From Radio Sales to M&A: Jeremy Furtick’s Unlikely Path to Co-Founding NorthStar M&A

Anthony Codispoti (00:01)
Welcome to another edition of the Inspired Stories podcast, where leaders share their experiences so we can learn from their successes and be inspired by how they’ve overcome adversity. As you listen today, let one idea shape what you do next. My name is Anthony Codaspodi and today’s guest studied journalism in college, spent nearly two decades evaluating over a thousand businesses and

became the first person in history to win the number one worldwide agent title multiple times and one of the largest business brokerage networks on the planet. That kind of track record doesn’t happen by accident. It comes from years of navigating deals that fall apart, owners who aren’t ready to let go, and a market that punishes anyone who cuts corners. He took everything he learned and bet on himself.

co-founding an ⁓ &A advisory firm built to do things differently. His name is Jeremy Furtick. He’s a founding partner at Northstar Mergers and Acquisitions, a Dallas, Texas firm that helps owners of lower middle market businesses navigate strategic exits. Jeremy has personally assisted in over 100 successful closing and brings 20 years of deal-making experience to every engagement.

This is a conversation about what it really takes to help someone walk away from the thing they built and what that teaches you about building something of your own. But before we get into all that good stuff, today’s episode is brought to you by my company, Ad Back Benefits Agency. Listen, if you run a business, you’re likely stuck in the cycle of rising insurance premiums. You’re paying more, but your team, they’re getting less. And many people can’t afford coverage at all. We do things differently.

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and the consultation is free. So imagine being the advisor that delivers incredible value by introducing this to your clients. See if they qualify today at addbackbenefits.com. All right, back to our guest today, founding partner of North Star Mergers and Acquisitions, Jeremy Ferdick. Thanks for making the time to share your story today.

Jeremy Furtick (02:42)
It’s great to be here, Anthony. Thank you.

Anthony Codispoti (02:44)
So Jeremy, you went to Texas A got a degree in journalism with a marketing minor. So walk me through, how does a journalism grad end up spending 20 years helping people sell their businesses?

Jeremy Furtick (02:59)
That could be its own episode telling the story about how I ended up where I am. But it all really started with, ⁓ I started out actually as an architecture major of all things and realized after about a year and a half that ain’t gonna work for a lot of reasons. ⁓ And really wanted to get into the creative advertising space. And my dad actually had a friend from high school that

Anthony Codispoti (03:02)
Ha ha ha.

Jeremy Furtick (03:29)
owned an advertising agency in Dallas that was a partner with an Aggie. And so I went to lunch with those two gentlemen and told them all about how I would be a great intern. And of course they never hired me. But what they did is they kind of set in motion the list of names they gave me and said, contact all these people, drop our name and see if they’ve got anything. That’s how I ended up with an internship with the Texas Rangers Baseball Club, which led to

a ⁓ job in the promotions department at KRLD News Radio in Dallas, which was the Rangers broadcast partner at the time, ⁓ which ultimately led me to a client in the &A space when I got into sales at the radio station, which ultimately led me here. So it’s an interesting story with a lot of twists and turns along the way. ⁓ So no, I tell people all the time, and especially my daughter who just graduated from college and my youngest daughter who’s just started college is

Don’t worry about it. Just do something that you like doing, that you could see yourself doing, and then allow opportunities to present themselves as you get older and into your career.

Anthony Codispoti (04:39)
I think that’s what I took away from the Reader’s Digest version of what you gave there is one door led to another led to another and you weren’t afraid to walk through them.

So taking back to the early days, how did you get like specifically foot in the door closing that first deal?

Jeremy Furtick (05:02)
Well, so the interesting thing is when I decided to leave radio and called up one of my clients and said, hey, I think I’m ready to entertain the idea of coming to work with you. ⁓ One of the things he told me was, ⁓ you’ve got six months, basically. You’re not gonna close a transaction sooner than six months. And if it takes you nine months, you’re in the wrong business. ⁓ So that was an interesting, you know, stepping into it.

with this idea of, yeah, yeah, really, especially my wife loved hearing that. But that first transaction happened, I started in June, closed it in December. So it was right under six months that window. And the first deal was a multi location thrift store operation here in the Dallas area. you know, it’s just you think about and I’ve never done one of those since.

Anthony Codispoti (05:32)
some pressure right off the bat.

Jeremy Furtick (06:01)
And what I learned from that deal is these transactions are hard. They are hard to close. Buyers are unique, sellers are unique, circumstances are unique. So it was very eye-opening getting that first transaction done. And then from there, I got a taste of it and just absolutely loved it and felt like I am certainly in the right spot. This is what I need to be doing.

Anthony Codispoti (06:29)
So that first deal, how did it get placed in your lap or did you have to go and source it yourself?

Jeremy Furtick (06:36)
That first deal was a, it was a lead that was generated through the company’s marketing efforts. So it came in as a cold call, so to speak, ⁓ an inbound lead that then of course followed up with and met with the owner or the owners and came up with a evaluation for their business and talked to them about their.

what they were trying to accomplish and then ultimately go through that process of taking them to market and finding a buyer. But yeah, where the lead originated would have been ⁓ based on our outbound direct response marketing.

Anthony Codispoti (07:13)
And what was something about closing that deal that surprised you? You mentioned how hard it was.

Jeremy Furtick (07:20)
⁓ Defining that specific deal, defining the inventory level, and you never really think about this. You think, okay, there’s a retail operation. They order product, they put it on the shelves. At any given time, you can pop into their books and you can tell what their inventory levels are. Or the thrift store, you’re getting donations. And one thing I found out about this business that was interesting was that industry, they buy inventory by the pound.

So these donation centers around the area that you’ll see, you know, some of them are tied directly to a retailer like Goodwill. They take in their own donations, they put it on their own shelves. But an independent thrift store or resale shop, they’re getting independent donations, but they’re also going through these, I guess call it inventory brokers, if you will, that are collecting gently used items, basically bundling them and selling them by the pound.

So to establish an inventory value when all of this stuff is on the floor is incredibly difficult because there’s not a price on each individual sweatshirt and stereo and crockpot that’s on the shelf. There is ⁓ a price per pound that they paid to get that. So we had to get creative in the sense of, ⁓ we basically established the inventory value based on churn rate. ⁓ This is how many times they turn over their inventory on an annual basis.

So this is how much they should have ⁓ at the closing as we’re trying to determine what inventory is being transferred in the sale. ⁓

Anthony Codispoti (08:56)
And so did you

assign the value of that inventory as some sort of a percentage of the retail price that was marked?

Jeremy Furtick (09:04)
No, it was really more about ⁓ how many times they place an order and what their total revenue is. And then backed out a margin and said, okay, this is what should be on the floor today. So it was, ⁓ and it was one of those things that it was, there was no science to it. It was really sitting down and understanding the inventory process with the owner and then sitting down with the buyer and saying, does this make sense? Does this work?

Anthony Codispoti (09:14)
Ahem.

Jeremy Furtick (09:34)
And a lot of that is that first deal, that’s one of the things I really took away from it was a lot of the decisions and the agreements that are made in these transactions is just what feels good and what makes sense to the parties involved. It doesn’t necessarily have to follow strict accounting principles or anything of that nature because a lot of these businesses, you know, they started from nothing and all of a sudden they built into this $50 million company.

that really the accounting practices haven’t necessarily caught up with the size of the business they are. So there’s some interesting aspects to that.

Anthony Codispoti (10:15)
Okay, so you close this first deal and just under the six month mark, so you met that metric for being in the right business. And where do you go from there? Are you staying with the same firm for a while?

Jeremy Furtick (10:28)
Yeah, mean, the firm evolved quite a bit. When we started out, we were a Main Street business brokerage. And then probably about eight, seven or eight years after that, we became an independent, started doing what we had been doing and we made it our focus to do larger transactions. But that first full year of mine in 2007 was maybe the most fun I’ve had.

⁓ working ever. ⁓ That was where it really solidified that I’m in the right place. I actually can do this, not to be arrogant, but okay, you can tell when you’re doing something and you’re good at it. ⁓ It felt right. I really enjoyed the aspect of the two sides of the transaction where you’re helping one person, the seller, achieve this dream of exiting their business and at the same time you’re helping a buyer.

⁓ achieve their dream of owning a business. And so there was a lot of gratification and we all look for ⁓ motivation and satisfaction in our jobs that we do every day. And I got an immense amount of enjoyment out of that aspect of.

Anthony Codispoti (11:43)
What do you think are the qualities that make for a good business broker?

Jeremy Furtick (11:50)
Wow, that’s tough question ⁓ because I think there’s a lot of different personalities and a lot of different skill sets that become successful. For me personally, what was really interesting was, going back to what you mentioned, I have a journalism degree with a marketing minor. ⁓ I’d never looked at a P &L before ⁓ in college. I didn’t have to do that, luckily, because it wasn’t something I was interested in. When I got into KRLD and started working with

with business owners, selling them advertising. The nature of KRLD being a news radio station is different than a music radio station. You sell directly to clients, business owners more often than not. It’s called direct selling versus agency selling. ⁓ So we would actually go in and sit down with a business owner and we’re trying to solve a problem. Their problem is I need more calls. I need more. ⁓

response, I need my advertising dollar to generate leads. And we’re trying to come up with a way of how can we use our tool, our radio station to be able to do that. And I found out real quickly doing that, that ⁓ I can’t speak that language effectively. And so I went back and got my MBA at that point. So I felt comfortable ⁓ sitting down and being able to talk about being able to analyze an advertising budget, being able to say this is

This is how this ROI should work. And doing that from a technical standpoint, but also on the creative side of being able to do those things. So it was really that background in radio that translated surprisingly into this industry, because what do we do in this industry? We sit down with a privately held business owner and say, we’re trying to figure out what’s your objective, what’s your goal, what’s your problem.

and we’re coming up with a way to creatively attack that problem and provide a solution. So at its core, it sounds crazy, but being an &A representative for the owners of businesses has a lot of similarities to selling direct advertising to them. There’s a lot of the same fundamentals. So for me personally, that was the thing I think that translated extremely well. And then of course there’s things like,

I think you have to have empathy. think you have to have appreciation for these business owners. Understanding that, and now being the father of two daughters, I can say this with confidence. It’s like marrying your daughter away. This is something that you’ve built that is inherently part of you. You’re emotionally attached to it. So it’s not a business transaction to you. It is on paper. But understanding that that’s the mentality of these business owners is really critical, I think, as well.

Anthony Codispoti (14:40)
So that’s all really helpful and interesting, the connection between the radio advertising and what you’re doing now. But clearly you’re doing something at this point, even early in your career, differently because three separate times with VR business brokers, 2007, 2013 and 2014, you win the agent of the year for closing the most deals. Like what is it that…

is sort of in that secret sauce that’s allowing you to be the first multi-year winner in history.

Jeremy Furtick (15:13)
Well, think a lot of it, you know, there’s a lot of factors. One of them is we’re in a great market. North Texas, Dallas, Fort Worth, Metroplex is a tremendous market. It’s a very eclectic economy. So no matter what sector of the economy may be struggling, whether it’s automotive, whether it’s energy, whether it’s financial, real estate, whatever it is, ⁓ the Metroplex kind of has it all. So one sector may be down, which might destroy another market that’s so

that relies on that industry so much, whereas real estate can be down in Dallas, but financial services can be soaring or energy can be soaring. So lot of it’s market driven. We’re in a great market. Another thing is being with the right people and I was with a great firm at that time. But the other thing I think is just kind of some of the things we talked about earlier, just having that willingness to

understand what is really motivating a seller to do what they’re doing, to even entertain the idea of selling and really being there for them is not just a business consultant or advisor, but as somebody that becomes a trusted member of their team. And every successful business owner will tell you, it took a team to get to where I am today. And so being part of that team.

whether it’s five years from the time they sell or five months from the time they sell and being part of that trust, ⁓ that circle of trust, if you will, is important as well.

Anthony Codispoti (16:50)
So you’re part of this great team. ⁓ You credit a portion of your success to that. But then at some point, you decide to leave that team. Talk me through the moment you and your co-founders, Tom Bronson and John Gorbit, decided to launch Northstar.

Jeremy Furtick (17:07)
Well, it’s, you know, when I first started, the realization hit me in right around 2014 that, I think I could do this on my own. And I think I could do it better. Not that it was bad. I mean, like you know, there’s a million ways to have a successful business. There’s a lot of different ways to do that. But there’s also every individual within those organizations has their own personalities and skills and opinions. And so,

It was about that time that I started thinking, you know, I think I could do this differently. I could do it better. And that seed was planted and I didn’t really get to the point. I mean, I was in a good situation. I had a lot of autonomy with what I was doing with the firm I was with. I had the freedom to develop a lot of systems on my own and kind of run my own business, ⁓ which was fantastic.

Then you start to get that itch. You get a little older. You start to look at a certain age in the distance and think, is there something more that I want to accomplish ⁓ personally? And there was a moment where some things happened that I just, I came home one day and realized and told my wife, that’s it. It’s time to do this. I’ve been thinking about it for a while, but now it’s time. And call it divine intervention or God-putting.

people in the right place at the right time. But about 10 days after I had that conversation with my wife, I went to a networking event, which in itself is interesting because I’m a terrible networker. I’ll just admit it. I don’t like doing it. A lot of it feels forced. We don’t need to get into all that. But I made myself go to this event ⁓ and I don’t know anybody there. And I see Tom across the hall. I knew Tom. ⁓

from a couple of different interactions. Back in Tom’s previous life, he was buying and selling businesses like crazy. So as a buyer, he had looked at a couple of my deals years and years before that when he was still in that mode of his professional career. So I knew Tom, but then we were actually the members of a networking group together where he was on the board ⁓ a few years prior to this meeting.

And so I got to know Tom in his next stage of his career where he had started a company called Mastery Partners, which was a business consulting firm. ⁓ Ran into Tom at this event and of course made a beeline to him because he’s the only person I knew in the room and I just didn’t want to stand there ⁓ looking like a moron in this room of 300 people. And you know, we exchanged some pleasantries real quickly and the first thing out of Tom’s mouth after that was

Have you ever given any thought to hanging up your own shingle? And you talk about just getting broadsided. I thought, you know, do you have surveillance equipment in my living room? How do you even know that this is something that I’m literally thinking about 23 hours a day? ⁓ And so I told him, yeah, it’s something that I’m playing around with the idea right now. And that’s where it all started. And at that time, I was considering other partnerships, doing it completely solo.

⁓ And then this opportunity came up and my wife was really pushing me to just do it on your own. You don’t need any help. You’ve been successful at this for almost 20 years. You can do this. You know, what does it take? And I was a little hesitant because, you know, I’m not a, you know, jump first, ask questions later person. I’m a little more analytical than that. So I like to at least have an idea of what’s going to happen.

before I make a decision or what the possible outcomes are. And so I told her, you know, I’m really on the fence. I don’t know what to do. So, you know, as you mentioned earlier, we’re Aggies, my wife and I both. And so we were driving down to College Station, making the three hour drive to go to a football game and visit our daughter that was down there. And I said, OK, we’re going to talk pros and cons the whole way down there, three hours. That’s all we’re going to talk about.

And we’re going to figure this thing out. What I need to do, because I can’t waffle anymore. I need to make a decision. And so we started with where I was, and cons for three hours. And then we ended on the way back for three hours with pros and cons of, not where I was, but doing it on my own. And then on the way back, pros and cons of partnering with Tom and John. And like I said, she was very vocal about, you don’t need help.

By the time we finished that six hour round trip and she looked at me and said, you need to get in the boat with these guys as quickly as you can. And that was really the moment where we got to sit down and talk about it and talk about all the pros and cons of both options and what it really looked like.

Anthony Codispoti (22:13)
So what’s the summary

of why it was better for you to go with these guys and go it alone?

Jeremy Furtick (22:19)
I think what it boiled down to is ⁓ I’d never done this before. Tom himself bought and sold over 100 businesses personally in his serial entrepreneur days. ⁓ Tom has built multiple successful businesses using a platform acquisition and bolt-on acquisition as well as organic growth. So when, not that I couldn’t do it on my own,

But I’ve got somebody there as a sounding board to say, what would you do? What should we do here? How would, you what’s your opinion? ⁓ And I can trust that, that experience. ⁓ That was one aspect of it that was extremely unique and appealing to me. The other one being John, John’s background being as a CFO and really working on the financial due diligence aspect from the buy side. You know, understand prior to this partnership,

my former firm, I did everything from soup to nuts, from the initial meeting to doing the valuation to writing all of the literature that goes out to promote the business, dealing with the buyers, negotiating, managing due diligence and closing. It was a solo act, which is great because I’ve done it all. So I know what it takes, but there’s parts of it I was better at than other parts and parts of it I simply didn’t like. ⁓ And I didn’t like

as much of the financial aspects of it. Well, John brings that to the table and is a wizard at valuations, at financial analysis, at due diligence management. So as we started to talk about all these pros and cons, those were two of the really, really appealing aspects of it was we’ve got somebody that’s built a business before. We got somebody that can take some of the less desirable aspects of this process off my shoulders as opposed to doing it on my own.

And then what I bring to the table is I’ve been in the weeds for 20 years almost at that point ⁓ doing deals. And so I understand how to create systems and processes that are going to allow us to ultimately grow this business. So those were really the key things that, you know, as we talked about the pros and cons that really appealed to, ⁓ I hate to say I convinced my wife that I’m not as great as she thought I was.

But that’s kind of what it was is look, look how much better I can be with these people.

Anthony Codispoti (24:48)
So there’s a part in the story early on, was right before you bumped into Tom at this networking event, that you said something happened personally that kind of nudged you in this direction. Is that something you’re comfortable saying more about?

Jeremy Furtick (25:05)
You know, wouldn’t say it was ⁓ that particular. It wasn’t really a personal issue. was it was professional. ⁓ The company I was with just just started to change. And like I mentioned before, I had operated in this autonomous kind of bubble ⁓ doing what I wanted, being very successful at it ⁓ and kind of building my own process and methods and business.

and referral network and all those things. And there just came a time where that bubble was about to explode and I needed to move on. were some things happening within the, well, bad things. There were just things that didn’t work for me. And so that’s where that motivation happened, where I just, at a point of frustration, just said, I’m done. It’s time to ⁓ move on.

Anthony Codispoti (25:57)
But even before that transition, that change was starting to take place at your previous firm, you already, and you were happy and you enjoyed working there and you were doing really well, you already had ideas for, I think we can do this better. And so what was it when you guys started Northstar, what was it that you guys wanted to do better? What was your idea on how to improve?

Jeremy Furtick (26:22)
Well, number one, ⁓ you know, there’s just that, I call it ego, where, you know, I want to be the buck stops here guy. I want to feel that responsibility and have those sleepless nights and wonder, you know, how this is all going to work out. was a desire to do that. Obviously, Tom being a serial entrepreneur had that. ⁓ know, John had been working with Tom for years. And so from their perspective,

What made sense at the time was Tom’s business that he had started Mastery Partners, the consulting firm, ⁓ their whole focus was on getting businesses ready to sell. So the reason Tom and John were thinking about we need to add an &A arm is because all these clients that they had been wildly successful with getting their businesses ready to sell and making them more attractive and more valuable, well, those clients then wanted them to sell them. Well, they weren’t set up for that.

⁓ They tried a couple of times. It wasn’t really successful. So that’s why, you know, we talk about divine intervention. And when I ran into Tom, I was 10 days into this brainstorming of a plan of how I was going to start my own firm. They were a couple of months into making the decision that we’re adding &A to our offering. And so when we got together, it was it was like, okay, the stars have aligned. ⁓

You know, the old idea of luck being where preparation meets opportunity. That’s exactly what this was. Call it a chance luck meeting, we were both ready. ⁓ But what we identified was there’s a segment of the market that’s underserved and call it that lower middle market. And everybody has kind of a different definition of what that means. But for us, it was businesses that really are too big for your main street business broker, but businesses that are too small to really attract.

investment bankers and ultimately, you large private equity capital companies, buyers. ⁓ So there’s a lot of really, really good businesses that are valued in that call it five to $25 million space ⁓ that are too big for one segment of the market and too small for another segment. But they’re great companies with great people that have a lot to offer. And so we felt like

we could bring a superior level of service and professionalism, bring it down to that level ⁓ while being able to serve a smaller, call it smaller market than what they’re used to getting that type of level of service or attention. So it was a very calculated move in who we wanted to focus on.

But even further than that, was this desire to ⁓ having a sister company and mastery partners that we could really be an asset. You don’t just need us when you’re ready to sell. You need us when it’s time to start thinking about selling. So I can’t tell you how many hundreds of times I met with owners ⁓ over decades that when I did their valuation for them, it was just not enough.

I can’t retire on that. The business is worth more than that. And there was really nothing I could do except, you know, give them some very generic idea of, here’s why your business isn’t worth what you want. And that was difficult to do outside of just saying, sell more stuff, make more money. That’ll make it more valuable. There’s so much more to it. Now I can meet with a business owner and have that same conversation and say, okay,

Let me introduce you to the guys over at Mastery Partners. They can walk you through how to make your business as valuable or more than you need it to be for this exit to make sense. That was a very unique offering in the marketplace. Nobody else has that. There’s a lot of companies that refer work to each other, which we are. mean, if you work with Mastery, you’re under no obligation to work with Northstar and vice versa.

Having that sister company mentality of these are people, we’re all kind of on the same team and we can be a resource for you even if you’re 10 years away from closing or selling or five years away. It doesn’t have to be, you don’t have to accept less than you think you’re worth if you’re willing to put in the time and work with a company like Mastery to grow it.

Anthony Codispoti (31:01)
So if I understand this correctly with Northstar and with Mastery Partners, you guys are funneling clients back and forth to each other where it makes sense for the client so that if you get somebody that comes to Northstar and they want to sell their business and you’re like, hey, this just isn’t ready. This isn’t going to get the valuation that you want. You can send them to your friends at Mastery. And what is it that they do there for folks? How do they get them ready to send back to you then?

Jeremy Furtick (31:31)
your mastery, they do a deep dive. They dig into, I think it’s a 300 point questionnaire, if you will. They want to understand every single aspect, nook and cranny of your business, you know, from revenue generation to marketing to operations to employee benefit to culture, sales processes, everything. And then they go through and tell you,

⁓ Here are the things where you really have a problem. Here are the things that are making your business unsellable or less valuable or, you know, there’s varying degrees of things that’ll make you unsellable versus less valuable. And then they lay out a roadmap and say, you know, here’s the low hanging fruit. Here’s the things you can do very easily. Here’s the things that are going to take more time. And here’s the things that are really long term projects. But if you’re in it for the long haul, then let’s do these things. And then they, they,

stay on as a consultant for you to have these monthly touching base to say how are things going. And it’s really depending on the scope of the project. mean, some clients are with them for 12 months. Some clients have been with them for eight years. And a lot of times these clients that thought they wanted to sell, all of sudden they get in there and fix all these things that Mastery shows them how to fix. They don’t want to sell anymore because all of a sudden this is fun and easy again.

I’ve taken owner dependency out of the equation and now I can go on a 30 day trip to Europe and I don’t have to check in the business runs. So there’s aspects of that where I think you hit the nail on the head when you said if it makes sense for the client to refer them back and forth. ⁓ Every mastery client does not need Northstar ⁓ and every Northstar ⁓ potential client does not need mastery. So we look at it when it makes sense, but it’s great to know that

We have that trusted resource to be able to move people back and forth if it makes sense for them.

Anthony Codispoti (33:36)
Hmm. So what are some of the biggest things that you feel are important to communicate to sellers?

Jeremy Furtick (33:48)
Wow, that’s a really good question. So I’ll try to whittle it down to most important. ⁓ There’s subjective aspects of this process and there’s objective aspects. There’s call it art and science, call it ⁓ data and fact versus opinion. It’s a true yin and yang, if you will, scenario. So the things that are…

really difficult sometimes to get across to sellers because they’ve never done this before. Most of them. Some have. They’re exiting multiple businesses in the past. But most of the time, this is the one biggest transaction they’re ever going to make. And it’s selling something that is near and dear to them. So I think that, you know, there’s one kind of call it subjective comment that I always try to get across to potential clients is you’re never going to get

the value out of this transaction that you think you deserve because you can’t quantify sweat equity. You can’t quantify blood, sweat and tears. ⁓ The only person that knows how hard it was to do what you’ve done is you and other business owners. But at the end of the day, valuation is really going to be driven by data. ⁓ Now there’s some intangibles in there and we have a part of our process. We call it the sellability scale and we rate.

10 aspects of your business that are more subjective and say, you know, when we give you a value for your business, we’re saying it fits into this range. Well, the, the sellability scale tells us, are you on the high end of that range or on the low end of that range? What, what makes your business attractive? But one of the things you don’t, you’ll never be able to claw back is that, that sweat equity. So understand that this is how valuation, how business valuation is driven.

And then here’s how we’re going to maximize it. I mean, that’s the next part of that conversation. ⁓ The other aspect that I really try to hammer home, and this is very, very specific, but it’s very ⁓ objective data point, is this is what working capital is, and this is why it’s included in your transaction. Because I can’t tell you how many deals get derailed ⁓ because a seller looks at

what working capital is as a functional, living, breathing thing ⁓ as theirs. I earn this, this cash is in the bank. I earned it. This AR is out for collection and we’ve already done the work. That’s my money. And it’s a very delicate conversation to try to explain in the context of these transactions. Yes, working capital is your money, but in one sense, but in the sense of a transaction,

It’s actually just another asset of your company. Just like, you know, you’re a trucking company, your trucks, a buyer can’t continue your business without the assets being the trucks. They can’t continue your business without the asset of networking capital. So that’s, that’s another ⁓ conversation I try to have a hundred percent of the time because it is, if I don’t, it’s something that will rear its ugly head later and,

Anthony Codispoti (37:06)
And I get

that as somebody who’s sold their business before, you know, I’ve provided the service or sold the product, I’ve got the cash in the bank, or I you know, I’ve got the accounts receivable that money’s coming to me, like that to me, that’s already mine. Like, you want working capital, like, bring your own cash to you know. But you’re but you’re clear and saying that that’s not how it works.

Jeremy Furtick (37:26)
Right, Yeah. And the one thing we always hear.

Yeah, exactly. And we hear this one a lot is, well, I didn’t have any working capital when I started the business. Right. You were starting the business. You weren’t buying a going concern ⁓ that, you know, and the explanation is always a buyer needs to be conveyed to them in the sale, what it’s going to take to continue operating the business in the same historical fashion that it has. Because what they’re paying you for is what you’ve done.

And whether or not they’re able to replicate that should not be contingent on you providing them adequate support, resources, assets, those types of things. most of the time, know, the sellers come around to the idea and understand it. But if you wait, if that’s a discussion you have while you’re negotiating a purchase agreement, that deal’s dead.

Anthony Codispoti (38:25)
that the sellers already worked out in their mind what the math is going to look like for them. And they’ve included that cash that’s in their company bank account as part of that equation. So tell us about this proprietary system you’ve built called the North Star Transaction Navigator.

Jeremy Furtick (38:32)
absolutely, absolutely.

Well, business or this process, of course, there’s two sides to this business, right? You’ve got ⁓ sellers that is primarily what we do is represent sellers, but you have to have buyers on the other side as well. I mean, you can’t have a successful transaction without a buyer. ⁓ The idea behind the transaction navigator was this idea that

you have to have a systematized process ⁓ in order for us to do what we want to do, which is be successful the vast majority of the time. And by success, we define that as not just selling the business, but achieving what our clients’ goals and objectives are. The first step in the transaction navigator is an exploration meeting. And that exploration meeting, we want to understand what are your motivations? What are your goals? What does your dream exit look like?

among other things, obviously, about the business, but we really want to understand that the person or the people, if there’s multiple owners. And that’s something we can always kind of harken back on is understanding that process of what is the reason we’re here and why are we doing this? And so the idea of the transaction navigator is we need to do the same thing every time we talk.

to potential client. We need to do the same thing every time we take a business to market, every time we manage due diligence, every time we close. It’s the same 10 steps. Now within those steps, every business is ⁓ inherently unique. Buyers are unique, sellers are unique, industries are unique, company cultures are unique, markets are unique, ⁓ economic conditions are unique. All those things make the individual steps feel unique, but

we’re still following this process. And of course, having a process like that, we’re able to explain on the front end to our potential clients. ⁓ You’ll always know where you are. You always know what it’s going to take. There’s, you know, I tell people all the time, taking someone through this process of selling a business is like leading someone blindfolded through a minefield. ⁓ I’m going to try to warn you.

about where all the danger is and all the bad things that can happen. And we’re going to avoid those things with me leading you. And then every now and then stepping on one of those mines is going to be unavoidable, but at least I’m going to tell you it’s coming. You’re not going to be surprised. So this process is meant to design that. And I had a manager at one time back in the radio days that I asked him one time, how do you manage a radio station? Because you have two diametrically opposed forces.

in the content creation, creative folks, and the business and sales revenue generation side of the operation. They never see eye to eye. They have very different motivations. ⁓ And he said something that stuck with me, and this is kind of the same way we think about these individual steps, is our job is to create the sidelines. And what happens on the field is going to be, you know, we let that happen based on the unique aspects of that particular, it’s like game planning and football.

You don’t run the same plays every game because every game is different. Every opponent is unique, but it’s the same field. It’s the same sidelines. Once you get outside of those sidelines, we got to rein you back in. And that’s what the 10 steps are in the, in the transaction navigator. ⁓ is this this way that we can stay organized on the, on the inside, ⁓ with, while conveying to our clients that we’ve got a plan, we know what needs to be done to get here. ⁓ but also.

within those steps being very customized in what we do.

Anthony Codispoti (42:35)
Jeremy, who is the ideal client for North Star Mergers and Acquisitions?

Jeremy Furtick (42:41)
Well, ideally, I’ll start broad and narrow it down. And, you know, our stated criteria is we will sell businesses valued between a million and a hundred million. And that sounds like a ⁓ vast gap, but there are some things that change when you get under a million dollars. There’s things that change when you get over a hundred million in value. We’re comfortable in that space in between. We’re industry agnostic, meaning that we’ll pretty much work with any business

so long as it’s profitable and marketable. ⁓ Now we tend to stay away from certain industries ⁓ just by nature and a lot of those have a lot of cash involved in them just because those businesses become extremely hard to sell because it’s hard to prove the financials. So we don’t do a lot of like restaurants, bars, ⁓ those types of businesses, car washes, things like that. Even when they’re multi-location really ⁓ valuable.

businesses if they can’t prove their financials that it becomes a real problem. Not that those aren’t sellable, it’s just not ⁓ our target. ⁓ Of course, we’re looking for privately held businesses ⁓ where you don’t deal in the public space. But when you really ⁓ narrow it down, ⁓ I mentioned this earlier, that $5 to $25 million enterprise value is really our sweet spot.

because we do things for those size businesses that they’re not used ⁓ to having done for them. There’s a level of service and professionalism and experience for those clients that it’s hard for them to find. So when we can bring a process like Transaction Navigator to them and show them how we do what we do and the expertise that we have and the way John’s gonna manage the due diligence process and…

It’s very eye-opening for them if they’ve talked to anyone else in the space. Geographically, we’re based in North Texas. We do work around the country. But primarily, if you start drawing concentric circles out from DFW, the majority of what we do is from, call it West Texas to the Red River to the East Texas Tyler Longview area down to Waco. That’s kind of our

our general core territory, place you can drive to and back from in a day without much trouble.

Anthony Codispoti (45:15)
Is that because you like to visit with them in person?

Jeremy Furtick (45:20)
You know, me personally, ⁓ it is. And of course, five years ago, everything changed with the way people do business. So it used to be much more important, but now everybody’s used to this type of virtual interaction. So that’s why we’re able to do deals around the country without much problem. But there is a certain ⁓ level of being able to sit down because every deal is going to have problems and there’s going to be difficult conversations. I’d much rather have those in person if possible.

So to be able to get out and see somebody but also to be able to when buyers want to visit a location I want to be there So being able to to make those trips easily is important But again that doesn’t stop us from from working with with businesses outside of that radius It just tends to be and I think there’s a certain level of of as a business owner It’s it’s reciprocal. You kind of like the idea of your advisor being able to to be

in your office when needed, knowing that they’re not too far away and it doesn’t take an act of Congress to get a flight to get out there and see them.

Anthony Codispoti (46:26)
So Jeremy, we talked in the early part of the conversation about that rush of closing the first deal, right? And that you were sort of hooked at that point, but there’s another side to this, right? There are the deals that fall apart at some point in the process. What does that feel like? And how do you figure out whether you’re going to fight for that deal or let it go?

Jeremy Furtick (46:48)
That’s a great question. And this gets back to the idea that every deal is very unique, but, you know, start with, again, there’s two sides to the transaction. There’s the buyer and the seller. So where’s the problem coming from? Is this a problem on the sales side? Is this a something’s been discovered in due diligence that no one was aware of that is giving the buyer pause? Okay, well, that’s a conversation about this is how that changes the deal, this discovery. ⁓

Does it still make sense? not does it make sense in this instance, but does it make sense going forward because this changes what we know. So it’s going to be the same for every buyer. So that’s one problem that’ll come up. Other times you have sellers that they just start to have a little bit of a change of heart. ⁓ This gets back to the exploration meeting and the very first step of this process. Did we properly identify a seller’s motivation? Because before we

enter into an engagement with these clients, we want to make sure we’re on the same page, that we’re all seeing this through barring some drastic unforeseen circumstance. We don’t want to work with someone that is kind of thinking about it. We want to work with someone that’s committed to doing this. So we avoid a lot of those problems. Now there are things that can happen. ⁓ I’ve had, know, ⁓ sellers, spouses pass away during the due diligence process unexpectedly.

Of course, that changes everything for them personally in their outlook and what they want to do. So some of those things are just, you know, they’re unique and drastic. But the bigger side, I think, is on the buyer side. When you talk about this fight or flight idea of when to fight for a deal, we try to make it clear to buyers very early on. We’re not selling anything. We’re not selling you a business. Our role, the way we look at it is

We’re providing you quality information in a timely manner where you can make decisions on whether or not this is the right deal for you. ⁓ The last thing I want to do is sell someone a business because then you start to have buyer’s remorse of, I really, you you don’t want have a buyer say, did I really make this decision or was I convinced that this was a good deal for me to do? So we try to avoid that, but

this idea from a buy side, there’s some red flags that will come up where you start to see, okay, this person is starting to waiver for one reason or another as they got into this process. And so that’s a conversation with the client to say, here’s what we’re seeing historically and in our experience, this is what you can expect is happening. So should we move on?

Should we try to force the issue a little bit? And we’ll have that conversation with the buyer as well. So not every transaction or every deal is worth saving. Because now having said that, we do have ⁓ a call it a motto or a saying in the office that every deal dies three times. That doesn’t mean we’re going to have three different buyers. That means every successful transaction with the same buyer is going to reach a point, a critical point at least three times.

where you don’t know if this thing’s gonna make it or not. So we prep our sellers for that, that there’s gonna be some rough patches. We just gotta fight through them as long as it still makes sense. If this is still the right thing, go back to that exploration meeting. Does this transaction still achieve your objectives, your goals, your motivations, is it still your dream exit? If that’s the case, then okay, let’s keep moving forward. If not, then let’s go find.

reevaluate or find another buyer that does accomplish that. So it’s an interesting and very, very personalized, if you will, ⁓ unique decision to make when a deal starts to feel like it’s struggling. ⁓ Number one, what’s the cause? And number two, is it worth fighting for?

Anthony Codispoti (51:01)
Jeremy, what’s the hardest thing you’ve ever had to overcome personally?

Jeremy Furtick (51:07)
Wow, well that’s ⁓ a interesting question ⁓ because I’m sure everyone has something that was the hardest for them. By definition, everybody has their hardest thing. ⁓ something that we went through, my family and I went through a couple of years ago was actually a house fire. So we had one daughter.

on her study abroad. had another daughter at drill team camp and my wife and I were sitting there in the living room on a Sunday night and we’re like, okay, we’re getting ready to walk out the door because our one daughter’s about to fly into DFW and our other daughter’s camp is at DFW. So we’re gonna pick up the older one. We’re gonna go drive by and say hi to the younger one. Cause she hadn’t seen her in a month. And it was gonna be this great Sunday evening until at 6 31, there was this incredible explosion that

The TV blew up. You know, the fire alarms started going off. Of course, the power was out. And my wife looked at me and said, we just got struck by lightning. And I ran outside. She was on the phone with 911. There’s smoke and flames coming out of the roof already. And when you talk about a catastrophic moment where everything changed from that point. So that the other thing that makes that

very interesting it was that happened exactly one month from the time that we announced the launch of Northstar. So now we had obviously been working on it for some time before that and so it wasn’t like it was only 30 days old but the official go-to-market date was 30 days before this fire ⁓ which you know you’re sitting there going are you kidding me?

I mean, could anything else be thrown, which of course it can, don’t ever tempt fate by saying, but I will tell a funny story though. It’s funny now, wasn’t funny then. Earlier that day, we were planting, replanting new bushes in the front yard that we had lost from this huge ice storm that we had had the year before in North Texas, actually all of Texas. Plants didn’t make it, so I was replacing them. ⁓ And I have this sharpshooter.

shovel and I’m digging the holes and doing all the things and I’m planting like 25 bushes and I get down to like the second or last last or second to last bush and I you know digging a hole and the shovel breaks and I’m exhausted I’ve been out here for hours and I just remember saying out loud could this day get any worse? Well let me tell you about three hours later the answer was unequivocably yes it can get much worse so I am really conscientious about

saying those things like that now. And I still have that shovel ⁓ with a little tag under it that says, there’s an expletive that says it can always get worse ⁓ as a reminder. But ⁓ that started this process of, it took us a year to to rebuild the house. I mean, it was a total loss. The house was destroyed. So yeah, so there’s a insurance definition of total loss and there is burned to the slab.

Anthony Codispoti (54:21)
just wiped out the fire wiped out the entire place.

Jeremy Furtick (54:30)
We were not burned to the slab, but I had a buddy of mine who’s a firefighter who told me ⁓ one of the first things they learned in fireman school is whoever gets to the attic first wins because if the fire’s in the attic, the volume of water coming down is gonna total the entire house. know, the fire was, the fire, have five different fire departments on our street putting out the fire.

The fire departments were incredible and incredibly responsive, ⁓ empathetic. mean, was, was a, it was a very emotional experience ⁓ to actually watch people out there literally risking their lives to save our crap. I mean, there was nobody in there. There were no pets. There were no people. ⁓ So it was, it was, you know, it was a very interesting emotional dynamic to see them going in and out, ⁓ fighting a fire that

that at the end of the day, did it really matter? You know, if I lost the suit coat or not. ⁓

Anthony Codispoti (55:36)
photographs, other,

you know, personal things that, you know, were you able to save some of those?

Jeremy Furtick (55:43)
So yes and no. I mean, it was kind of a mixed bag. There were parts of the house that, you you think about the stuff that you’ve got stored in plastic containers in the attic where there was some of that stuff was fine. If it didn’t get burned, the water didn’t bother it. Smoke damage didn’t bother it. And then there’s other things that are out because they mean something more to you that you like to experience and enjoy every day that were destroyed because they weren’t protected. But, you know, for the most part,

⁓ wait, it’s hard to say, ⁓ you didn’t really notice it until you move back in how much stuff you didn’t have. ⁓ which I, you know, like I mentioned, took about a year. We had a rent house, not too far away. mean, the insurance company was very helpful. ⁓ but, but we were able to find a rental property, ⁓ that was only about less than 10 minutes away, which was helpful when we started rebuilding, we were able to be here on a moment’s notice when we needed to be. But.

Anthony Codispoti (56:21)
So where were you living in between?

Jeremy Furtick (56:41)
When you get into the actually what made this hard, it was such an emotional swing. Our youngest daughter was entering her senior year of high school and now living in a rent house and her whole life was upside down. mean, the girl’s rooms were upstairs, so everything was destroyed. The only thing that really made it with any consistency was some stuff downstairs that we were able to salvage the night of the fire. ⁓

It became a, I mean, their personalities changed. You know, there was a lot of things that as parents, we sat there and struggled with, ⁓ you know, and me personally, a lot of, did I make the right decision? I mean, am I doing the right thing? Is starting this business ⁓ smart? Or did I just set my family up for an incredibly difficult time and potential failure? And what am I going to do? I mean,

I mentioned sleepless nights earlier, that was less about the business and more about circumstances of life. ⁓ And credit my wife ⁓ and girls for that matter, my daughters. It was easy to look at them on a daily basis and find that motivation and they plowed through it. ⁓ Of course, our dog became an emotional support animal for my wife and so she is our little.

Puppy dog is near and dear to me now more than she ever was. So I had some help. But at the end of the day, this, was, know, and I had a friend of mine who said something to me that will stick to me till the day I die, who had gone through some incredible personal loss, family members and friends that an inordinate amount of those things that happened in her life. ⁓ And I told her and I was in tears.

talking to her, this was the week of the fire, a very, close friend of mine. And I just said, the guilt I feel for people feeling bad for me because I lost some stuff. And then I’m sitting here, you’re helping me, you’re in my burnt house, trying to salvage stuff, digging through mess and wet sheetrock and insulation and all this stuff after what you’ve been through.

It’s and she said, just stop. You cannot compare tragedy. You can only deal with what you deal with. You know, you’re it’s you’re blessed that you haven’t had to deal with certain things, ⁓ but you can only handle what what’s put on your plate. And that is something that resonated so deeply with me at that time and helped me get through that because there was there was an outpouring of support for us by friends and family and neighbors and people we didn’t even know. ⁓

that were there for us and doing things for us and helping where they could, there was a guilt. Like, I don’t deserve this. You’ve been through, we had one lady in our house helping rummage through things that started chemo the next day. I’m like, what did we do to deserve any of that? But that comment about, don’t compare tragedies. You deal with what you deal with. And one thing my dad always told me was, ⁓

Don’t feel bad asking people for things as long as you know in your heart, you’ll be there for them. And that’s another thing that helped me get through that is, God forbid anybody has to go through this, but they’re gonna go through something. So it’s become a, ⁓ I mean, in reading like my daughter’s college essay that year and about how the fire affected her. She’s not a big talker and hearing those things, she’d never told us those things before. So reading her essay was incredibly emotional. All four of us really learned.

what it means to be part of a community and to be there, actually be there for people in whatever capacity you can and how important that is. so ultimately get back in the house and, and, know, ⁓ I feel a little guilty that I don’t think the business is where it could have been had I not had that. Well, of course that’s a no brainer statement. but, but my partners were incredibly supportive. ⁓ so we got through it and here we are.

And I think the four of us that went through this experience are just much, much more empathetic, ⁓ appreciative, and really better people.

Anthony Codispoti (1:01:11)
That’s great that you guys were able to take some ⁓ beneficial ⁓ advancements to your own personality traits. you know, the other thing I pulled from that story is ⁓ showing the bright side of humanity. You know, how many people that, you know, women going to chemo the next day, folks you didn’t know, you know, showing up to help you guys out. think that’s wonderful. So what does the future of North Star look like? What’s coming?

Jeremy Furtick (1:01:28)
yeah.

Anthony Codispoti (1:01:40)
What kind of growth plans, new services, what’s on the frontier?

Jeremy Furtick (1:01:45)
Well, getting back to that idea of why I was excited to partner with these guys, ⁓ you know, one of the first things we did at Tom’s direction was we need a 10 year plan. We need a 10 year plan and we need to break it into a one year plan, a three year plan and a five year plan. And, you we follow the EOS, the Entrepreneurial Operating System, ⁓ as closely as we can. But that’s something that

that we are tied to. So we look at those things from that scope. Our goal when we started this thing was let’s develop and prove the systems and processes. Let’s make sure that what is in my mind and our minds collectively, when it’s put into applicable use, it actually works. And then next step is an aggressive marketing program.

build our lead generation to a volume that we can’t handle anymore. And then step three, let’s start growing to handle that from a personnel standpoint. So where we are now is we’re in that aggressive marketing stage. We’ve proven the systems and processes, the clients we work with, of course, sing our praises, but almost more impressively are the buyers that we don’t represent.

that give us, know, unsolicited comments all the time in front of our clients. In fact, I had one earlier this week. Just wanted to let you know, Northstar’s process is incredible and you’re incredibly well represented. Those types of things, you know, we knew what we had. We knew we had some real gold here with our processes. So we proved those and now the next step is, okay, we’re going to commit.

some real marketing dollars to lead generation and let’s grow this thing now that we know the systems work. And so next year, you know, the goal is that we haven’t quite nailed down because it’s going to depend a lot on the right person, but is ⁓ it a second office or is it a ⁓ adding agents advisors to the office, to the operation we currently have? So those are the two.

ways we’re going to grow. ⁓ We don’t know yet, but that’s where we’re headed. Ultimately, want this to be a, I mean, of course, we want it to be a transferable business at some point. We want to be able to sell it. We want to be able to ⁓ live what we preach and that’s build a business that is sellable, that’s transferable, that’s valuable.

Anthony Codispoti (1:04:33)
Jeremy, I’ve just got one more question for you today. But before I ask it, I want to do three quick things for the audience. First of all, to get in touch with Jeremy and his business, go to their website, Northstar-mergers.com. Northstar-mergers.com. And by the time this episode comes out, their brand new website will be live. And so it’s worth going to check out because Jeremy was telling me off air just how much effort has gone into it. Northstar-mergers.com.

And if you’re enjoying the show today, please take a moment to subscribe wherever you’re listening. It sends a signal that helps others discover our show. So thanks for taking a quick moment to do that right now. And as a reminder, you can be the hero advisor that helps clients give their employees access to therapists, doctors, and prescription meds while paradoxically increasing net profits. Real gains that can change how a business is valued. Contact us today at addbackbenefits.com.

So last question for you, Jeremy, and you kind of already hinted at this a bit, a year from now, what’s a specific thing that you hope to be celebrating? And it can be personal or it can be professional.

Jeremy Furtick (1:05:46)
I’ll give you one of both. So I already talked professionally. My preference is ⁓ next year, we’re celebrating our second office and have someone in place there that is starting to build their team. And that would be a tremendous success to be able to do that considering all the things that I went through personally and my partners have been through personally that have made it ⁓

It seems like we can’t go a month without something happening that we have to deal with. We can’t just focus on the business, but that’s all right. ⁓ Personally, ⁓ my oldest daughter just graduated from college from Texas A another Aggie in the family. We moved her to Florida ⁓ to ⁓ start a job and it’s a 12 month training. ⁓ I would love for her to be back in Texas. I’ll be very selfish.

It’s a lot harder to go see her in Jacksonville. I’d love to have her back in Texas and it sounds like she’ll have an opportunity to do that. So that would be a real personal ⁓ celebration for my family.

Anthony Codispoti (1:06:58)
Awesome. Jeremy Furtick from North Star Mergers and Acquisitions. I want to be the first to thank you for sharing both your time and your story with us today. I really appreciate you being here.

Jeremy Furtick (1:07:08)
Anthony, it’s been great. I really appreciate you taking the time to talk.

Anthony Codispoti (1:07:13)
Folks, that’s a wrap on another episode of the Inspired Stories podcast. Thanks for learning with us. And if one thing stood out, put that into action today.