Want to meet the people who can accelerate your growth? There’s one critical revenue mark that will get you into make-or-break meetings.
“I think there’s something magical about a million dollars in terms of just showing progress and scalability of the business,” says Laura Held, a partner at the investment firm Shamrock Capital. She says $1 million in revenue before EBITDA — interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization — is a noteworthy metric that puts you on the map for everyone from angel investors to debt financiers.
Marilyn Adler, a founder and managing partner at Mizzen Capital — a group that invests debt into lower middle market companies, which usually generate from $1 million to $10 million of EBITDA — says $1 million in EBITDA is the minimum a company must hit for her to even consider funding them in most cases. She says it’s also usually the minimum to be of any interest to a private equity group looking for add-on acquisitions. (This is when a buyer purchases a smaller company to incorporate into an existing business — known as the platform company — in order to make it more profitable or productive.) For example, the owner of a pharmacy chain might purchase a courier company to deliver medications. “That $1 million of EBITDA seems to be a critical mark for them to spend time on it and really make it worthwhile,” says Adler.
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