Andrew Blazenko·May 4, 2026

A $800k Business to Start, $60m Portfolio Today | Andrew Blazenko Interview

Andrew Blazenko is a 39-year-old Vancouver-based independent sponsor who built a $60m revenue portfolio of six acquisitions after starting from a business brokerage and M&A advisory career at Deloitte Corporate Finance and Sequoia M&A. His first acquisition, Knightsbridge Property Services (exterior cleaning, ~$800k revenue, ~$250k EBITDA), taught him the critical lesson of operator-business fit the hard way — poor operator fit led to key employee attrition and stagnant EBITDA. His second meaningful acquisition, ProSafe First Aid (a first-aid and safety training school), purchased for $950k with $310k EBITDA using $700k bank debt and $250k equity, has become the centerpiece success story: under operator Colin's leadership the business grew to $7-8m revenue and $1.5m EBITDA, drawing unsolicited offers implying 45x MOIC and ~100% IRR. His largest deal, TrueFoam (expanded polystyrene manufacturer in Atlantic Canada), was acquired for $41m ($19m business + $22m real estate) with a $32m revenue and $8m EBITDA profile, sourced through an operator-first approach — Andrew found Josh Plamondon, an industry expert who had no equity in a competing firm, and Josh identified TrueFoam. The episode's central insight is Andrew's institutionalized model of finding operators obsessed with ownership before hunting for businesses, combined with an executive-in-residence pipeline, allowing him to compound across acquisitions while maintaining a semi-passive lifestyle.

Deal facts

purchase price: First acquisition (Knightsbridge): not stated; ProSafe: $950k; TrueFoam: $19m business + $22m real estate = $41m
sde ebitda: Knightsbridge: ~$250k EBITDA; ProSafe at acquisition: $310k EBITDA, now $1.5m EBITDA; TrueFoam: $8m EBITDA ($6m business + $2m rent)
revenue: Knightsbridge: ~$800k; ProSafe at acquisition: ~$1.2m, now $7-8m; TrueFoam: $32m; Portfolio total: $60m
financing structure: ProSafe: $700k RBC bank loan + $250k equity, no seller note; TrueFoam: $22m mortgage (100% LTV, 25-year) + $12m loan at 4.5%, 10-year amortization + ~$8.5m equity raised from LPs
notes: Portfolio of 6 acquisitions total. Total portfolio EBITDA $12.4m + $2.3m real estate rent = ~$15m. Real estate holdings valued at ~$34m. ProSafe has received unsolicited offers implying 45x MOIC and ~100% IRR on equity invested.

Why this business

Andrew came from a business brokerage and M&A advisory background and saw firsthand the fantastic returns buyers were generating. He wanted to build a portfolio of cash-flowing businesses akin to how his parents built wealth through real estate — income-producing assets held alongside a career. He chose each specific business based on a combination of strong economic moats, recurring demand, and most critically, finding the right operator whose skills and obsession with ownership matched the business.

What's working

Operator-business fit: Andrew's core competitive advantage is finding operators with both domain expertise and genuine ownership obsession — exemplified by Colin at ProSafe and Josh Plamondon at TrueFoam
ProSafe's instructor flywheel: top students are recruited as instructors, driving quality referrals and student growth without heavy marketing spend
TrueFoam's geographic economic moat: expanded polystyrene cannot be shipped more than ~500 km economically, making local manufacturing a near-monopoly; TrueFoam faces only one competitor across three Atlantic Canadian provinces
Real estate ownership alongside operating businesses adds a significant capital asset base ($34m in property) and rental income (~$2.3m/yr)
Executive-in-residence program: Andrew maintains a pipeline of vetted operators who receive deal flow and compensation for diligence, aligning incentives before an acquisition closes
Dual sourcing strategy: simultaneously hunting for great businesses (500+ teasers/year, ~1 acquisition per year) and great operators (then building a proprietary search around their expertise)
Key employee retention at ProSafe: the curriculum developer who said he would retire within 2 years stayed 6+ years due to the positive culture Colin built

What's hard

First acquisition (Knightsbridge) failed to find the right operator-business fit, leading to key employee attrition, declining service quality, and stagnant EBITDA despite revenue growth
Low barriers to entry in exterior cleaning (Knightsbridge): any entrepreneur with a $500 pressure washer and ladder can undercut on price
Raising LP equity capital in Canada is significantly harder than in the US — US investors default to domestic deals and put cross-border Canadian deals in the 'too hard pile'; most of TrueFoam's raise came from close personal relationships and took 2-3 months post-LOI
Trusting operators requires genuine confidence in one's ability to replace them — Andrew admits this model is not right for everyone, especially first-time buyers who may not have the networks or tolerance for that risk
Salary compression challenge: senior operators coming from large businesses may earn far more than a small acquisition can support, requiring equity and carried interest to bridge the gap

Notable quotes

There's some people who get rich and buy fancy cars or fancy houses and they're never happy. This is the one time where I've seen pure joy, pure happiness, and I wanted a piece of it for myself, so I started buying businesses off the side of my desk.

Finding a really good business is more difficult than finding a really good operator. There's a lot of fantastic people that I've found and they'd all be great at running certain businesses.

They have to have a desire to have ownership. And desire's too weak of a word. It's almost like an obsession towards ownership.

Without negotiation, those offers result in a 45 times multiple on invested capital and close to 100% return on invested capital per year.