sit at this table, and that's my office." Um, all right, so you start-
6. 22:00 – 25:00

   Step 4: Mass outreach

   1. SPShaan Puri22:00

      doing this, the math ain't mathin'. It just doesn't work. You can't get through this list.

   2. SMSarah Moore22:04

      Yeah.

   3. SPShaan Puri22:05

      So you changed your approach. What did you do?

   4. SMSarah Moore22:07

      Absolutely. So we realized our response rate is awful. I, you know, no matter how customized you get, you're reaching out to people, most of which aren't looking to sell their business, so the very low response rate. So if it's already this bad, we may as well just st- and we're already filtering in the wrong way. We made many mistakes. The interns would have all these false positives, false negatives. We decide we're just going to light everybody and their mother up.

   5. SPShaan Puri22:33

      [laughs]

   6. SMSarah Moore22:33

      Because if you look at email addresses, they're all more or less the same. You start to see a pattern. If you're looking all day for an email address, you see most emails are first name, last initial at domain. First initial, last name at this. It's the same four patterns. So we created a big Excel file, guessed the combinations, and then ran them through something, I think it was Bulk email checker to see whether or not they were actually, like, real addresses.

   7. SPShaan Puri23:01

      And so you, [laughs] you get their contact info, and now you're gonna email all of them one generic email 'cause you're like, "Fuck it, my response rate's bad anyways. Um, if it, even if it gets cut in half, but I can email five times more or 10 times more people-

   8. SMSarah Moore23:15

      Oh, yeah

   9. SPShaan Puri23:15

      ... that's a good trade."

   10. SMSarah Moore23:17

       Absolutely. And what was interesting is, you know, w- we, we had this huge list of people, and we, you'd think, "Oh, well, if somebody reaches back out to me, how am I gonna talk to them?" But you realize it's kinda the same conversations over and over. So we would do this approach where it's like bombs away, and I, after we'd send out an email, we'd be getting tons of phone calls from people. And we had sent the emails out in such a way that it looked like it was done targeted. Like, it looked like we specifically did our research and said-

   11. SPShaan Puri23:51

       Right

   12. SMSarah Moore23:51

       ... "Hey, I, I'm looking for a business to buy, and yours seems to perfectly fit the bill because it's within this revenue range. It's been around for a really long time, and it's been profitable for a number of years." And the people that reached, that, that responded and said, "Actually, no, you idiot, that's not true," great. Now we know.

   13. SPShaan Puri24:10

       [laughs]

   14. SMSarah Moore24:10

       That's perfect.

   15. SPShaan Puri24:11

       Right, yeah.

   16. SMSarah Moore24:11

       And then the ones that-

   17. SPShaan Puri24:12

       They filled out your survey, essentially. [laughs]

   18. SMSarah Moore24:13

       Yeah. They didn't, but they didn't realize it. They thought they were telling us off.

   19. SPShaan Puri24:17

       Yeah.

   20. SMSarah Moore24:17

       And the best replies were the ones that were, "Wow, you really did your research here.

   21. SPShaan Puri24:21

       [laughs]

   22. SMSarah Moore24:21

       This is great." They reach out to me. They're telling me how much research I've done. I have no idea who they are.

   23. SPShaan Puri24:27

       [laughs]

   24. SMSarah Moore24:28

       I've got the interns scrambling, figuring out What area code is this?

   25. SPShaan Puri24:31

       [laughs]

   26. SMSarah Moore24:32

       Who is this? What could this possibly be? As I'm pretending to have spent this time researching their business. I have no clue.

   27. SPShaan Puri24:39

       Right. It's like being at a party, and then somebody knows you, but you don't remember where they're at, so you have to say really generic things to, uh, to keep the, keep it going while your brain is, like, searching, searching. Like, "How do I know this person? What is their name?" [laughs]

   28. SMSarah Moore24:50

       Exactly. Exactly.

   29. SPShaan Puri24:52

       And so you... Uh, what was your specific criteria? Did you have, like, a revenue target, or did you have, like, a EBITDA target that you were using?

   30. SMSarah Moore24:59

       Initially,

7. 25:00 – 29:00

   Step 5: Simplicity over innovation

   1. SMSarah Moore25:00

      I looked at businesses i- ideally between 4 million and 20 million in revenue, and I wanted something at or above a million and a half in EBITDA.

   2. SPShaan Puri25:11

      Okay.

   3. SMSarah Moore25:12

      But over time, that changed. Again, just like the industries, you realize, why does it need to be this way? I realized so much of what I was doing was just based off of what I had heard over and over, and so things got tweaked as I realized I didn't need to necessarily have that criteria. I actually lowered my expectations a lot and standards.

   4. SPShaan Puri25:30

      Right.

   5. SMSarah Moore25:30

      It worked out well, I think.

   6. SPShaan Puri25:31

      [laughs] And so you, uh, you lower, you, you widen your thing. You're reach out to a bunch of people, and then one, and one of them is this business, uh, Egg Cartons, uh, that-

   7. SMSarah Moore25:41

      Yep

   8. SPShaan Puri25:41

      ... Eggcartons.com. So what stood up-

   9. SMSarah Moore25:43

      Exactly

   10. SPShaan Puri25:43

       ... there? And then tell the story about how you ended up buying that company.

   11. SMSarah Moore25:46

       Okay. So I send out that email, which again, looks like it's customized, but it's not. The owner sends back a very long email saying, "Wow, you've really done your research. I am so impressed."

   12. SPShaan Puri25:57

       [laughs]

   13. SMSarah Moore25:57

       And he starts outlining the specifics of what I said in the email. "You're right. We have been around for a while. We started in 2001, and this business has been, to your point, profitable ever since consistently."

   14. SPShaan Puri26:11

       Okay.

   15. SMSarah Moore26:11

       "We have an amazing reputation. We have a very strong customer base." And from there, I said, "Okay, this has my interest." Because at first, let me back up. I'm getting this email, and I'm thinking, "Guys, we're reaching out to farms now?"

   16. SPShaan Puri26:26

       [laughs]

   17. SMSarah Moore26:26

       Because it looked like they were a farm feed store.

   18. SPShaan Puri26:29

       [laughs]

   19. SMSarah Moore26:29

       It really did. And so I, the first thing I always wanted to know was, okay, let's see the financials. Because if the numbers aren't there, numbers meaning you have actually been, as you allege, consistently profitable for a number of years, I'm not really interested. [laughs]

   20. SPShaan Puri26:46

       Right.

   21. SMSarah Moore26:46

       But they were there. And so anytime you see that, you know, 'cause it is rare, by the way. I would say maybe 5% of the businesses we looked at were consistently profitable and established, that few. And so he had, he met those parameters. I'm immediately interested. And so I started asking about the business and learning a little bit more. Like, "Okay, this is a commodity, right?" And he says, "No, it's not. We actually have a lot of proprietary products. We have some patents. I don't wanna work-"

   22. SPShaan Puri27:12

       And, and sorry, just explain, explain what it is. It's literally the carton that your eggs come in. You order, you buy a dozen eggs, they have to be packaged in something.

   23. SMSarah Moore27:19

       Yes.

   24. SPShaan Puri27:19

       This guy was making the packaging. He was manufacturing it, or he was the middleman?

   25. SMSarah Moore27:23

       He was the middleman. Yeah, I'll back up. So I found out what they're basically doing is they're a wholesale distributor, and they're buying, storing, and selling egg cartons. So I immediately think, "Okay, this is simple enough that an av- person with average intelligence, me, can do this." Like, I c- think I could sell an egg carton. I think I could buy one, too.

   26. SPShaan Puri27:44

       [laughs]

   27. SMSarah Moore27:45

       That was essentially what it was, the business. Of course, though, again, there were proprietary products. There were a couple things that made it much more desirable. But at the end of the day, we're buying and selling egg cartons.

   28. SPShaan Puri27:57

       Right, right. [laughs] And the website, I went to it now, which is, like, you know, after you took over, and it's so basic. Uh, and we've talked about this on the thing. The logo isn't even just the logo. It's Eggcartons.com. So you, you have the .com in the logo, which is great, and then under it, attached to that in the same image is your 1-800 number. It's like, you know, call 1-888-825-whatever, whatever. And so this business is so simple and so old school looking, but you weren't scared away by that. You actually, you wanted that. You didn't want some internet business. You didn't want something that was, like, kind of new and innovative. Is that right?

   29. SMSarah Moore28:33

       That's correct. I think you have to play to your strengths here. This is where you, i- it's not so general. You, you can buy a business that suits your abilities. Mine were honestly kinda limited. I'm not handy. I'm not good with technology. Anything with engineering is over my head. So I figured the simpler for me, the better. I didn't wanna rely on anybody going in there for the first couple months to just learn

8. 29:00 – 36:00

   Step 6: Close the deal

   1. SMSarah Moore29:00

      the basics. This was a business you could walk into, and day one, more or less get it.

   2. SPShaan Puri29:05

      And so you, uh, what happens? You make him an offer? You meet him for lunch? How do you, how do you actually get this deal done?

   3. SMSarah Moore29:11

      So for me, I stopped going anywhere until we spoke about a tentative price range. So I would always throw out a number very quickly, 'cause they were all kinda going between three to four times. So I'd think, "Okay, if you're above the average business I've looked at this month, you, you're closer to four. If you're below that, you're closer to three, maybe closer to two."

   4. SPShaan Puri29:32

      Profits or revenue?

   5. SMSarah Moore29:33

      On prof- profits. I immediately got down to that on the phone. It was, "Great. You're in this range." They didn't really understand terminology. I wanted to keep it very simple, so I'd say, "Okay, what's your income looking like? What are you guys averaging each year?"

   6. SPShaan Puri29:45

      Right.

   7. SMSarah Moore29:46

      And they'd say the numbers. And so the, I immediately was thinking, "You know, this is, this is worth three and a half times." I always went a little bit up because I always knew there'd be more in the numbers-

   8. SPShaan Puri29:57

      Mm-hmm

   9. SMSarah Moore29:58

      ... to bring it down.

   10. SPShaan Puri29:59

       Right. [laughs]

   11. SMSarah Moore29:59

       But you wanna be a little optimistic, but you're not ripping them off. You're not being dishonest. You're being, "In best case scenario, it's probably around here."

   12. SPShaan Puri30:05

       Right.

   13. SMSarah Moore30:05

       So I threw out a number, and I go, "Is your, i- is your price anywhere within that range?" Because a lot of people, the convo ends 'cause they think their business is worth 10X, and it's just not.

   14. SPShaan Puri30:15

       Right.

   15. SMSarah Moore30:16

       So I give out the number, and he goes, "Okay, yeah, I think I can work somewhere within that range." He had ch- looked into selling his business previously, so he was a lot more aware of what these small businesses are actually worth. A lot of owners are not.

   16. SPShaan Puri30:29

       More realistic about his baby versus saying, you know-

   17. SMSarah Moore30:31

       Exactly

   18. SPShaan Puri30:32

       ... "This is the best thing ever. It's, it's worth 20 times profit."

   19. SMSarah Moore30:35

       Right. The second thing for me was a seller's note. That was a non-negotiable for me, th- because a seller's note, to me, was a substitute for getting equity, and I didn't wanna get any investors involved. So the next step was, "Okay, are you willing to do a seller's note?" And I, I phrased it a different way to make sure he understood it, but he actually did. And he was willing to do that, and so then I said, "Okay, let's talk now."

   20. SPShaan Puri31:01

       And just to define-

   21. SMSarah Moore31:01

       I got the numbers

   22. SPShaan Puri31:02

       ... what a s- w-what a seller's note is. So define, uh, what is a seller's note for anybody who doesn't know?

   23. SMSarah Moore31:07

       Absolutely. I'll, I'll use an example. Let's say you're buying a house for a million dollars. Rather than giving the seller a million dollars up front, this... Let's say you have a 25% seller's note. You would give that seller, at close, $750,000, and then they would get paid the remaining $250,000 over time. And whatever you define those terms at, whatever interest rate you decide on, and time horizon.

   24. SPShaan Puri31:33

       Yeah. The seller becomes the bank. They're sort of financing you to be able to purchase-

   25. SMSarah Moore31:36

       Exactly

   26. SPShaan Puri31:37

       ... the rest of the business.

   27. SMSarah Moore31:38

       Exactly. And th- it was also great because the argument there is, "Oh," 'cause some sellers didn't wanna do it, and the argument is, "Well, you're telling me how great your business is. You're telling me that it's simple enough for me to operate. If those things are true, why would you have an issue doing a seller's note?"

   28. SPShaan Puri31:55

       Right. Right.

   29. SMSarah Moore31:56

       What's the issue?

   30. SPShaan Puri31:56

       This thing's stable, right? [laughs]
9. 36:00 – 39:00

   Not counting yourself out

   1. SMSarah Moore36:00

      it's done well for 20 years. What could you do to make it not do so well?

   2. SPShaan Puri36:04

      Right. Right. And so you, um, you buy this thing wh- You told me, you know, [laughs] "The only asset I had at the time, I had no money, no experience, no whatever. I only owned my, my, my car. I had a RAV4, and that's literally, like, all I had to my name." And you were able to buy a multimillion-dollar business and then walk in and be the owner of it just by really hustle and a, a kind of a numbers game. So the, we didn't even talk about-

   3. SMSarah Moore36:27

      Correct

   4. SPShaan Puri36:27

      ... some of the hustle of this. So some of the hustle of this was scraping the database. Some of the hustle was getting people off Craigslist to be interns to sift through the database. Then it was Well, those interns need a place to work, so you got fake IDs to get them into the library [laughs] . Is that right? Like, tell the fake IDs story.

   5. SMSarah Moore36:43

      Absolutely.

   6. SPShaan Puri36:44

      [laughs]

   7. SMSarah Moore36:44

      We hustled for those IDs too. We hustled for those. That was hard work.

   8. SPShaan Puri36:48

      [laughs] You said you, uh... What was it? You, like, went to alumna- You're like, you're like looking at the intern, and you're like, "All right, which alum looks like this intern and then can... I'll ask them for their student ID." [laughs]

   9. SMSarah Moore36:59

      Hours of that. Truly hours. We reached out to hundreds and hundreds of people.

   10. SPShaan Puri37:03

       [laughs]

   11. SMSarah Moore37:04

       Hundreds.

   12. SPShaan Puri37:04

       And so you've got these interns. Then you realize, hey, we need to just be blasting this kind of, like, fake it till you make it email where it looks like we've researched them specifically and they'll sort of self-select. You end up doing this deal where you don't put any money down because you were able to shop 40 banks or something like that to get them to, to give you the financing for it. A lot of this, to me, the story here is, like, um, not counting yourself out because-

   13. SMSarah Moore37:27

       Yes

   14. SPShaan Puri37:28

       ... a lot of people along, somewhere along that way would've counted themselves out. "I don't know how to do this. I, you know, uh, this is un- uncertain. I don't have the money. I don't have the experience. I don't have the time." They would find a way to count themselves out. You didn't do that. Uh, figure out a way to get it done, so, like, you know, don't... All the rules are sort of imaginary. You can, you could sort of work around them. And the last one is it's just a numbers game. Like you said, it's like, it's like dating. We're just gonna need to look at a lot of businesses. We're gonna need to get a bunch of interns to find the good ones. We're gonna look at a bunch of businesses to find the good ones, and we're gonna talk to a bunch of banks to find the one that will do this deal. Is that accurate?

   15. SMSarah Moore38:00

       Mm-hmm.

   16. SPShaan Puri38:00

       'Cause that's what I'm hearing.

   17. SMSarah Moore38:02

       Yes. If there are two things I am very passionate about in this world, it's obviously egg cartons, but also-

   18. SPShaan Puri38:08

       [laughs]

   19. SMSarah Moore38:08

       ... it's this concept of spreading the good news, which is that anyone who wants to buy, and I really mean anyone who wants to buy and operate a small business can do so. It is not a matter of can or can't. It's a matter of will or won't. That's a fact. Because this is an industry where you can choose any type of business you want, any size business you want. You could be a cleaner looking to buy another really small cleaning business from a guy or gal that's looking to retire. You can buy a dog walking company. There is truly no limit here, and that's what I love about it because to me, it's one of the few areas left of the American dream where you can go out and just put in a ton of effort and elbow grease and make something of your life and actually make good money without killing yourself and not having to work, you know, three jobs.

   20. SPShaan Puri38:59

       Right.

10. 39:00 – 43:30

    Growth post acquisition

    1. SPShaan Puri39:00

       And so you, since you took over the business, you don't have to share the exact numbers, but let's just say if the business was making $100 before, um, in the years since you've bought the business, what have you been able to do? Like, how have you grown the b- how much have you grown the business, and h- what'd you do to actually grow the business? 'Cause the guy had been operating for, whatever, 15, 16, 17 years, something like that. You come in as a beginner, but you've been able to grow the business. So I wanna know kind of roughly, like, how much value were you able to create? How many multiples of what you bought for? And then also, um, what did you do? What, what were the new insights or techniques or, or operational things that you put in place to create that value?

    2. SMSarah Moore39:36

       Great questions here. So when I first bought the business, the first couple years, things may have been on the decline a little bit. I may have made quite a few mistakes.

    3. SPShaan Puri39:45

       [laughs]

    4. SMSarah Moore39:45

       And so it wasn't looking too, too promising. Pretty soon-

    5. SPShaan Puri39:48

       You're not getting invited on podcasts for that story at that time. [laughs]

    6. SMSarah Moore39:51

       No.

    7. SPShaan Puri39:51

       "Sarah, you bought a business, and you are driving it straight into the ground. How does it feel?" [laughs] "Tell us more. What, what's your secret?" [laughs]

    8. SMSarah Moore39:57

       Yeah. I probably would've been fired or kicked off as CEO.

    9. SPShaan Puri40:01

       [laughs]

    10. SMSarah Moore40:01

        But what happened was... So when I first bought this business, I'm just gonna back up really fast. I really thought, "I'm in the egg industry," so I'm looking, what's the duck egg market like? What's the chicken egg market? You know, these things. And realized, again, market's kind of BS. Y- It's all a bunch of crap, these frameworks and stuff, because you don't really, really know until you're in it, and I realized when I got in it, I'm not really in the egg industry. I'm in specialty packaging. And so it actually was a lot more of an opportunity than I ever realized. And I wasn't some genius figuring this out. I just looked at our order history. We were getting orders from people that were selling crickets in Dubai, roaches, and people that were using the egg cartons for, um, small parts, people that were using them for bath bombs, cupcakes. I estimate now that 40% of our revenue has nothing to do with eggs. And so when I realized that there was a lot of potential there, and I realized that our specialty was really also these proprietary products, I spent most of my time focusing on that, not this really amazing modern website, but focusing on these products that I call really sticky, kind of a silly jargon term here. But these products were, we're making a custom mold for a customer that they then are gonna keep buying from us, assuming we don't rip them off or totally botch it.

    11. SPShaan Puri41:21

        Right.

    12. SMSarah Moore41:21

        And so from that, and then COVID, COVID was like cheating because we five, six X'd during COVID, to answer your question on the numbers. We really blew up. So it was a combination of recognizing how big our market really was and then recognizing that COVID was an incredible opportunity for us to take all of our capabilities and run with it.

    13. SPShaan Puri41:44

        Right. I like that. And when you, when you talked about, uh, specialty packaging, you, you said something to me. You go [laughs] in that Google Doc, you go, "We're not, we're not about egg cartons. Anything that needs sep-" What is it? Separation and prote- what did you call it? Separation and protection or something?

    14. SMSarah Moore41:57

        Protection. I always say anything requiring protection and separation is fair game.

    15. SPShaan Puri42:02

        Right.

    16. SMSarah Moore42:02

        And I stand by that 100%. It's true. Anything, and you think about how massive that market is. It's enormous.

    17. SPShaan Puri42:08

        Right. Yeah. You could be making bras with that definition. I love it. This is-

    18. SMSarah Moore42:12

        Yeah

    19. SPShaan Puri42:12

        ... this could be anything. This is [laughs] we're talking cups. We're talking [laughs] what- whatever you want. [laughs] So you, um-

    20. SMSarah Moore42:18

        Truly

    21. SPShaan Puri42:19

        ... A- And so are you, like, reaching out, by the way? Because, like, you, your website's still Eggcartons.com. And I'm not trying to Sean Parker you, but, like-

    22. SMSarah Moore42:26

        [laughs]

    23. SPShaan Puri42:27

        ... drop the eggs. Just Cartons.com, that's the way to go here. If you're making 40% off of non-egg stuff, why don't you kinda rebrand it?

    24. SMSarah Moore42:35

        So it's funny. We are actually in the process of doing a little bit of that, and I've continued to buy a bunch of domain names, so things like machine shop trays or bath bomb cartons. Any variations of that. I'm just buying domains left and right.

    25. SPShaan Puri42:49

        [laughs]

    26. SMSarah Moore42:49

        Who knows whether they'll stick?

    27. SPShaan Puri42:50

        [laughs]

    28. SMSarah Moore42:51

        But that's, that's a huge portion of it. It- but it's, it's very challenging to figure out how to do that without compromising other important variables, other important revenue drivers. It's a lot more challenging than you'd think, but we are, to your point, looking into that. I'm always like, "Stop with the eggs."

    29. SPShaan Puri43:08

        Right.

    30. SMSarah Moore43:08

        And everyone at the company's like, "We sell egg cartons."
11. 43:30 – 46:30

    Biggest mistakes in the first year

    1. SPShaan Puri43:30

       fulfill my dream of being Michael Scott at Dunder Mifflin and, like, just come into the warehouse. I just imagine that this is, like, a Dunder Mifflin style business, and you could come in and, like, you know, um, you know, just have a- be the crazy boss every day. Do you... When you look back now at what you did, 'cause again, we talked about starting as a rookie. If you could go back and I gave you an hour that you could, uh, spend with, you know, younger you, either during the search process or during the early days of, of the business, what would, what would you s- if I could give you that time, when would you go back to, and what would you tell yourself as advice, um, n- with the wisdom and the, the benefit of hindsight?

    2. SMSarah Moore44:08

       So I would actually just borrow the advice I got from my mentor, but I'd actually follow it, which w- there were two pieces. It was hire and fire fast. Didn't do that. Huge mistake. And do not change anything big or really anything at all the first year. Both of those things cost me a lot.

    3. SPShaan Puri44:27

       Hmm. And what, what about that, that second one? Tell me more about that. So there's obviously a temptation. You come in, you're so excited, you've been searching, you've been searching, you've been searching, you finally find the thing. You close the deal after painful, you know, you don't know, it, will it go through, will it go through, and it finally closes, and now the keys are yours. It's gotta be tempting to go play with the toys. Um, what, what's the, what's the wrong way to do that? What's the right way to do that?

    4. SMSarah Moore44:51

       Yeah, so let's get into that actually.

    5. SPShaan Puri44:53

       [laughs]

    6. SMSarah Moore44:54

       When I come in, I'm thinking, "Okay, I knew I didn't know much, truly." I, I didn't think I was gonna r- reorganize the warehouse or start changing anything seemingly big, but there were s- things that I thought were really simple, like the phones. We had hardwired phones in our office, and there were cables everywhere 'cause we've got all these offices and conference rooms. I'm thinking, "Dude, this is like 20 whatever, like, we're almost in 2020 here. What are we doing with this? We should just change our phones to VoIP phones, so that I can see everything remotely, where there's not phones ringing. Let's get, you know, into the modern age here." Seems like not a big thing. No. That was one of the biggest mistakes I made. Because you called, and our phone number is actually extremely important. People look at the domain, that's great, but our number is used by our biggest customers, by the, the new customers. It's everything to us, and we actually have multiple phone numbers that that 1-800 number is forwarded to, like 10, 12 lines, and so it's very important. And Spectrum, they have lost our phone lines mid-porting, and so our phones were down for almost a week, and it was a huge deal because it was a new owner, and people are thinking, "Did they go out of business?"

    7. SPShaan Puri46:09

       Right.

    8. SMSarah Moore46:10

       "What is going on here?" 'Cause you're not... Their phones are gone. They, they're dead now.

    9. SPShaan Puri46:13

       [laughs]

    10. SMSarah Moore46:14

        And it was a huge... So it's like maybe just do a... First off, I wouldn't do anything with the phone lines now. I'm, I, to this day, I will not change our phone lines 'cause I've been so traumatized by the experience. But if you were, maybe you just, like, change one phone line, maybe two.

12. 46:30 – 57:00

    Sarah's unlikely background

    1. SMSarah Moore46:30

       Maybe not all of them. But something like that that you think is small can actually be pretty big.

    2. SPShaan Puri46:35

       Hmm. I like that. And you, you said, like, w- I, we kinda hinted at this earlier, but, uh, I wanna make this point, which is I've, uh... You know, I said y- one thing you didn't do is you didn't count yourself out, and that's important. I think one of the reasons people count themselves out almost subconsciously is that they, um, they don't see themselves a certain way. They've never done that. Their family didn't do this, and so they just sort of are like, "I don't know, I guess that's just something other people do." And that's, even if you hear something, you're like, "That, that sounds like a cool idea, but, like, where, where would I start? I, I have no, I have no foothold here to do that." And you have a pretty unique background that I think should, you know, debunk that idea of, of, of kind of like even if you're not from that track, you can sort of get on that track at any time. And so, uh, when I first was talking to you, I was like, "Wow, this is some whip smart, you know, Harvard per..." It's like basically you take the Harvard pedigree, but then she added some s- some street smarts and some hustle, and I thought... Th- that's what I thought when I met you. And, and then you were like, you said something like, [laughs] you're like, "I didn't even take the SATs." And I was like, "Wait, how'd you get into Harvard Business School?"

    3. SMSarah Moore47:44

       Right.

    4. SPShaan Puri47:44

       Tell the story of your background because I think it's kind of amazing.

    5. SMSarah Moore47:49

       Okay. Yeah, this is a little detail here, so we're gonna go way back. Um, I'm one of three, and my sisters and I would say sort of had a subpar upbringing in that we didn't really have parents, and we were split up, and we bounced around and living in a lot of different homes. My two older sisters, they made the most of it. They got really into academics and sports. I made the worst of it, I would say, and I became somebody that you would not want your kids hanging out with, okay? I was partying all the time. I had a tr- I wouldn't go to school, so I had a truancy officer. I went to jail. I v- I was just so disrespectful to everyone, and I got away with it because people felt sorry for me. And the beginning of high school, I was living with a woman that was an alcoholic, and her favorite thing when she got drunk was to take all my items and throw them out into the front lawn and just tell me to leave. And I didn't really have anywhere to go. I was a kid And so there was a woman named Natalie Bracken who used to pick me up and take me to her house, and she'd let me stay there until this woman inevitably, you know, came back to Earth and said, "Where did you go?" And called the police. And so it was constantly going back and forth between Natalie's, the Brackens' house and this other household. I was being transported by the police, and no one could really do anything about it. Nobody seemed to really care. And one day, just, she just got so fed up and she said, "I'm gonna adopt you." Obviously, it was pretty transformational. So I'm living in her home with, with her family, and her daughter I was actually friends with. So her husband one day kinda let me have it, because I was trying to skip school, like, the first week living there.

    6. SPShaan Puri49:36

       [laughs]

    7. SMSarah Moore49:37

       And he sat me down and he, he literally explained... Uh, it sounds, it's embarrassing almost to say that he literally explained how life worked to me. The basics of you don't lie, you don't just skip things when you don't wanna show up. That's not how... This isn't r- reality. And he explained where my life was going, which was basically absolutely nowhere. And it was very emotional for me, because up until that time, a lot of people had given me lectures, but it felt like it came from this place of, "You're bothering me," or, "This is really inconveniencing me, so can you just stop your crap?" Where he came from this place, I could tell he really cared. And up until then, I didn't really feel like anybody did care. And so I got my shit together very quickly after that. I really did. I was so nervous about, like, being, like, sent back or them regretting their decision, because up until that time, no one, and I mean no one, was looking to invest in me. I was like a junk bond investment-wise.

    8. SPShaan Puri50:38

       [laughs]

    9. SMSarah Moore50:39

       This is not a safe investment. I was not a good kid. I didn't do myself any favors. And so after that, in getting my shit together, step one was getting a job. And so the first time I ever remember studying truly in my life was with Mrs. Bracken when I was learning a menu to get a job at a diner. And then from there, I applied those new study skills I had to school. Mr. Bracken had explained, like, "Listen, you've got a 2.0 here, kid. You're not getting anywhere but community college with that. So you need to, like, get your act together." And so from there, I got all As because I wanted to boost my average at least to a 3.0. I'm working at this diner, and this couple would come in all the time, and they never had kids, and we just got along. That's the best way to explain it. I never told them about my upbringing really initially, but I think my coworkers probably did. There were days I probably weren't there, a- and they probably could just tell. And so they offered me a job with their company, probably initially out of sympathy, out of the kindness of their heart, and I started working there. And it, it just, it, it just seemed to fit. And so when I was working there, I got wait-listed from Northeastern, where I ended up going to college. And when I was wait-listed, the owner of the... So these two, I'm sorry, backing up. This couple, I had no idea they were extremely wealthy. I always thought rich people were at fancy restaurants, but this couple's coming in, going to a diner and getting cheeseburgers [laughs] each week. I had no idea, like, they're worth a lot of money. And when I was wait-listed, Steve said, "You need to take yourself off of financial aid because of these schools. Especially a school like Northeastern without a big endowment, they're gonna take that into consideration when evaluating your candidacy." And I said, "How am I gonna take myself off aid? I have no money and this school is so expensive." And he said, "We're gonna pay for your school."

    10. SPShaan Puri52:35

        Wow.

    11. SMSarah Moore52:36

        And so yeah. I mean, it's, I, it's very, it's hard for me to not get emotional talking about, 'cause it's... So between these two couples, I mean, they changed my entire life. Um, they, it wasn't just the money, too. It wasn't just the home. It was these people changed the way I viewed myself. They invested in me when I was truly the world's worst investment. I mean, who takes a kid like me, what I was like, and say, "You know what? I'm gonna go all in on this"? Like, they put their ass out on the line for me on multiple occasions with the worst track reced- record you can possibly imagine. Like, truly, possibly imagine. And from these two, these two families, I had this whole concept in my head of I just wanna be that one person for one person. Because for me, I literally begged when I was a kid sometimes for people to help me. I would beg judges, I would beg attorneys, I would beg social workers to, like, put me in better circumstances or help me with X and Y, and nobody helped me at all. They felt sorry for me, but nobody took action. So this concept of being that one person for one person carried over into college, because I went to Northeastern to be a social worker initially.

    12. SPShaan Puri53:47

        Hm.

    13. SMSarah Moore53:47

        And that was way too kumbaya for me. As you can probably tell, I'm not, like, that's just not me. And so from there, I said, "Okay, something a little bit more aggressive, more me, could be law." I was watching CSI. [laughs] What I thought of law.

    14. SPShaan Puri54:01

        [laughs] Right.

    15. SMSarah Moore54:02

        So I figured I'm gonna be in juvenile justice. I, I can be, I, I can be the attorney I wanted to have. I can be the social worker I wanna have. But again, it was, I just realized these professions were just not me. So one day, I, I called Steve, the owner of this company I worked for, I, I call him boss, and I said, "Hey, boss," like, "I don't know what I'm gonna do here. I'm now a junior in college, and I've worked for you, but that's kind of my only work experience, and I have no, I have no experience in anything but criminal justice now and social work, and I don't wanna do these professions." And he said, "You are not an academic. You're s- you're geared for business. It comes naturally to you." And he said, "And you can have a way bigger impact in business than, like, criminal justice or social work." And so I said, "Okay, well, what am I gonna do now, though? Because I'm in my junior year and I don't have anything to show for this. I can't just go and get a, I can't just go into a business. Who's gonna want me?" [laughs] And he said, "You need to go to business school." 'Cause he had gone, I didn't even know it, he had gone to Stanford Business School. Back in the day, they went right after school. But now the average age of business school candidates, at least at the Ivy Leagues like Harvard, is 28. And when we were talking about this, I was, like, 21. I was about to graduate. And, um, I said, "There's no way I'm gonna get into a business school." He didn't know I had paid my sister to take my SAT for me, because I had confidence I can study hard enough, but I'm not gonna get caught up enough. I don't even know what's on the SAT. I imagine it's all the subjects.

    16. SPShaan Puri55:32

        [laughs]

    17. SMSarah Moore55:32

        But I just had no confidence in myself. Like, when I got to college, I was at a 33% reading level.

    18. SPShaan Puri55:38

        What does that mean? [laughs]

    19. SMSarah Moore55:38

        I, I went off campus one day. I, like, I, like, it, it was horrible. So I went off campus one day because I was convinced, this is horrible, I was really convinced I was mentally handicapped when I got to college, 'cause I just did not understand anything. And I got this test done, and they said, "There's really nothing wrong with you. You're just, like, at a low level here."

    20. SPShaan Puri55:58

        Right.

    21. SMSarah Moore55:58

        And they did say my intelligence was below average at that time. And so it was, it was horrible, 'cause it was a factual evidence, "Hey, you're not that bright. And by the way-"

    22. SPShaan Puri56:07

        [laughs]

    23. SMSarah Moore56:07

        "... you're, you're at the 33 percentile."

    24. SPShaan Puri56:09

        And you're behind.

    25. SMSarah Moore56:09

        Like, oh, that's fucking great. Like-

    26. SPShaan Puri56:11

        [laughs]

    27. SMSarah Moore56:11

        ... I, it basically put into pa- onto paper that I'm an idiot.

    28. SPShaan Puri56:15

        Your worst fears, yeah.

    29. SMSarah Moore56:15

        And it was heartbreaking for me. But I was so embarrassed, and I didn't want anyone to know. And so the only thing I really knew at that point was to just try really hard. And again, I didn't wanna disappoint. Like, my biggest fear to this day would be to disappoint the Brackens or the Greens, like, ever. And I just, I, I figure if they've gotten me here, I have to make this work. And so I, I studied like you wouldn't believe. Like, nobody knows the Northeastern University library like I do.

    30. SPShaan Puri56:40

        [laughs]
13. 57:00 – 1:04:30

    Being that one person for one person

    1. SPShaan Puri57:00

       this is what it is, and it'll just be what it's gonna be, or, like, I'm gonna change it." Uh, and I always ask them, 'cause I, I, I think these mo- there's a few moments in your life where, like, decades are, are sort of decided, and it's some conversation you have with yourself. This is my theory. I don't know. You tell me. Was there a conversation you had with yourself at that time to be like, "Okay, I'm just gonna apply my- I'm gonna go in, bury myself in this library until I come out with a 99% reading level," or what, what, what happened there?

    2. SMSarah Moore57:29

       I've never been one of those, like, long-term planners. It was, for me, it's more of a day by day, week by week thing. But I did have this mentality, I remember, of, "I'm gonna give this literally everything that I have, everything that I have," like, every day. I really mean that, because I will... I had a mentality of, "I will not disappoint these people. I will not disappoint them, so if that means I studied round the clock and it still wasn't good enough, at least I can say I gave this literally everything, and I'm sorry."

    3. SPShaan Puri57:59

       Right.

    4. SMSarah Moore57:59

       That was kind of my thinking. That was it.

    5. SPShaan Puri58:01

       And a lot of people think that it's, it's, you know, the hardest thing is when nobody believes in you.

    6. SMSarah Moore58:06

       Yeah.

    7. SPShaan Puri58:06

       Actually, the most pressure is when almost nobody believes in you, but a couple people do. And when a couple people do, it adds a whole different level of emotional pressure to the situation, more so than when-

    8. SMSarah Moore58:18

       Yeah

    9. SPShaan Puri58:18

       ... nobody believes in you.

    10. SMSarah Moore58:20

        Yes. It's funny. I, I, it's rare to s- I, I don't remember actually anybody that gets that, but that's exactly how I felt. I wanted to live... I felt like what they believed in me wasn't true, and so I wanted to live up to who they thought I was that who I didn't think I was.

    11. SPShaan Puri58:34

        Yeah.

    12. SMSarah Moore58:34

        So that's, that's exactly right.

    13. SPShaan Puri58:35

        I, I mean, I didn't come from the situation you came fro- from. I, I was luckier than that, uh, you know, just to be born into the right se- sort of family and circumstances. But, um, yeah, the, the Birch family, uh, here in San Francisco, they're the ones who were that for me, where, you know, I'm 24 years old, and they, they invested in me, and they, they sat, they literally sat me down and said, "I think you're gonna do special things." They go, "We've met a lot of people in Silicon Valley. I think you're gonna do special things. You're gonna go on to do special things. We want you to do them, you know, w- we just think..." Then they named me CEO of the company. They were like, "Here's the keys. We think you should do them here. You're, you're gonna do them at some point." And at that time, I didn't really view myself as special in any way. Um, it was kinda the first time that somebody had ever really said something like that, but also put their money where their mouth was that wasn't-

    14. SMSarah Moore59:20

        Yes

    15. SPShaan Puri59:21

        ... maybe my parent. Where my parents, like, uh, uh, in, in a way you sorta take that for granted, unfortunately, and so I took that for granted. When my parents would say, "Oh, you're so great," it's like, yeah, just like every mom, you know, thinks their kid's so great, you know? That's how I felt at the time. Um, and hearing an, a total outsider, you know, this billionaire say, "No, no, no, I believe in you," and then the, and then for me, it was soul-crushing the next six years. I, like, didn't succeed, but I was trying really hard, but I wasn't succeeding, and I remember feeling that pressure of like, d- I was, I remember thinking, like, "I wish nobody believed in me." That would be easier, um, than somebody really believing in you and you not wanting to disappoint them. Um, that was, I remember f- just feeling that day by day. So I, I definitely at least resonate with that part of your story.

    16. SMSarah Moore1:00:02

        Yeah. No, that's, that's really re- that's, that's very real. It's funny. A lot of people will say, "Oh, I didn't have it as bad as you," but it's all, I learned a lot of the same, and you adapt to what you're going through. So I'm sure the feelings in a lot of ways were actually almost the same.

    17. SPShaan Puri1:00:16

        Right.

    18. SMSarah Moore1:00:16

        But the externals just looked a little bit differently.

    19. SPShaan Puri1:00:18

        Yeah, yeah.

    20. SMSarah Moore1:00:19

        But it's, like-

    21. SPShaan Puri1:00:19

        Your life is a movie, um, and my life is, uh, you know, like, you know, the, the, the, the normal thing. But, like, your life is literally, I told you this on the phone, your life is literally the plot of the movie Blind Side. [laughs] Like, you're just not this, like, huge football player. Instead, you, [laughs] you know, you're, you went and bought a business instead, but, like, same sort of idea, where people, you know, took a, took a chance on you. Have you, uh, taken that mentality of, like, be one pers- what was it? Be one person for one per- be that person for one person?

    22. SMSarah Moore1:00:46

        Yeah.

    23. SPShaan Puri1:00:46

        Um, be that one person for one person. I love that. That's kind of amazing. Is that from something, or did you invent that?

    24. SMSarah Moore1:00:51

        It just, I kept, uh, it just came to me. I don't know. I, it was just something I thought of one day.

    25. SPShaan Puri1:00:56

        Have you done that? Do you feel like you've been able to do that?

    26. SMSarah Moore1:01:00

        Do I feel like I've been able to do that? That, I do actually, and that's w- truly one of the most rewarding things about my job now and why I try and keep my circle very small. I'm really big on doing what these families did for me as much as possible, which is a lot of one-on-one mentorship. Because I can only do so much on a mass scale, but one-on-one, I can really bring people to the next level, whatever that level is. And I'm huge on, and I have no tolerance for people self-doubting. I'll say, "Nope, you can do it. D- like, do it again. We're doing this again." And I will sit there, and everyone in the business, I used to say, "I will come any day, any time. I will sit with you for as long as it takes. If you try and you're honest with me, I'm not gonna give up on you." And I, I really mean that. If somebody tries and they're honest with me, I'm not giving up on them.

    27. SPShaan Puri1:01:48

        Right. Y- when you were talking, I was getting goosebumps, uh, on my arm here because I d- I mean, I love the story, but also, um, I think that coming on a podcast like this and telling your story is gonna do that for someone somewhere that you don't even know. It's a different way of doing it, but, like, somebody out there is gonna hear this, or they're gonna forward it to somebody who sa- and say, "L- listen, I don't even know if you know what the podcast app is, but you need-"

    28. SMSarah Moore1:02:12

        Yeah

    29. SPShaan Puri1:02:12

        ... "to hear this because, you know, something in there is gonna resonate with somebody." And so, uh, that's why I was getting goosebumps, 'cause there's a way to kinda like... The egg carton story and buying a business is cool. That was kinda the bait. Uh, but the, the real kind of like, the real story here i- is, is kind of just the, the mentality and also, um, uh, th- those families that did that for you. You know, I think that's a, it's not as flashy as, you know, creating a foundation and giving away a billion dollars or whatever, but l- it is, it is a version of, like, you know, philanthropy or, or s- giving back or contri- contributing that is, uh, you know, can change, change somebody's life in a m- in a huge way versus a lot of people's lives in a small way.

    30. SMSarah Moore1:02:55

        Right. A- and I think that's what's way more important to me, and seeing it helps me a lot. It keeps me motivated. 'Cause unfortunately, the farther removed you get from it, the harder it is to remember.
14. 1:04:30 – 1:07:00

    Sarah addresses her skeptics

    1. SPShaan Puri1:04:30

       cool to see the actual screenshots you, you shared with me, 'cause, uh, the funny thing is when you told the story the whate- when we told the f- story the first time on the podcast, there was two reactions. One is, "Wow, that's an incredible story," 'cause here's what I tweeted out. So I said, "I have a new hero and, and her name is Sarah Moore. At under 30 years old, she had no money, no experience, and the biggest asset was her car, a RAV4. She spent one year hunting through, like, 100,000 businesses to find one to buy, and she bought a," uh, guessed at the time, but I didn't know if this was true. Uh, uh, she b- bought a, you know, multi-million dollar business called Eggcartons.com with all debt, no, no cash down. And so I told that story, and I told it on the podcast, and basically the two reactions were, "Wow, that's incredible, so awesome," you know, "You go, girl." And on the other side it was, "I'm calling bullshit. No way." And people were like, "That's, that's not, you know, you can't buy it all debt. Nobody can sift through 100,000 businesses. Um, how do you go to Harvard and not have anything, n- not have any money?" And honestly, I started to f- and when I saw those tweets, I was like, "Damn, that never occurred to me, actually. Like, yeah, you're right. She was saying she kind of came from nothing and blah, blah, blah, but she's at Harvard Business School." Like, and I was like, "Am I getting fucking Theranos'd right now? Is this Elizabeth Holmes, and I'm just getting duped?" Um, and so, so that happened, and then we have this researcher. The researcher, uh, r- you, you texted us the other day. You were like, "Hey, somebody's, like, contacting a bunch of my old interns." And it was, like, our researcher fact-checking just to make sure we don't look like idiots, that, like, we're putting somebody on who, did this actually happen. Um, but I think that's kind of a cool thing that your story was literally too good to be true, that people just started calling bullshit. And I remember you didn't have any social media, so there was no way for you to explain or tell your side of the story. And then I think your sister, like, created a Twitter account or something and started, like-

    2. SMSarah Moore1:06:15

       [laughs]

    3. SPShaan Puri1:06:16

       ... that day she was, like, tweeting, like, "No, I'm in the car with her right now. B- yeah, we grew up broke, and, like, we didn't have a family," and, like, all [laughs] this stuff. And I was like, "Wow, I don't know what's happening right now, but this is fascinating." Do you remember that?

    4. SMSarah Moore1:06:28

       That is y- so yes, it started blowing up on Twitter, and everyone in my company was talking about it.

    5. SPShaan Puri1:06:33

       [laughs]

    6. SMSarah Moore1:06:33

       And my interns were talking about it, and they're like, "Sarah, you need to go out there and defend yourself. Like, we're gonna defend you."

    7. SPShaan Puri1:06:39

       [laughs]

    8. SMSarah Moore1:06:39

       And I was worried about, I know the internet can be vicious, and I was worried about anybody getting any of that, like, l- you know-

    9. SPShaan Puri1:06:47

       True, yeah

    10. SMSarah Moore1:06:47

        ... pointed at them. And then I started worrying about my company.

    11. SPShaan Puri1:06:49

        [laughs]

    12. SMSarah Moore1:06:50

        So my sister got on there, and she was, we're very protective of each other. She was, she created a Twitter just to go on there and defend me.

    13. SPShaan Puri1:06:58

        Was this the SAT t- sister

15. 1:07:00 – 1:13:00

    The best Craigslist intern ad

    1. SPShaan Puri1:07:00

       or the other sister?

    2. SMSarah Moore1:07:00

       This is the SAT.

    3. SPShaan Puri1:07:01

       [laughs]

    4. SMSarah Moore1:07:01

       This is the bright... Well, they're both exceptionally bright. But she's actually the director of HR for Abercrombie & Fitch, like corporate level.

    5. SPShaan Puri1:07:08

       [laughs]

    6. SMSarah Moore1:07:08

       So she goes, so her, uh, h- husband now, but fiance at the time goes You need to delete this, Jane. Like, you're-

    7. SPShaan Puri1:07:15

       [laughs] You have something to lose. Yeah

    8. SMSarah Moore1:07:17

       ... you're the one who- yeah, it is a lose situation. Like, you guys are idiots.

    9. SPShaan Puri1:07:19

       [laughs]

    10. SMSarah Moore1:07:19

        Why are you trying to define yourself amongst, like, people online? We're like, "It's getting out of hand."

    11. SPShaan Puri1:07:23

        [laughs]

    12. SMSarah Moore1:07:24

        So we had no... I just... That was my concern, that people were gonna think this was fake, and this was somehow gonna snowball in a negative direction. And all I cared about was preserve the business.

    13. SPShaan Puri1:07:35

        [laughs]

    14. SMSarah Moore1:07:35

        Like, don't fuck with Eggcartons.com.

    15. SPShaan Puri1:07:37

        Yeah. Don't let this random dude on the internet blow this whole-

    16. SMSarah Moore1:07:40

        Really

    17. SPShaan Puri1:07:40

        ... blow your spot up. All right. So then you shared with us a bunch of other things. So you shared with us the Craigsl- We'll put this on, on YouTube so people can actually see the, the Craigslist post.

    18. SMSarah Moore1:07:48

        Yes.

    19. SPShaan Puri1:07:48

        But you wrote, um, Kenston Green. What's Kenston Green? That's what you had named your thing?

    20. SMSarah Moore1:07:53

        I d- a mentor recommended to make the name of the company a name that would have a story to it. And so I deliberately said I wanted to say I'm from Cleveland, and I worked in the steel business. 'Cause I wanna say I'm a blue collar gal like you.

    21. SPShaan Puri1:08:04

        Right. [laughs]

    22. SMSarah Moore1:08:04

        And so Kenston was the name of my high school in Cleveland, I'd say, and Green was the name of the family I had worked for in the steel industry.

    23. SPShaan Puri1:08:11

        Right, okay.

    24. SMSarah Moore1:08:11

        So when they would ask immediately, "What's... I don't..." No one wants an intro, right? "Hey, I'm..." They don't care. But when they'd say, "What's Kenston Green?" It was my way of giving an intro without giving an intro.

    25. SPShaan Puri1:08:20

        That's amazing. Also, it sounds kind of powerful and old money, uh, sounding.

    26. SMSarah Moore1:08:24

        And I didn't mean for that.

    27. SPShaan Puri1:08:25

        So I like that.

    28. SMSarah Moore1:08:25

        But yeah.

    29. SPShaan Puri1:08:26

        No, it works. Uh, so you wrote, "It's a small, unorthodox private equity firm." Accurate. Unorthodox, for sure. [laughs]

    30. SMSarah Moore1:08:33

        Very unorthodox. Proudly unorthodox.
16. 1:13:00 – 1:18:00

    Being a human billboard

    1. SMSarah Moore1:13:00

       your s- It was anything free where I can... I wanted the world to know I am looking to buy a business, and I am serious.

    2. SPShaan Puri1:13:06

       [laughs] Did you, um- Get any good inbound from this? Was that like, did somebody call you being like, "Hey, I just saw you ride by me on a bike. Um, I think I got this number correct. I'd like to sell you my business"?

    3. SMSarah Moore1:13:18

       It's funny. It, I, I didn't think it was working, but you'd be amazed at what comes out of the woodwork. Um, there's actually somebody that came over and said, "You know what? My, my dad asked me about whether or not this was actually a legitimate business. Like, are you actually looking to buy something?" And that worked out.

    4. SPShaan Puri1:13:34

       Yeah.

    5. SMSarah Moore1:13:35

       And then I faxed, uh, everybody. That was one of the intern's idea to send out mass faxes, and part of the faxing campaign was just putting anything that will get their attention. So part of it, I did put my picture on there.

    6. SPShaan Puri1:13:49

       [laughs]

    7. SMSarah Moore1:13:49

       And I'd say, "We wanna buy your business." And I, I s- told you this, to this day, I have people that recognize me from those faxes.

    8. SPShaan Puri1:13:55

       [laughs]

    9. SMSarah Moore1:13:56

       People in the mill that I work in said, "Wait a second, I was wondering why you looked so familiar. Did you try and buy my business?" Like, people on my street to this day in downtown Boston will say, "You're that girl that was wearing that sweatshirt" or, "You're that girl that was faxing me all the time."

    10. SPShaan Puri1:14:13

        [laughs]

    11. SMSarah Moore1:14:14

        That's what I wanted. Unfortunately, I, I, I, a lot of those r- um, replies came back after I bought a business.

    12. SPShaan Puri1:14:20

        Right.

    13. SMSarah Moore1:14:20

        But I was just, that was what I was really hoping for, somebody to see it and know I was serious.

    14. SPShaan Puri1:14:25

        Well, that's brilliant because you were looking for these kind of, uh, longstanding b- sort of boring s- B2B service businesses.

    15. SMSarah Moore1:14:32

        It-

    16. SPShaan Puri1:14:32

        They have fax machines.

    17. SMSarah Moore1:14:33

        Yes.

    18. SPShaan Puri1:14:34

        Nothing interesting is coming through the fax machine, so it's a-

    19. SMSarah Moore1:14:35

        Right

    20. SPShaan Puri1:14:36

        ... completely untapped, unsaturated channel. You're like, "And I'm gonna turn my disadvantages into advantages." Okay, people say-

    21. SMSarah Moore1:14:43

        Exactly

    22. SPShaan Puri1:14:43

        ... it's a disadvantage to be a woman. You're not gonna be taken seriously, blah, blah, blah. You're, you're, you're, you're not gonna be included in whatever. Well, I'm also gonna stand out if I'm the minority, right? Like, I'm gonna be-

    23. SMSarah Moore1:14:52

        Right

    24. SPShaan Puri1:14:52

        ... different than everybody else, and I'm gonna use the sort of psychology to my favor here. And I love that you did that and are not, like, shy about that, 'cause I think a lot of people are very shy about things like this and, um, I love that you did that. You f- faxing a picture is, to me, like, it's in the all-time hustle moves.

    25. SMSarah Moore1:15:09

        Yeah.

    26. SPShaan Puri1:15:09

        And I'll also say, it doesn't matter if some of this stuff works because one, life motto, do it for the story. I think that's-

    27. SMSarah Moore1:15:18

        Yeah. [laughs]

    28. SPShaan Puri1:15:19

        ... that's a, that's a, already just, like, a winning thing to do is just do things for the story. And two is there's something that comes with the mentality of nothing is off limits. I will do-

    29. SMSarah Moore1:15:29

        Yes

    30. SPShaan Puri1:15:29

        ... anything. I am all fucking in, and it's a signal to yourself, it's a signal to your interns and your team, it's a signal to everybody in the world that I am all fucking in and no idea is off limits. No idea is too dumb, no idea is too, too out there, too, too, f- um, you know, too loud. No, no, we are, everything's on the table as a, as a thing-
17. 1:18:00 – 1:20:36

    Sarah's advice for MFMers

    1. SMSarah Moore1:18:00

       this career path, I want everyone to have a fair opportunity to do so, which is why I'm talking about it. I'm going to give people within a Q&A type format detailed information to answer all the questions I get, but we have truly experienced this crazy amount of volume on my, in my inbox, on my LinkedIn of messages, like thousands, and it really breaks my heart not being able to get back to all of them. So I'm doing a mass reply. That's, that's the idea here. We're gonna give you as much information as we possibly can, but please understand that I cannot respond to all these inquiries. Like, I have a full-time job. Like, I own other companies too. We're very busy. So the biggest thing is please do not contact our business. Please do not show up at the business. We're gonna create a Google Doc, something for you guys to fill out. If you want information, we'll send it to you. But I, I just can't get back to everybody. Like, I'm not used to this. I went, I'm like a nobody.

    2. SPShaan Puri1:18:50

       Right.

    3. SMSarah Moore1:18:50

       So I'm not used to all this attention and all these inbound inquiries. Like, I can't, I can't-

    4. SPShaan Puri1:18:55

       [laughs]

    5. SMSarah Moore1:18:55

       ... respond to them all.

    6. SPShaan Puri1:18:57

       Don't worry.

    7. SMSarah Moore1:18:57

       I'd love to. I really would, but I can't.

    8. SPShaan Puri1:18:59

       So we're gonna put a form in the description here that'll be like, people can fill that in. You'll send them a blast, and-

    9. SMSarah Moore1:19:04

       Amazing

    10. SPShaan Puri1:19:05

        ... if there are people who fill out that form, uh, I might cherry-pick a couple of the people and be like, "Hey, if you're serious about this, like, I'll help you do it." Like, I-

    11. SMSarah Moore1:19:12

        Yes

    12. SPShaan Puri1:19:12

        ... I don't, I, I'm, I'm taking a break from running companies. Uh, you know, we sold our last company last year. I don't wanna start a new company right now, but I do wanna do fun, fun projects, and one of the fun things is helping people buy businesses. That's, uh-

    13. SMSarah Moore1:19:23

        Yes

    14. SPShaan Puri1:19:24

        ... one of the things that is actually pretty, pretty dope, 'cause you learn about all these niche businesses.

    15. SMSarah Moore1:19:27

        Oh, yeah.

    16. SPShaan Puri1:19:27

        You get, like, the free MBA, um-

    17. SMSarah Moore1:19:30

        Right

    18. SPShaan Puri1:19:31

        ... yeah, so, so, so I think it's a good time.

    19. SMSarah Moore1:19:33

        You learn so much searching. When I hear about people failing at this, it's like you really can't fail, unless you get investors of course, but you really can't. I, I mean, the amount, we still laugh at some of the businesses out there, and you view the world differently. You view-

    20. SPShaan Puri1:19:46

        Right

    21. SMSarah Moore1:19:46

        ... like, I think of the freeway now and the, the lines on the freeway and the signs on the freeway. Somebody made all of that.

    22. SPShaan Puri1:19:53

        Right.

    23. SMSarah Moore1:19:54

        Like, these Christians come in like, "Wow, God made this" and I'm thinking-

    24. SPShaan Puri1:19:57

        [laughs]

    25. SMSarah Moore1:19:57

        ... that and all these businesses made, like, all this stuff that we're looking at and using. It's kinda wild.

    26. SPShaan Puri1:20:02

        Right. You're like, "No, that's Trent in Cincinnati."

    27. SMSarah Moore1:20:04

        Yeah.

    28. SPShaan Puri1:20:04

        "He does that. He, what do you mean?" [laughs] There's, he has a name. [laughs]

    29. SMSarah Moore1:20:09

        Yeah.

    30. SPShaan Puri1:20:10

        All right. Uh, Sarah, thanks so much for coming on. I really appreciate it, and, uh, really inspired by your story, so thank you for coming and telling it.

Episode duration: 1:20:37