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From Cutting Trees to Cutting Deals: Nick Oberhouse’s Unique Path Through ETA

Growing up on his family’s Christmas tree farm in Ohio, Nick Oberhouse, MBA ’20, was no stranger to small business entrepreneurship.

From a young age, he was brought into the family business, earning a starting wage of $1 an hour moving plants and cutting trees. Dinner table conversations were dominated by business discussions—new product promotions, logistics, human resources issues, and all the other fun challenges of running a small business.

While witnessing this as a child may have pushed some people away from pursuing a similar career path, for Oberhouse this unique upbringing did the opposite.

“It might have scared some people away, but for me, hearing everything my family was going through made me comfortable with the messiness of running a small business,” said Oberhouse.

Oberhouse continued working at his family’s business throughout his childhood before attending Ohio State University for his undergraduate studies. Upon graduation, Oberhouse went into consulting, a path he pursued for eight years.

With hopes of becoming a partner at a consulting firm, Oberhouse started attending Booth in 2018 for his MBA. However, while attending classes his perspective began to change.

“While at Booth I started to become disenchanted with a career in consulting,” said Oberhouse. “It didn’t fit my long-term goals that I developed while at Booth. I wanted to have a more intimate impact on an organization and be directly rewarded for the growth and professionalization that I could drive in a company. I wanted more autonomy in how decisions were being made.”

That’s when he heard about an upcoming event that piqued his interest – the 2018 Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition (ETA) Conference.

Having never heard of ETA, Oberhouse decided to attend the conference to learn more – a decision that completely changed his career path.

“It was like a lightbulb went off,” said Oberhouse. “After attending the conference and learning about ETA, I knew that it was what I wanted to pursue.”

He began immersing himself in the field, reading everything he could find, enrolling in all Booth ETA programming, and getting an internship with a Booth alum who had recently launched a traditional search fund.

Each experience confirmed that search was the right path forward for his career.

After graduating in 2020 and following more than a year of research between pursuing a traditionally funded, self-funded, or sponsored search, Oberhouse partnered with NextGen Growth Partners.

“Coming from a business operations background and with a high degree of confidence that I could help to grow a company, I wanted to learn from a sophisticated investor to build my search and deal diligence skills,” said Oberhouse.

The COVID-19 pandemic created a challenging search environment – investors didn’t want to buy a business in a time of such uncertainty, and sellers who owned a stable or growing business were suddenly holding a rare asset and were overvaluing their businesses. However, Oberhouse remained determined.

“I tried to be as effective as I could as a searcher – I was creating my own white papers and distributing them to business owners to show that I could be a qualified partner and help them with their business, even if they said they weren’t interested at the moment. The goal at the onset of the pandemic was long-term relationship building.”

During his search, one particular business caught his eye – Door and Window Guard Systems, or DAWGS, a company providing steel security services to vacant building owners. He was fascinated with the simplicity of the company and felt that he may be able to make a direct impact on its success.

Oberhouse contacted the president and founder, who didn’t have an interest in selling at the time. The two agreed to meet quarterly for lunch to remain in touch, and after 12 months the right situation finally presented itself.

Oberhouse joined DAWGS in 2021, with the president and founder staying heavily involved as a leader at the company. Due to their quarterly meetings, he was already familiar with the business and they cautiously started implementing improvement plans.

“Thankfully, the DAWGS team was experienced and ready to grow,” said Oberhouse.

Under his leadership the company professionalized sales, accounting, HR, and field operations; expanded from four to eleven warehouses; and significantly grew its team size.

Oberhouse also focused on building a strong culture and strengthening employees’ involvement in the business by introducing a monthly bonus when the organization hit a widely communicated monthly revenue goal.

Three years in, the company has seen a dramatic improvement and continues to grow, which for Oberhouse was exactly what he wanted for his career.

“I’m driven by having an impact on an organization, and seeing how much we’ve grown over the last three years, it’s incredible,” said Oberhouse. “Leaving my fingerprints on a company, solving problems that customers don’t even know there are solutions to, and building a strong culture for my employees – it’s a lot of fun.”

For now, Oberhouse is focused on continuing to grow DAWGS and leaving a lasting impact on the industry. In the future, he hopes to begin investing in other searchers and eventually build out a small portfolio of successful businesses.

For students considering a path in ETA, Oberhouse suggests first getting some hands-on experience.

“The ETA process may seem daunting but students should learn more about the opportunity through campus programming and working with those already pursuing the path. Do a couple of internships, first in search and then in operations,” said Oberhouse. “If you do pursue ETA, having those experiences will significantly reduce the risk that you represent to an investor who is considering backing you.”

And for those that are already pursuing search: don’t be afraid of failure.

“Everyone is fearful of the concept of failure in ETA, especially at the search phase,” said Oberhouse. “If they don’t buy a business, or if something falls through, they often think they’re at square one, but that’s simply not true. Every step of the search process allows you to develop new skills and relationships that are very valuable and strengthen what you offer to a future company.”

“Of all of the searchers that I know who failed to acquire a business in their search, each was running a business within 12 months,” Oberhouse continued.

Looking back on his journey, Oberhouse believes he found exactly what it is that he should be doing.

“When comparing career paths, I can’t imagine going back to consulting or the corporate world,” said Oberhouse. “I want to contribute to building businesses and industries that I have a meaningful stake in and to be able to make the decisions and choices that I believe in. With ETA, I have that.”

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