Smash.vc
At a Glance
A clear floor and a clear ceiling for the smaller self-funded deal, with the geography left unsaid.
- Pricing
- Custom Pricing, 'We generally can invest between $250,000 and $1.5 million per transaction, depending on the structure and opportunity.' Two floors rather than one: 'at least $750K of EBITDA' for a self-funded searcher, 'a minimum of $2M of EBITDA' for an independent sponsor. No ownership range, fees or carry published.
- Best For
- A self-funded searcher at the smaller end who wants to know the earnings floor before pitching
- Track Record
- Publishes no deal count, no fund size, no founding year and no portfolio page; the only completed thing it names is buying a marketing platform for its own team.
- Twenty-two pages and fifty-two posts, and the portfolio link on its own site is dead. Everything with a number on it is criteria rather than history: a check range, an EBITDA floor for a searcher and a higher one for an independent sponsor, and a rule about investing only after a letter of intent. The founder's page carries seventeen years and a dozen companies, all of it his own career and none of it the firm's. Read at: Every page in both sitemaps, twenty-two pages and fifty-two posts, plus the portfolio URL, which answers 404.
- Lane
- Self-Funded
- Funds
- The deal only
- Based
- Asheville, North Carolina.
- Invests
- Its FAQ states an earnings floor for each kind of buyer, one for a self-funded searcher and a higher one for an independent sponsor, and neither that page nor the investment criteria, the apply page or the about page sets any rule about where the business sits.
- Buys
- Profitable home, consumer, healthcare, manufacturing, agency and B2B services businesses, plus minority recapitalizations and partner buyouts, at $750K of EBITDA or more for a self-funded searcher and $2M or more for an independent sponsor.
- Before A First Call
- A signed letter of intent. Its submission page says the form is only for equity funding of post-LOI acquisitions, and that it does not invest in pre-revenue companies.
- First-Time Operators
- A preference for operators who want a flexible equity partner, and a deal-stage condition in place of a person-stage one. What it asks about the searcher is whether they have an LOI.
- How Long The Search Runs
- No length on the search and nothing about what happens if it ends without a deal, on the pages this review read. Ask what the clock is before you sign anything.
- Published Terms
- Minority equity checks of $250,000 to $1.5 million per transaction, and it states outright that it does not fund the search phase.
- What A Searcher Gets
- Not published on the pages this review read. It is the figure a searcher most wants and most of this shelf does not print it, so ask before the first call rather than after.
- Roadmap Stages
- 3. Set Up & Fund the Search5. Diligence & Close the Deal
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Publishes two earnings floors keyed to two kinds of buyer, a specificity almost nobody reaches
- Says in one sentence that it will not fund a search, so there is nothing to infer about the lane
- Backs partner buyouts and minority recapitalizations as well as whole purchases
- Offers post-close access to its own marketing team, a concrete term that is not money
Cons
- No geography statement anywhere, so eligibility outside the United States is unanswerable
- No deal count, no portfolio and no founding year on its own site
- The check range is in the FAQ rather than the front page, which publishes no numbers at all
What Searchers Say
Read at the firm's own domain after the shelf was found carrying TWO rows for it. The site calls itself Smash.vc in its title, its site name and its footer; the string "Smash Ventures" appears on the domain exactly twice, both inside a JSON-LD image caption, and never in a sentence a reader sees. Nothing on the domain describes a second vehicle or fund. Check range, both earnings floors and the no-search-capital sentence read from its own FAQ.
How to Approach
Firms do not publish a term sheet you can prepare against, so this is how self-funded search capital comes in, what it weighs, and how to arrive ready.
The Typical Arc
- No conversation until you have a deal: gap capital comes in at the LOI, not before.
- A fast read on the specific target and your underwrite.
- An equity check to close the gap the loan and your own injection leave.
What It Weighs
- The deal itself: is the business financeable and fairly priced.
- Your underwrite, since there is no search track record to lean on.
- How much of the equity gap actually remains after the loan and your own cash.
How to Prepare
- Underwrite the specific deal end to end before you call. Underwrite a Deal
- Size the gap: sources and uses against what a lender and seller accept. Sources & Uses Builder
- Know your own number first. SBA Acquisition Calculator