Acquisitions Anonymous
At a Glance
The best free way to build deal-screening reps before and during a search. Listen for pattern recognition from credible operators and a real SBA lender, but treat it as education-entertainment, not diligence on any specific deal.
- Pricing
- Free, Free, and ad-supported. The companion newsletter is free too. Note that the show's own episodes page runs months behind its feed, so read the feed rather than the page before calling it quiet.
- Best For
- Aspiring and early-stage self-funded searchers who want to build deal-screening pattern recognition passively, learning to read listings, spot sketchy add-backs, and gauge SBA financeability by osmosis. Not for someone who needs a structured curriculum or hands-on help with a specific live deal.
- Roadmap Stages
- 1. Learn & Choose Your Path4. Source & Screen Deals
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Free and prolific: 500+ episodes, twice-weekly cadence, still publishing as of July 2026
- Breaks down real listings with concrete numbers (SDE, multiples, add-backs) in the $500k–$10M range self-funded searchers actually target
- Co-host Heather Endresen is an active SBA lender (Viso Business Capital), so deals get a genuine lender's-eye view on financeability
- Host mix spans operator, e-commerce, and private-equity perspectives, surfacing different red flags on the same deal
- Free weekly newsletter delivers the listings reviewed, useful as a passive deal-flow sampler
Cons
- Analysis is based only on public listing teasers, not real financials or CIMs, so conclusions are directional speculation rather than diligence
- Random deal-a-week format means coverage of your specific industry or thesis is hit-or-miss; there is no structured learning path
- Hosts and sponsors have commercial stakes in the ETA ecosystem (an SBA lender co-host, Acquisition Lab as sponsor), so recommendations are not fully disinterested
- Some listeners say the newer shorter-format episodes sacrifice depth versus the older long-form breakdowns (Apple Podcasts review, Aug 2025)
What Searchers Say
Broadly well regarded: 4.8/5 from ~256 ratings on Apple Podcasts as of July 2026, and Searchfunder members list it among the helpful ETA podcasts (searchfunder.com 'ETA podcasts' thread; the specific praise there is several years old). Recent reviews praise improved production quality (Apple review, Jan 2025); the main recurring complaint is that shorter episodes feel less deep-dive than the old format (Apple review, Aug 2025). Recent (past-12-month) discussion on Reddit and X is thin; sentiment comes mostly from podcast-platform reviews rather than active forum threads.