Matt Barnes·December 4, 2023

The Power of Conviction in Buying a Business | Matt Barnes Interview

Matt Barnes left a private equity and corporate finance career in Denver to buy a small commercial/industrial laundry business specializing in table linens for weddings, events, and hospitality across Colorado's Front Range. After nearly launching a traditional search fund in 2020 and pausing at his wife's request, he restarted his search in September 2022 with a geographically tight but industry- and size-agnostic approach, supplementing broker relationships with an aggressive proprietary door-knocking campaign that built goodwill even when it didn't directly produce his eventual deal. The acquisition (roughly $400k in SDE, north of $1m revenue, financed via SBA loan) nearly collapsed twice: a fire destroyed the facility's linen inventory weeks before closing, and the sellers walked away entirely over minor contract language just before close, only to return days later. Barnes frames the whole story around conviction and values, drawn partly from his Christian faith and a grandfather's plumbing and ranching background, emphasizing a deliberate 'earn the right to be heard' philosophy of not disrupting a working business too quickly, a genuinely aligned partnership with his wife, and an explicit long-term, permanent-hold intent rather than optimizing for a quick resale.

Deal facts

multiple: ~3x SDE (asking); paid about what it was listed at
sde ebitda: SDE/earnings around $400,000
revenue: north of $1 million
financing structure: SBA loan (underwritten by a banker named Kevin)
notes: Business was listed by a broker with 15 LOIs received; Barnes's initial LOI was rejected for a higher pure purchase price offer, then accepted after he raised his offer slightly and sent a handwritten letter. Deal nearly died twice: once when the laundry facility caught fire and destroyed inventory/linens (70-90k in linens) right before closing in February, and again days before close in March when sellers backed out over reps-and-warranties language, then returned four days later after a minor retrade.

Why this business

Barnes ran a geographically-constrained (75-mile radius of Denver), industry-agnostic, wide-earnings-range (200k to 3m) search after concluding that private equity work made clear the real wealth creation was in being an outright owner, not an advisor to owners. He found the laundry business through a fellow searcher friend who passed him a deal that was slightly too small for his own search. Barnes and his wife felt convicted this was a good, simple, stable business (commercial/industrial table-linen laundry serving the Front Range of Colorado) with strong customer retention, high-quality craftsmanship from a long-tenured staff, and a niche (table linens for hospitality/events) that differentiated it from larger, less specialized industrial launderers.

What's working

Extremely high customer retention driven by decades of consistent quality and service, without needing contracts
A specialized niche (table linens for weddings/events/hospitality) that differentiates from larger generalist industrial launderers
Experienced, tenured staff (plant manager with 11 years) with genuine craftsmanship pride in finishing/pressing linens
Deliberate 'earn the right to be heard' approach: making no rushed operational, staffing, or technology changes in the first six months so as not to disrupt what already worked
Deep alignment with his wife as a true financial and decision-making partner in the business
A permanent-hold philosophy that removes pressure to over-optimize for short-term resale (e.g., not chasing contracted revenue purely for exit multiples)
Proprietary door-knocking search generated strong relationships and deal flow (60-80% owner-conversation hit rate from ~120 business visits), even though the eventual deal came from a broker/fellow-searcher referral

What's hard

A fire at the laundry facility destroyed inventory and linens weeks before the original closing timeline, requiring weeks of remediation and a renegotiated risk calculus around customer retention
Sellers pulled out of the deal entirely just before closing over minor reps-and-warranties contract language, deleting him from data-room access, before returning four days later after an emotional reset
Serving as an unofficial deal intermediary during proprietary/off-market conversations was emotionally exhausting, including having to deliver unwelcome valuation feedback to owners
Balancing full transparency and emotional investment in a deal against the professional advice to stay detached and be willing to walk away or retrade
Table linen laundry has no formal customer contracts, meaning revenue is 'recurring but not contracted,' which private-equity-minded buyers would flag as a risk at resale
Total addressable market for his specific table-linen niche in his service area is limited, meaning growth requires either acquiring adjacent small laundries or eventually diversifying into other industries

Notable quotes

I traded Excel macros and Outlook calendar invites for 120 inch Roundtable Linens and wrenching on Steam boilers.

There was a moment kind of early September where I kind of looked myself in the mirror and said, hey Matt, you are going to buy a company in one year's time.

The demarcation in time at the beginning of September promising myself that I would buy something was pretty huge I think for the aggression that I took on search with.

I've talked to quite a few of Searchers since I've transacted and... if I leave them with anything I always say like there was a moment... you better really commit to yourself you're going to do it.

I feel really convicted that Searchers should earn the right to be heard with all of the counterparties before putting on the consultant operational efficiency hat and changing everything.

The wealth generation slice of my pie was just not big enough and I know myself well enough now to know that that's not why I'm doing these things.