He Reviewed 200+ Agencies on LinkedIn Before Buying the One Nobody Was Marketing

Karl Hughes is a former CTO who founded a technical content marketing agency, scaled it to roughly $2.5 million in revenue, and then went looking for a second business rather than simply growing the first one bigger.

Sourcing without a broker

Hughes's approach, described on the Buying Online Businesses podcast, was almost entirely manual. Rather than working a marketplace or broker list, he reviewed more than 200 digital service agencies directly and reached out to owners through LinkedIn. In 2023, that process led him and a co-buyer to The Podcast Consultant, a podcast editing and production business serving financial and business podcasts, with a team of a dozen-plus editors already in place.

The appeal of a business like this over a typical marketplace listing: agencies that aren't actively for sale, and haven't been shopped to every other buyer running the same search, tend to come with less competition on price and terms.

Financing without giving up full ownership on day one

Rather than paying entirely in cash, the deal combined an SBA loan (structured with roughly 10% down plus working capital, the common shape for this kind of financing) with a revenue-share arrangement paid to the seller over time. That structure meant less capital was needed up front, while the seller kept some ongoing stake in the business's performance after handing over the keys.

Lessons for the buyer

• Off-market outreach works for service businesses too, not just e-commerce or content sites. A structured, direct search through LinkedIn found a deal that a broker-driven search likely wouldn't have surfaced.
• A business that isn't actively for sale is a different negotiation than one that is. Fewer competing buyers usually means more room on price and structure, but it also means you're doing the qualifying work a broker would normally do for you.
• SBA financing and a seller rev-share aren't mutually exclusive. Combining the two lowers the cash you need at close while keeping the seller financially invested in a smooth handover, worth asking about even when a lender-standard structure is already on the table.
• A service business's real asset is its team. With a dozen-plus editors already in place, retention and continuity of the people doing the work mattered as much to the deal as the client contracts themselves.