Seattle Small Business & ETA Group

Monthly SMB/ETA Happy Hour

Tue, May 19 · 5:00 PM PDT

Obec Brewing, 1144 Northwest 52nd Street, Seattle, WA, US

Our next happy hour will be on Tuesday, May 19th, roughly 5-8pm, at Obec in Ballard. Also, special note — hold your calendar for a speaker event on June 2nd, more details to follow.

As always, open invite, no need to RSVP.

If you're new to the group and want to be added to the Whatsapp group, please send me a message in Whatsapp to +1 425 591 4804 and I can add you.

If you're a new member, please check out my blog about all things small business/ETA: https://bigdealsmallbusiness.substack.com/

Thanks,
Kaustubh

SMB/ETA Speaker: Jacob Hall of Kando Capital

Tue, Jun 2 · 5:00 PM PDT

Swedish Club, 1920 Dexter Avenue North, Seattle, WA, US

The search playbook of 2019-2021 no longer works. On June 2nd, come listen to Jacob Hall, Managing Partner at Kando Capital, talk through why that playbook is dead and what today's searchers need to do to adjust.

Jacob Hall is an active investor in search fund transactions and serves on the MBA Advisory Board at UT-Austin's McCombs School of Business. He also leads the school's Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition and Search Fund program.

Sponsored by Northwest Bank and TreeWalk -- please take a minute to read about them below, as this event wouldn't be possible without them.

Agenda:

• Doors Open: 5:00pm
• Happy Hour Part 1: 5:00pm-6:15pm
• Speaker Begins: 6:15pm-7:00pm
• Open Q&A: 7:00pm-7:30pm
• Happy Hour Part 2: Until 9pm

A big thank you to our two sponsors, who make this event possible for our Seattle-Area ETA/SMB community. Please consider working with them on your next SMB acquisition:

• Northwest Bank (Lisa Forrest & Sarah Andrews): two of the most-experienced SBA lenders supporting the ETA search community.
• Treewalk (Avnit Sekhon): Highly-experienced provider of Quality of Earnings + Buyside Due Diligence support for SMB acquisitions.

How to Get in Touch:

• Northwest Bank: Join Lisa & Sarah at their weekly SMB Info Power Hour Zoom. Otherwise, call or email at Lisa(dot)Forrest(at)Northwest(dot)com and Sarah(dot)Andrews(at)Northwest(dot)com
• TreeWalk: Email Avnit directly at Avnit(dot)Sekhon(at)TreeWalk(dot)com

More About Lisa Forrest from Northwest Bank:
Lisa Forrest is a nationally recognized authority in lower middle market acquisition finance and one of the most established leaders in SBA-backed M&A lending. With more than 38 years of banking experience, she has structured and advised on complex transactions nationwide, guiding searchers and SMB acquirers through deals up to $25 million in enterprise value.

Now at Northwest Bank, Lisa continues to expand her impact within the ETA and independent sponsor ecosystem, delivering strategic SBA financing solutions built for acquisition entrepreneurs.

Prior to joining Northwest Bank, Lisa built and led the national search fund lending vertical at Live Oak Bank, helping shape one of the most active platforms serving the search community.
She is widely regarded as a go-to advisor for lower middle market SBA deal structuring and acquisition strategy.

More about Avnit Sekhon from Treewalk:
Avnit Sekhon is a CPA and the Director of M&A at Treewalk, where he leads the firm's Transaction Advisory practice. Over five years at Treewalk — and with roots at Deloitte — Avnit has built one of the most respected Quality of Earnings practices in the SMB deal community, completing hundreds of QoE engagements across North America and globally.

He's known in the ETA space for translating complex accounting into the language buyers actually use — surfacing the add-backs sellers can't defend, the working capital traps, and the customer concentration risks that deal books tend to bury.