Episode 60
Buying a Business in the Era of Mass Retirement
June 8th, 2026
42 mins 42 secs
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About this Episode
Brandon Mendez, Ph.D., CPA, Professor of Finance at the Darla Moore School of Business at the University of South Carolina, joins Stephan in the studio for a conversation on the wave of business acquisitions reshaping private markets right now. With a generation of business owners hitting retirement age at the same time, private equity firms are moving fast, and individual buyers are competing in a market that is more crowded and more complex than it has ever been. Brandon and Stephan work through how to evaluate multiples and what seller discretionary earnings actually obscure, why PE has a structural advantage that individual buyers rarely overcome on price alone, how AI is beginning to shift the talent calculus for anyone acquiring a business, and what the financial statement red flags look like before you sign an NDA and after.
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