E38: Top M&A Entrepreneurs - John Carvalho 17 acquisitions, $240mm in Rev, IPO

John co-founded Wolverine Energy Services Inc. with Jesse Douglas in 2012 with an initial acquisition of a $5 million revenue oilfield services company. From his first acquisition to 2020, they acquired 16 more businesses, grew revenue to $240 million and took the company public (TSX:WEII) Also President to Divestopedia - which helps sell businesses. 

00:00 Intro to John Carvalho - hat tip to Williams English
01:14 His call to adventure and decision to leave the ordinary world of Deloitte 
03:08 17 Acquisitions later $240mm in rev and taking public - not an org chart guy
04:43 State of the O&G industry...so many products so many uses 
05:10 How he rolled his fees in and structure the partnership - and scrambling together the capital
06:48 How his deal stack looked for the first acquisition, seller motivations, how he leveraged assets
09:22 Did seller keep any portion of business, for 2nd bite or sell 100% - age big factor in risky ride
10:20 How it felt to get the first deal - advising is different than signing and owning it. 
11:16 How has it changed him - assessing risk. How he looks at it today How to Mitigate the risk. 
12:35 Annie Duke book, playing poker
12:50 When did momentum happen - or was it still grinding away... started with 3 separate businesses, and strategy changed. 2nd acquisition - and 3rd acquisition changed deal structure - now seeking partners - selling the 2nd bite of apple vision
15:15 Types of companies he was buying, indirect, direct competitors or adjacency businesses - expansion strategy - geographic sectors - and some distressed deals
17:30 How did he find the distressed opportunities?
18:27 What did he learn about doing all these deals - risk mitigation - in hindsight...wish we would made process more systematic - deal sourcing, offers, deal stack, DD process, capital sourcing - always fun...always needs to be capital partner ready...blowing through credit limit...
21:37 Did he accomplish what he set out to do, helping CEO with journey - wanting to do deals - built wealth helping someone else
23:43 Did he have any internal struggles being the #2 guy...
25:45 Having 5 deals in pipeline and assessing probability assessments on closing each deal 
27:35 Parents - not sure they know what he does - generational creating better opportunity - proud - work ethic they instilled 
29:40 Types of businesses he works with now. Where his expertise is - best use
33:17 Working backwards to get the highest EBITDA how many acquisitions you need to do. HVAC example
34:10 HVAC example, if $20mm HVAC CEO has never made an acquisition, mind set change - risk appetite - triple the business or saying you are not ready because you would choke
37:15 Does he assist in adjacent businesses - why are you doing acquisitions - diversify risk
38:40 Thoughts on purchasing an unprofitable business
40:00 His Acquisition Playbook training - teaching others how to acquire businesses 
42:10 Does he just teach people how to do it DIY or Do it with me...
44:45 Bringing his expertise to parts they are missing - bringing leadership to C-Suite
46:30 Working with Jesse, first meeting, being young, different, assets behind him, start of the relationship. 
47:40 How this acquisition journey has changed him - breaking away from that paycheck. Find out what you love to do, you will never work a day in your life - tap dancing to work