Jacob VosWinkel·January 22, 2026

Buying a Platform with an SBA Loan | Jacob VosWinkel Interview

Jacob VosWinkel, a 28-year-old former capital markets professional from Texas, bought Floors Galore, a flooring business in Jacksonville, North Carolina, in July 2024 using a classic SBA self-funded search structure: ~70% SBA loan, 15% seller note, and ~15% equity (~$1M+) raised from 8 investors in two weeks. The business came with a GM running day-to-day, a cross-trained staff of seven, and an owner who was only on site 2-3 days a week — a clean handoff. Jacob had developed relevant skills through self-storage real estate investing (marketing, contractor management, revenue growth) before pivoting to ETA when rising interest rates killed deal flow. Since closing, the business has grown roughly 50% in revenue from the 2023 baseline (15% year one, ~22% year two), making 2025 its best year ever, driven by expanding the sales team, aggressive full-funnel marketing, and opening a second retail location in Myrtle Beach, SC. Jacob is building a roll-up platform in the highly fragmented independent flooring retail market (~11,000 stores, averaging $2-3M revenue), targeting stores along the East Coast from DC to Jacksonville, FL, and sees inorganic acquisition as faster than organic growth for reaching the scale needed for a meaningful exit or indefinite cash-flowing hold.

Deal facts

multiple: 3-4x SDE (self-funded searcher multiple; guest notes he may have paid slightly above what smaller stores trade for)
sde ebitda: SDE $750k-$1.5m range (target range stated; business described as 'better than average' flooring store)
revenue: better than average flooring store; goal is $10m revenue in 2026 (~50% above 2023 baseline)
financing structure: SBA loan (~70%) + 15% seller note + ~15% equity (~$1M+ raised from 8 investors); real estate included in SBA package; amortization ~14 years at prime plus 1 fixed for 5 years then floating; line of credit ~$250-500k; total debt ~$5M including real estate and LOC
notes: Closed July 2024. Business is 'Floors Galore' in Jacksonville, North Carolina. Real estate purchased alongside business, improving debt service coverage and bringing down monthly payment by more than $5,000/month vs 10-year AM. Guest was 26 at time of raising equity, 28 at time of interview. 8 investors on cap table. Equity raised in ~2 weeks via ~50 conversations.

Why this business

Jacob had a preference for construction-adjacent businesses in growing Sun Belt markets and was drawn to flooring because it lacked the capex of concrete businesses, the insurance burdens of roofing, and offered scalable B2B builder revenue alongside diversified retail. He saw flooring as a fragmented industry ripe for aggregation with low multiples, strong cash conversion in retail, and the ability to plug into national homebuilders' networks in new markets. The business specifically appealed because it had a GM/COO running day-to-day, a well-cross-trained staff, and an owner working only 2-3 days a week, leaving room to grow.

What's working

50% revenue growth from 2023 to 2025 (15% in first year of ownership, ~22% in second year), making 2025 the best year in company history
Diversified revenue mix between builder (B2B new construction) and retail segments provides natural seasonality hedge — retail picks up when builder slows in winter or bad weather
Well-trained, cross-trained staff capable of covering each other's roles, which was not fully diligenced pre-close but proved a major operational benefit
Owning the real estate alongside the business reduced monthly debt service by more than $5,000/month versus a pure business loan and improved the SBA amortization from 10 years to ~14 years
Equity raise of $1M+ completed in ~2 weeks from 8 investors via ~50 conversations — deal quality drove interest
Growing the sales team from 2 retail people at acquisition to ~4.5 salespeople across two locations drove new revenue
Significantly ramped marketing (full-funnel including billboards, TV, pay-per-click) to support both retail and builder sales in home and new markets
Opened second location in Myrtle Beach, SC (~2 hours south) for under $50k buildout and ~$5k/month rent, supporting operations from the home location
Customer concentration reduced from ~30% to 20-25% through growth diversification
Enterprise sales system built to market to flooring sellers for future inorganic acquisition pipeline; ~10 seller conversations in the past month

What's hard

New market expansion (Myrtle Beach) is going slower than expected; builder flywheel via existing customer introductions has not yet materialized — only ~10% of YoY growth from the new market, and almost all of it retail
Originally opened Myrtle Beach as a builder showroom, then had to pivot to retail-first after more industry experience — lesson about not assuming the thesis before operating
SBA loan limit is now maxed out, constraining future inorganic acquisitions from using the same low-cost SBA financing
Approval timelines for new vendors at public homebuilders run 6-9 months, slowing the geographic expansion thesis
Long-distance personal life: fiancée eventually had to return to Austin (employer required return to office), so Jacob commutes back nearly every weekend — very high personal sacrifice
Jacksonville, NC is not easy to reach — 2 hours from Raleigh, 1 hour from Wilmington — lots of connecting flights
Flooring is highly competitive with ~11,000 independent retailers; large metros are hard to compete in due to big players crowding out smaller ones
Finding stores large enough ($5M+ revenue) for the acquisition buy box is difficult; most stores are $2-3M average and too small to professionalize and put debt on
Brand building and organic growth via new store openings takes 2-3 years to reach average flooring store revenue, making it slower than inorganic acquisition for reaching scale

Notable quotes

The ceiling in my trading career was much lower than I saw on my own even before ETA.

In small business ownership, growing and building something is a lot more rewarding.

The deal is what brings the capital much more than the person. So if you have a good deal, at the end of the day it will likely get funded.

I think we could be there in 18 months — actually into your pocket, a million dollars a year. That being said, I don't think that's what's best. Further acquisitions, further balance sheet growth, reinvesting in the business — it provides more opportunities for both our staff to grow and to hire additional people and to build a more interesting business.