Engine 03: Agosto Holdings
We buy good businesses and make them great.
Agosto Holdings acquires durable, cash-flowing small businesses in fragmented niches, then professionalizes and automates them with the same AI playbook we sell. We grow earnings and the multiple together.
The thesis
Buy earnings. Build a platform.
A single small business trades at 2-4x its owner earnings. A professionalized roll-up, de-risked, systematized, and growing, is valued on a higher multiple. The spread between what we pay for "small" and what the platform is worth is the core of the return.
We don't chase cheap. Cheap businesses on the marketplaces are cheap for a reason: owner-dependent, no systems, no growth path. We buy quality and add the engine.
- Acquire durable, cash-flowing businessesReal earnings, verifiable history, sticky customers.
- Professionalize with our AI playbookThe exact systems Agosto AI builds for clients, applied to what we own.
- Grow earnings and the multipleOperational lift today; platform value as the portfolio scales.
- Steward, don't stripWe're long-term operators, not flippers, owners' legacies stay intact.
Where we're looking
Fragmented niches with a tailwind.
Small manufacturing
Real assets, sticky customers, and few sophisticated buyers competing for deals. A classic platform for operational improvement and roll-up.
Water filtration & PFAS
Millions of homes face "forever chemical" contamination. A durable, growing need, strong secular demand for filtration and remediation.
The buy box
A written standard keeps us out of bad deals.
We evaluate every target against the same criteria. If it doesn't fit the box, we pass, discipline is the strategy.
| Criterion | What we look for |
|---|---|
| Owner earnings (SDE) | ~$300K-$1.5M, large enough to support a manager and absorb our systems, above the "buys yourself a job" trap. |
| Revenue | ~$1M-$5M, with recurring or repeat revenue strongly preferred. |
| Margins | At or above the top quartile for the industry, quality earns a premium multiple. |
| Owner dependency | Runs without the owner as the product; an existing #2 or team is a major plus. |
| Customer concentration | No single customer >10% of revenue; top 10 under ~40%. |
| Tenure & books | 5+ years of history with clean, verifiable, tax-return-supported financials. |
| Strategic fit | A niche where our AI & marketing playbook moves the needle, ideally one we can roll up. |
How we underwrite
The numbers that decide a deal.
For owners & brokers
Thinking about selling? Let's talk.
If you've built a durable business and want a partner who will steward it, not strip it, we'd like to hear from you. Owners and brokers welcome. Conversations are confidential.
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