CFD 438 – Buying a Business By Thinking Like An Investor

January 8th, 2018

Israeli businessman, investor. Founder of ABD assets – a leading international investment group, Moran Pober is former IDF (Israel defense forces) soldier. He has had extensive dealings with many entrepreneurial projects. Moran has been involved in many companies including iTips, top 100 app in 100 stores around the world in the app store including US,CA and UK.

Moran also carried out extensive consulting assignments with many companies, and he’s now on the hunt for acquisitions of companies he can help turnaround, merge or help grow towards exit/IPO.

Podcast Highlights

  • Who is Moran Pober?

At the end of the day Moran is just a human trying to grow and contribute in any way he can.

Moran is looking for businesses that either he can grow or someone that he knows can grow. He realized that he prefers to own a business rather than running the day to day operations. Moran treats buying a business as an investment in the traditional sense.

  • What was the experience like when you bought your first business?

Before buying his first business, Moran was running a successful marketing agency, an ecommerce store, and a software business. The first business Moran bought was a less than successful app business that he made some tweaks to and ended up putting their product into the top 100 products of app stores all over the world.

Moran used the basic strategy of identifying an app that was already doing really well in the app store and then looking for ways to improve on it. He looked for the low hanging fruit instead of something ambitious or more complicated.

You don’t have to be first, success can come from just being a little bit better than the competition.

A big mistake that many people make is starting from scratch in an area where they don’t have any expertise.

  • How did you go from where you were to buying a business?

The art of the deal is what drew Moran to looking for more businesses to buy. He enjoys the negotiation and experience of new businesses more than the operation of an existing business. The mentors he encountered and the circumstances he ran into put Moran on his current path.

  • How did you go about developing a plan for the next step?

After enjoying his success, Moran began looking for ways to create more fulfillment and impact.

Having amazing partners has been a key to Moran’s success. Business is business, as long as there is more money coming in than going out, it’s a viable option.

  • What businesses have you enjoyed the most?

Anything to do with sales and marketing. Being able to take synergies from one business or industry and applying it to another is one of the best parts of exploring new businesses.

At a certain point, a business has to buy other businesses in order to keep growing.

  • Is there a theme to the types of businesses you look for?

Moran looks for businesses that would make sense for the people he has around him rather than a particular vertical.

By having buyers set up already, Moran can bring on other business owners that are looking to sell and help connect them together.

  • What would help entrepreneurs get into the state of deal flow?

You have to be willing to skip the startup phase and instead get into businesses that have been around for a while. Seek out mentors that can show you the ropes and do whatever you have to to get them to help you figure everything out.

Your fear doesn’t matter, if you want to succeed you must push through.

  • Moran’s Takeaway

Hell on earth would be to meet the person you were going to be. Life is short, find someone who has done what you want to accomplish and do whatever it takes to learn from them and achieve your goals.

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