Jesus Wong·August 7, 2025

From 16 Years in Corporate to a $1m SDE Acquisition | Jesus Wong Interview

Jesus Wong is a Chinese-Mexican immigrant who grew up in Vancouver after his family moved from Mexico City when he was seven. After 16+ years in corporate finance — six years at KPMG and a decade at hedge fund Orbit Investments — he left at age 40 to pursue entrepreneurship, discovered ETA through the Acquiring Minds podcast and Cody Sanchez content, and reviewed over 1,000 deals before acquiring Gear Restore, the largest technical outerwear and gear repair company in North America. The business services major outdoor apparel brands including Patagonia, Arc'teryx, Canada Goose, and Helly Hansen across three locations (Denver, Philadelphia, Calgary) with ~85 peak-season employees and EBITDA close to $1M CAD on high-seven-figure revenue. The deal was structured with 10% buyer equity, 60% bank financing at 5% over 7 years (no SBA equivalent in Canada), and a 30% vendor takeback with both forgivability tied to EBITDA performance and an uncapped profit-share earnout for the seller. The key risks are severe customer concentration (top 5 brands = ~80% of revenue) and a TAM that may already be approaching its ceiling, offset by brand-agnostic positioning, sustainability tailwinds, and adjacency opportunities in technical laundry. Jesus closed June 30, 2025 — just 23 days before recording — and describes having 'caught the M&A bug,' with eyes on future acquisitions or independent sponsorship.

Deal facts

sde ebitda: EBITDA close to $1m CAD
revenue: high seven figures (CAD)
financing structure: 10% buyer equity + 60% bank loan (7-year amortization, ~5% rate) + 30% vendor takeback (forgivable seller note with earnout/upside profit share component)
notes: Canadian deal, no SBA. Business is a Canadian entity with US subsidiary operating in Denver, Philadelphia, and Calgary. Closing date June 30, 2025. Loan adviser: Joey Thai / Creed Capital. Top 5 brands = ~80% of revenue. Seller retained as consultant post-close.

Why this business

It's not a capital intensive business — we're talking about sewing machines. It's a service-based business where we can dial up and down the labor as needed. The business is the largest in North America in its niche (technical outerwear repair), has strong brand relationships that are sticky, and benefits from a sustainability tailwind. Being brand agnostic means if one brand falls out of trend, the next one that comes along they'll be right there for. Jesus also noted a personal connection: he had started a clothing line years earlier and saw the dots connecting.

What's working

Dominant market position as the largest technical outerwear and gear repair company in North America, servicing major brands like Patagonia, Arc'teryx, Canada Goose, and Helly Hansen
Sticky brand relationships — some with formal contracts and exclusive or near-exclusive arrangements underpinned by brand lifetime/ironclad warranty programs
Sustainability tailwind: growing consumer and brand interest in repair over replacement supports long-term demand
Asset-light, labor-flexible cost structure: ability to dial labor up or down with seasonal and market demand without heavy fixed capital
Revenue growing 10%+ year-on-year organically; first half of 2025 already tracking 10% ahead of prior year with no active growth initiatives by the new owner
Seller retained as consultant to pursue 'moonshot' adjacencies including technical laundry for ski resorts (e.g., Vail Resorts) and other new service lines
Strong deal team (loan adviser, specialist lawyer, QofE accountant) and rigorous diligence process gave Jesus confidence in the acquisition

What's hard

Severe customer concentration: top five brands represent ~80% of revenue, which was the biggest red flag in diligence
Total addressable market may be nearing a ceiling given the limited universe of brands that offer high-end lifetime warranties
Large, labor-intensive workforce of ~85 people at peak season across three jurisdictions (Denver, Philadelphia, Calgary) creates significant HR complexity
Multi-jurisdiction (Canada + USA) structure added significant transaction costs: two sets of books, dual tax diligence, currency conversion complexity, and FX fluctuation during due diligence
Transaction and closing costs in Canada are substantially higher than in the US due to a less mature ETA ecosystem and less competition among service providers
No SBA equivalent in Canada; financing required navigating big five chartered banks who are less familiar with individual searcher acquisitions, requiring a loan adviser to reach the right decision-makers
Industry outsider status had to be overcome with lenders by emphasizing transferable leadership and financial skills from corporate career

Notable quotes

It became such a powerful feeling for me that I couldn't ignore anymore. And then you know I guess spoiler alert it was the fact that I needed to be an entrepreneur.

I don't kid when I say I looked at thousands of deals. If I look at the CRM in front of me to be exact it's 1,086 deals.

The client concentration is quite severe. The top say five brands take up almost 80% of our revenue.

I wanted to stack all the unfair advantages I could. And one of those things I needed to do was partner with strong team members in my deal team.