Episode 120

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Published on:

27th Jun 2024

Ep. 120 Partnering with PE with Tony Zaccario, President & CEO at Stretch Zone

Topics:

  • Exploring the Benefits of PE
  • Building Your Team for Success 
  • Insights for First-Time Franchisees 

...and so much more.

Top Takeaways

  • Advice on selling your business. Reflecting on his experience with Stretch Zone, Tony stresses the importance of seasoned advisors. Their guidance was crucial, allowing him to concentrate on daily operations. He highlights the value of investing in a strong team and advisors, as they are key to a successful sale. Tony also emphasizes patience and strategic management during the often lengthy PE sale process.
  • Balancing your business while selling. Tony managed both running and selling Stretch Zone by relying on his team with managing daily operations and the sale process, ensuring the business could function independently. Finding a balance between managing the sale and maintaining core functions is important to keep your organization running smoothly. 


  • How to navigate being a first-time franchisee. Tony advises that buying an existing business can present challenges due to the location's already established culture. For first-time franchisees, he recommends starting with a new franchise to gain essential experience before considering the purchase of an existing business. Ultimately, being passionate about the franchise, rather than solely focusing on financial gain, will allow you to become a more successful operator.
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About the Podcast

Investors & Operators
A Podcast by 51 Labs
The M&A market can be boring, but everyone has a story. The Investors & Operators podcast is about discovering the stories people were holding back, didn’t know how to tell, or forgot about. The goal is simple: fresh, authentic storytelling to bring people together in the M&A community.

With over 1M organic views and counting on LinkedIn, 51 Labs is disrupting the M&A market through the use of videography and content creation. In a market that longs for authenticity, 51 Labs helps strengthen your brand and tell your story. From concept to distribution, we strategize and produce thoughtful content to be used across a multitude of channels, to help you stand out in an otherwise traditionally boring market.

New episodes every other Thursday at 6:00am Eastern.

About your host

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Jordan Selleck

Founder. Recovering Investment Banker. 3x Entrepreneur. Philz Coffee Enthusiast.

Jordan Selleck is a recovering investment banker turned 3x entrepreneur. While teaching English in China, Jordan met an investment banker in a bar and before he knew it he’d spent six years in cross-border investment banking advising global corporates and private equity firms on M&A deals up to $250 million.

As much as Jordan loved investment banking, he always knew he was meant to do something more. In 2016, Jordan founded Debtmaven, a deal management platform for debt financing in the lower middle market. It was while he was marketing Debtmaven on LinkedIn that Jordan found his true passion: building meaningful relationships in the lower middle market.

Seeing over 50% of Debtmaven’s $450million+ in deals come from LinkedIn, he realized he’d found an untapped market and began his journey with LinkedIn consulting. Dozens of clients and a handful of extraordinarily talented employees later, 51 Labs is a thriving marketing agency for the lower middle market that produces captivating content and generates organic traffic across LinkedIn.

Jordan was born in San Diego, grew up in North Carolina and attended UNC-Chapel Hill. He has traveled to 32 countries, lived in China for 18 months, trains Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, is a fourth-generation private pilot, SCUBA dives, speaks Mandarin Chinese, and is a husband and father of 2.