Directory Changelog

July 17, 2026 (round 20: the operator's newsletter and the route broker; verified inline)

• 2 added (97 total): Big Deal Small Business (Kaustubh Deo's free Substack, publishing since 2021 and active through July 2026; the operator-perspective read from a self-funded buyer years past close, verified from the Substack's own about and archive pages) and National Pool Route Sales (the specialized pool-route brokerage; its FAQ publishes the 10-to-12-times-monthly-billing pricing convention, a 90-day account-replacement guarantee, and a 10% to 20% escrow holdback, while its own brokerage fee stays unpublished and is said so).
• Both were queue items from the round-16 research notes (newsletters, route brokers).

July 17, 2026 (categories: Templates dissolves into its neighbors)

• Category dissolved (migration 0018): the two-row Templates & Documents shelf split to where its rows belong: the SMB Law Group LOI template to Legal (it is a law firm's document) and ProjectionHub to Valuation & Modeling. The site's own Templates & Downloads page made a directory shelf by the same name a collision waiting for a reader. The old category URL redirects to Legal.

July 17, 2026 (categories: YouTube folds into Podcasts)

• Category merged (migration 0017): the two YouTube channels moved onto the podcast shelf, now labeled "Podcasts & YouTube." Same errand (long-form conversation and instruction from people who bought, consumed by listening or watching), and a two-row category earned its own shelf less than the shelf earned honest labeling. The old category URL redirects.

July 16, 2026 (round 19: the broker category exists now; verified inline)

• Category added: broker (Business Brokers & M&A Advisors), migration 0016. The directory covered loan brokers, franchise consultants, and every advisor except the intermediary who runs most Main Street sales.
• 2 added (95 total): IBBA (the anchor: free member directory, the CBI credential, and the quarterly Market Pulse whose Q4 2025 highlights the site's multiple benchmarks already cite) and Raincatcher (national sell-side shop, $3M–$100M revenue, openly published listings; success-fee pricing is consultation-gated and third-party fee figures were left out per the pricing rule).
• 2 evaluated and not added: Calder Associates (middle-market floor at $5M+ revenue sits above most searcher deals; headline performance claims are self-reported) and CAPTARGET (mid-acquisition by SourceCo; re-evaluate once the combined offering and pricing settle; it stays on the watch list).

July 12, 2026 to July 16, 2026 (catch-up entry, reconstructed from git history)

Sixteen resources shipped in parallel-session rounds without changelog entries; recorded here so the public record matches the directory. Added: Affinity and HubSpot CRM (the CRM ladder around Pipedrive), BakerHostetler's search-funds practice and Barlow & Williams (legal), Booth-Kellogg ETA Conference and Main Street Summit (communities), Chenmark Weekly Thoughts and The Business Inquirer (newsletters), DealStream and Route Consultant (marketplaces), Endurance Search Partners, ETA Equity, and Smash.vc (capital), IESE International Search Fund Center and Permanent Equity's free library (education), and Viso Business Capital (loan brokers).

July 12, 2026 (round 18: personal guarantee insurance arrives; verified inline)

• 2 added (76 published total): PGI America and BRIC Personal Guarantee Insurance: the young US personal-guarantee-insurance category, framed with equal parts promise and caution: partial, conditional coverage of the scariest clause searchers sign, priced in low single-digit annual premiums per industry coverage, with policy language and carrier quality named as the real diligence.

July 12, 2026 (round 17: the search-fund capital tier; verified inline)

• 6 added (74 published total): Search Fund Partners (the 2004 original dedicated fund, ~200 investments per third-party trackers), Pacific Lake Partners (the scale anchor: 2009, hundreds of searchers, 70-plus companies, Fund IV reported at $175M), Anacapa Partners (founder ran three searches himself; ~175 searchers backed in its first decade), Trilogy Search Partners (2014, partner capital plus an operating-executive bench, 90-plus transactions), NextGen Growth Partners and Broadtree Partners (the employed-searcher models, framed honestly: committed capital and infrastructure traded against owning your own vehicle).
• The capital category goes from two rows to eight and now spans the whole spectrum: traditional cap-table investors, self-funded equity platforms, and employed paths, each priced in ownership terms.

July 12, 2026 (round 16: the franchise lane, both sides of it; verified inline)

• 2 added (68 published total): FranNet (franchise consulting network: free to candidates, franchisor-paid on placement with commissions reported at 40% to 50% of the franchise fee; the conflict is stated as the row's centerpiece and the verdict keeps diligence sovereign), Franchise Business Review (franchisee-satisfaction research: 30,000-plus franchisees surveyed yearly since 2005, free reports, survey-based awards; coverage-gap caveat noted since its revenue comes from franchisor services).
• The pair is deliberate: the channel that sells franchise ownership and the dataset that checks it, side by side.

July 12, 2026 (round 15: the online-M&A anchor; verified inline)

• 1 added (66 published total): FE International (marketplace: 15-year online-business M&A advisory, 1,500-plus transactions claimed as its own figure; framed honestly as progressively upmarket, with its canonical SaaS valuation methodology called out as required reading regardless of where you transact).

July 12, 2026 (round 14: specialty finance and the accelerator question; verified inline)

• 2 added (65 published total): Oak Street Funding (lender: two decades of conventional book-of-business finance for insurance agencies, RIAs, and CPA practices; the quote to collect beside an SBA term sheet in those verticals), Acquira (education: home-services accelerator with co-investment; costs and the reported ~19% equity stake documented from third-party reviews, mixed community sentiment stated plainly, verdict prices the equity give honestly).
• The insurance-agency guide and Oak Street row now cross-reference the same vertical from the content and directory sides.

July 12, 2026 (round 13: the seller's-side canon; verified inline)

• 1 added (63 published total): The Messy Marketplace (book: Brent Beshore's seller-side guide from a long-hold buyer's vantage; framed for buyers as the other side's playbook, read between Buy Then Build and the first LOI).

July 12, 2026 (round 12: veteran help and transparent QoE; verified inline)

• 2 added (62 published total): Veterans Business Outreach Centers (education: 31 SBA-partner centers, free counseling for veterans and military spouses, Boots to Business; the free-help set now covers the veteran path), Rapid Diligence (diligence; QoE with fully published pricing: $16.5k full, $11.2k lite, $750 pre-LOI vetting report, $1,097/mo search advisory; framed as the transparent quote to collect alongside Guardian's).
• Also checked and excluded: DealBuilder, which now sells brokerage-workflow software to brokers rather than serving buyers; recorded so the exclusion is deliberate.

July 12, 2026 (round 11: the free-help tranche; verified inline)

• 3 added (60 published total): SCORE (community: free unlimited mentoring from 10,000-plus volunteers across 300-plus chapters, SBA resource partner; honest caveat that acquisition fluency varies by mentor), Small Business Development Centers (education: nearly 1,000 centers, free confidential advising including loan packaging and projections, the bootstrapped searcher's price point), SBA Lender Match (loan broker: the SBA's own free referral tool reaching 800-plus lenders in about two days; framed as a parallel net beside a targeted list).
• Also checked and excluded: Boopos, which stopped accepting new loan applications after joining Founderpath; recorded here so it stays off the directory unless it resumes.

July 12, 2026 (round 10: operator media and the marketplace tail; verified inline)

• 4 added (57 published total): Owned and Operated (podcast: John Wilson's twice-weekly trades-operator show plus a 40k-claimed free newsletter; framed as operator depth to pair with acquisition shows), BizQuest (marketplace: BizBuySell's sister site under the same owner; framed honestly as a free secondary alert channel with mostly duplicate inventory), The Sweaty Startup (book: Nick Huber's start-instead-of-buy argument, positioned as the opposing counsel that stress-tests a buy thesis), UpFlip (YouTube: 1.5M-subscriber owner-interview channel with real revenue talk; Academy $97/mo noted, startup-oriented caveat applied).
• The decide stage now carries both sides of the start-versus-buy argument on purpose.

July 12, 2026 (round 9: broker networks and the media giant; verified inline)

• 4 added (53 published total): Sunbelt Business Brokers (marketplace: the largest brokerage network, ~250 offices, 10,000+ listings claimed, seller-paid ~10% commissions; framed as a relationship channel where office quality, not the brand, is what you get), Transworld Business Advisors (marketplace: 452 franchised US locations per its 2025 FDD, seller-paid commissions ~10% under $1M; the coverage complement to Sunbelt), Contrarian Thinking (education: 550k+ claimed newsletter reach, courses reported $150 to $2,000 and a ~$10,000 community; free tier praised, funnel criticism noted honestly), BizScout (marketplace: 2026 launch affiliated with Contrarian Thinking, 20,000+ listings claimed, pricing unpublished; judged against Kumo on freshness).
• Broker networks are a new sourcing lane in the directory: both rows teach the same lesson, that the office and broker matter more than the brand.

July 12, 2026 (round 8: bank tail and community calendar; verified inline)

• 4 added (49 published total): First Bank of the Lake (lender: national SBA division since 2019, published ETA use case, 7(a) to $5M, franchise- and practice-heavy book; volume claims are the bank's own), Wells Fargo (lender: top-15 7(a) dollars, FY2025 ~$479M across ~1,335 loans per FOIA roundups; framed honestly as conservative, relationship-driven, and best for existing customers), EBIT Community (newsletter: free weekly deal digests plus financing guides citing FOIA data; EBIT Pro pricing unpublished), SMBash (community: the annual self-funded-searcher summit in Dallas-Fort Worth; 2026 GA ran $1,895, recordings included, refunds to 30 days out).
• The lender category now spans specialists (Live Oak, Byline), regionals with searcher pages (First Internet, Stearns, First Bank of the Lake), and the big-bank option (Huntington, Wells Fargo), each framed for when it actually wins.

July 12, 2026 (round 7: lender depth, owner-direct sourcing, borrower tooling; verified inline)

• 4 added (45 published total): Stearns Bank (lender: nationwide PLP, top-ten FY2025 acquisition volume per FOIA roundups, streamlined small-dollar 7(a) via its division per trade press; rates unpublished), Rejigg (marketplace: owner-direct, sellers free with no commission, buyer pricing gated; published closings $950k–$4.2M), They Got Acquired (newsletter: free archive of six-to-low-eight-figure online exits; paid course pricing unpublished), ProjectionHub (templates; fully published pricing: $119 industry templates to a $3,500 SBA-package bundle).
• Lender category now holds five banks plus two brokers; the owner-direct sourcing category gains its first entry.

July 11, 2026 (round 6: online marketplaces, valuation data, operator podcast; verified inline)

• 5 added (41 published total): Empire Flippers (marketplace; published seller fee tiers: $10k flat to ~$66.7k, 15% to $700k, 8% to $5M, 2.5% above; buyer side free with verification gate), Quiet Light (marketplace: no rate card published; 10%-sliding-to-3% commissions reported by roundups and hedged as directional), Flippa (marketplace: buyer Premium $49/mo or $388/yr, seller flat fees $29–$699 plus 10% success fee, verified on its pricing page), DealStats/BVR (valuation: 29,300+ private transactions, quote-gated subscriptions plus a 24-hour Day Pass), Think Like an Owner (podcast: 297 episodes, twice weekly, active 2026).
• Online-business coverage now spans the quality spectrum deliberately: curated (Empire Flippers), advisor-led (Quiet Light), and open-volume (Flippa), each framed for what it is.

July 11, 2026 (round 5: banks & firms tranche, verified inline)

• 6 added (36 published total): Huntington Bank (lender: #1 7(a) lender by loan count per its own Oct 2024 release; branch-driven, ~$200k average loan, so framed for smaller deals and its nine-state footprint), First Internet Bank (lender: nationwide branchless 7(a) to $5M, acquisition the headline use, Coleman 2024 Online Lender of the Year per its site), Byline Bank (lender; dedicated self-funded search acquisition page: up to 90% financing, prime + 2% to 2.75% quoted, 24-48h term sheet and ~50-day close targets, PLP), Centurica (diligence: online-business QoE since 2013; full engagements quote-based, productized entry points $199/$400/$599 published), HBR Guide to Buying a Small Business (book: Ruback & Yudkoff, $21.95 at the publisher; the missing half of the canonical on-ramp pairing), In The Trenches (podcast: the post-close operator show; 141 episodes through Apr 2026).
• The lender category grows from one bank to four entries (Live Oak, Byline, Huntington, First Internet Bank plus the two loan brokers), directly addressing the reputable-firms-and-banks request.
• Copy pass across all rows in the same change: em dashes removed dataset-wide with grammar repaired, and internal editorial asides that had leaked into public reputation text were cut.

July 10, 2026 (round 4: long-tail tranche 2, verified inline)

• 6 added (30 published total): Pioneer Capital Advisory (loan broker: free to borrower, lender-paid, 90-day exclusivity noted), ThinkSBA (loan broker: second quote), Oberle Risk Strategies (insurance: ETA vertical), Pipedrive (CRM; framed honestly: no ETA-native CRM exists, this is the common generic default; pricing page blocked verification, marked directional), The First 90 Days and Traction/EOS (post-close books).
• Every roadmap stage now has published resource picks; the only category without a published entry is AI deal analysis (DealOrb held in draft pending re-verification).

July 10, 2026 (round 3: long-tail tranche 1, verified inline)

• 5 added (24 published total), filling 4 empty categories: SMB Law Group (legal: active, no public pricing despite "transparent fees" copy), SMB Law Group 2026 LOI Template (templates: free), GCF PeerComps (valuation: $99 one-time search to $995/yr; formerly peercomps.com, now under GCF at gvalue.com, a rebrand caught during verification), David C. Barnett (YouTube), Guardian Due Diligence (QoE: quote-based; third-party $20–40k figures marked unverified).
• Method change: verified inline (direct primary-source fetches), per the no-agents directive.

July 10, 2026 (round 2)

• 14 vendors verified via the reusable verify-resources workflow (28 agents: research from vendor primary sources + adversarial verify; raw output retained in the research archive): 12 confirmed, 2 corrected, 0 refuted.
• Published (now 19 total): Searchfunder ($79/mo, $19/mo annual, $432 lifetime, with post-to-stay-free mechanics), BizBuySell (free for buyers; seller listings $74.95–$199.95/mo after 2026 increases), Acquire.com, Axial, Grata (pricing demo-gated, corrected from listicle figures), SourceScrub, BizNexus, Acquisition Lab ($12,500 lifetime, corrected and confirmed on the live page), Buy Then Build, Acquisitions Anonymous, SMB Deal Hunter, DueDilio, Mainshares, CapitalPad.
• Corrections beat folklore again: Grata publishes no dollar pricing (three demo-gated tiers), contradicting the $15–40k/yr figures circulating in listicles.

July 10, 2026 (round 1)

• Round-1 deep research completed (105 agents, adversarial verification, 3-vote per claim; raw output retained in the research archive).
• First 5 published resources (all 3-0 verified, primary-source pricing): Kumo, Live Oak Bank, Stanford Search Fund Primer, Stanford Search Fund Study (2026), Acquiring Minds.
• DealOrb added as unpublished draft: a 2-1 verification vote, vendor-stated pricing only; pending re-verification.
• 10 third-party claims refuted, including all secondhand pricing for Grata, SourceScrub, Axial, BizBuySell, and Acquire.com, plus stale Stanford 2024 headline figures. Lesson locked into SOP: pricing from primary sources only. These vendors are queued for per-vendor primary-source verification (round 2).

Inventory backfill (rows that predate their changelog entries)

These resources entered the directory across early rounds whose entries named them loosely or not at all. Listed verbatim so the record is complete (a test now holds every published resource's name to an entry):

• Buy Then Build (Walker Deibel)
• The First 90 Days (Michael Watkins)
• Traction / EOS (Gino Wickman)
• Mainshares (now American Operator)
• Pipedrive (as a search CRM)
• Huntington Bank (SBA lending)
• First Internet Bank (SBA lending)
• Byline Bank (Small Business Capital)
• HBR Guide to Buying a Small Business (Ruback & Yudkoff)
• In The Trenches (Steve Divitkos)
• DealStats (BVR)
• Stearns Bank (SBA lending)
• Wells Fargo (SBA lending)
• The Sweaty Startup (book)
• Small Business Development Centers (SBDC)
• Veterans Business Outreach Centers (VBOC)
• The Messy Marketplace (book)
• BakerHostetler (Search Funds Practice)
• Permanent Equity (Free Library)