Buy Box Setup

What is a Buy Box?

A Buy Box is a set of filters that automatically matches deals to your acquisition criteria. Instead of manually reviewing every listing, you only see opportunities that fit your parameters, like price range, target industries, geographic location, and financial metrics.

You can create up to 3 Buy Boxes to cover different acquisition theses (e.g., one for local services in Texas, one for e-commerce anywhere, one for manufacturing in the Midwest).

Setting Up Your First Buy Box

During onboarding, you'll configure your primary Buy Box through our streamlined single-page wizard. Here's what you'll set up:

1. About You

Start with your full name and location (city and state). This helps us personalize your experience and set geographic defaults.

2. Investment Tier (Financial Criteria)

Choose the investment tier that matches your search. We'll automatically set sensible defaults for revenue, cash flow, and asking price based on your selection:

• Self Funded (Under $500K cash investment)
  • Cash Flow: $100K - $800K
  • Price: $500K - $2M
  • Best for: First-time acquirers, bootstrappers, small SBA loans
• Self Funded (Large) ($500K - $2M cash investment)
  • Cash Flow: $300K - $1.5M
  • Price: $800K - $7M
  • Best for: Experienced operators, larger SBA loans, small private equity
• Funded Search ($2M - $10M cash investment)
  • Cash Flow: $1M - $5M
  • Price: $3M - $30M
  • Best for: Traditional search funds, investor-backed searchers

Want to customize? Click the "Customize" button to manually adjust revenue, cash flow, and price ranges. This is helpful if your criteria doesn't fit neatly into one tier.

3. Geo (Optional)

Click "Customize" to add geographic preferences. You have two options:

• States - Select multiple states where you're willing to invest or relocate.Recommended: Most listings include state information.
• Metros - Target specific metro areas (e.g., Austin, Denver, Nashville).Note: Metro data is often missing from listings, so this filter may be too restrictive.

Leave it blank? If you don't set geo preferences, you'll see deals from across the United States.

4. Industry (Optional)

Click "Customize" to select target industries. This is a positive selectionmodel: you choose which industries you want to see, not which ones to exclude.

Choose from 17 industry categories including:

• Home Services (HVAC, plumbing, landscaping)
• Construction & Trades
• Healthcare & Wellness
• Retail & E-commerce
• Professional Services
• Manufacturing & Production
• ...and more

Leave it blank? If you don't select any industries, you'll see deals from all industries.

Editing Your Buy Box Later

After onboarding, you can edit your Buy Box anytime by navigating to Settings → Buy Boxes. You can:

• Adjust financial criteria (revenue, EBITDA, price)
• Update geographic targets (states or metros)
• Add or remove target industries
• Activate or deactivate the Buy Box temporarily

Creating Additional Buy Boxes

Once you have your primary Buy Box, you can create up to 2 additional Buy Boxes in settings. This is useful for:

• Different geographies: One for your home state, one for remote-friendly businesses
• Different deal sizes: One for $500K-$2M, another for $2M-$5M
• Different industries: One for services, one for manufacturing

How Matching Works

Every time our scrapers find new deals, they're automatically checked against all active Buy Boxes. If a deal matches at least one Buy Box, it appears in your feed.

Deals that don't match any active Buy Box are filtered out, so you won't see them unless you adjust your criteria.

Match Scoring: Beyond the basic filters, our AI assesses each deal's overall fit and gives it an alignment score. The score weighs industry fit, the financial picture, deal quality, and any risk flags it spots in the listing:

• High: Strong overall fit with your search
• Medium: A reasonable fit with some trade-offs to weigh
• Low: A weaker fit, often with red flags worth a closer look

Best Practices

Tips for Geographic Filters

• Use states rather than metros (better data coverage)
• Consider adding neighboring states to your home state
• For remote-friendly businesses (e-commerce, SaaS), skip geo filters entirely

Tips for Industry Filters

• Start with 3-5 industries you're genuinely interested in
• You can always add more industries later in settings
• If unsure, leave industries blank and use the deal feed filters to explore

Tips for Financial Criteria

• Focus on EBITDA and asking price (most reliable)
• Avoid setting revenue filters unless you have a specific requirement
• The Self Funded tier defaults to a $100K cash-flow minimum; lower or raise it to suit your search
• Don't set maximums too tight, or you might miss great deals slightly above your range

Troubleshooting

Not seeing enough deals?

• Check if your Buy Box is activated (Settings → Buy Boxes)
• Expand your price range or lower your EBITDA minimum
• Remove geographic filters (or switch from metros to states)
• Remove or expand industry selections
• Remove revenue filters if you set them

Too many irrelevant deals?

• Increase your EBITDA minimum (e.g., from $100K to $250K)
• Add industry filters to focus on specific categories
• Narrow your geographic scope to preferred states
• Tighten your price range

Deals don't match my criteria?

• Some deals have estimated financial data (marked with an icon)
• Estimated deals are scored lower but still shown if close to your ranges
• Check the deal details to see which fields are estimated vs. actual

Need Help?

If you're unsure how to configure your Buy Box or want personalized recommendations,contact support. We can review your search criteria and suggest optimizations based on current deal flow.