That was SMBash 2026 in Dallas 🤠 SMBash 2027 is coming. Get notified when tickets go on sale → smbash.com/tickets

Owner job description: runs payroll, fixes the website, closes the big deals, knows the most about everything in the building. Paul Henderson would cross out that last line. His point at SMBash 2024: as the company grows, you hand off the big conversations, not just tasks. That only works if you hired people better than you at their jobs and let them do the work. If they leave in a year or two, be their biggest champion. SMBash 2027 is coming to Irving, TX, April 21–22. More details soon at smbash.com.

This is @BrentBeshore of Permanent Equity, telling the story of how his first deal got started in 2009 at a past SMBash. You do not need to know everything on day one. You need to ask the next question, then the one after that. Watch the full talk: youtu.be/aRgCKPVdevA

Jacob Becker (@SuccessWithJake) on the ETA career plan nobody puts in the pitch deck: be not the smartest, not the richest, not perfectly planned, and just never stop. Simple, annoying, effective. full talk: youtu.be/kDHwi4SzcL4

Just a quick reminder that a 35% customer can get acquired the week you close. Jeff Driskel (@jeffdriskel) shares what happened next. Your diligence checklist may want a word. Watch full talk: youtu.be/WJKLkDJ9LNA

Jacob Hall of Kando Capital says failures at least end. Zombie deals do not. Nobody tweets "I'm in year four of my 10 year mortgage," and that's the whole problem. Watch the full talk here: youtube.com/watch?v=vk8NvtTk…

Expo booths are officially available for SMBash 2027. This is the first year we're offering them, and space is limited. If you want to put your product in front of the people actually buying and building in search acquisition, this is your shot. DM us or head to smbash.com/sponsors to lock in your spot.

Sponsorships are open. We've grown every year — 200+ attendees in 2026 and climbing — and they're all searchers, operators, and investors actively doing deals. Know a company that should be in the room? Tag them 👇smbash.com/sponsors

The tax-return-versus-QoE gap trips up a lot of buyers, and @EndresenHeather lays out why lenders lean on returns and where a QoE still earns its keep. Her advice on timing is the part worth catching: get a proof of cash the moment you sign the LOI, before you spend on anything else. Watch the full conversation on our YouTube channel 👉 youtu.be/HDecFHmiUJU

The tool can draft the document. It can't tell you which terms will die the moment they hit an SBA lender, or how to handle the seller conversation that keeps the deal alive. @SMB_Attorney on what you're actually paying an M&A lawyer for. Watch the full conversation on our YouTube channel 👉youtu.be/GPg-wA1Vig0

The self-funded holdco path gets talked about as a financial choice, but for @chasemurdock Murdock it started as a lifestyle one. Decada Group now runs five companies in Utah with no committed capital, each acquisition funded by the cash flow of the last. Watch the full conversation on our YouTube channel 👉youtu.be/pbyACJT3JYE

The instinct when you buy a founder-led business is to protect the name at all costs. @StrongpointRich took nine of them across HVAC, plumbing, and electric and folded them into one brand, on the theory that most small businesses have far less brand equity than their owners believe. The rebrand was pure execution risk, and the numbers came out ahead: higher close rate, lower discounting, and total branded search volume up after five months. Watch the full talk on our YouTube channel 👉 youtu.be/4t8hBR6jiUo

The pressure to close your first deal is often the exact thing that turns it into a bad one. In this SMBash 2025 conversation, @Sam_Rosati and @BrentBeshore get into the mindset that keeps first-time buyers out of trouble: giving yourself enough runway that you never have to force a deal, and understanding that walking away almost always beats closing the wrong one. Watch the full conversation on our YouTube channel 👉 youtu.be/aRgCKPVdevA

Two searchers, two completely different ways into the same problem: how do you actually raise the equity to close a deal? In this SMBash 2023 panel, @guessworkinvest and @bibelhausen walk through the raise from opposite backgrounds, one from private equity, one who'd never done it before and was terrified to start. This clip is where they get into the mechanics of when and how to approach investors. Watch the full panel on our youtube channel 👉 youtu.be/5ob2pquuL6Q

A buffet line at a 200-person conference is where Paul Henderson met the partner who would change the entire direction of his career. In his SMBash 2024 talk, Paul takes the room through eight years in one of the hardest industries to operate in, and the moments that actually moved the needle almost never happened behind a desk. This clip is one of them. Watch the full talk on YouTube 👉 youtu.be/IdAC6leHlrw

Michael Girdley studied 100 businesses that failed and turned it into a playbook for SMB owners: know exactly what kills a company, and don't go there. It's the throughline of his SMBash talk, from Vlasic to Best Buy to Kraft Mac and Cheese. Watch the full talk on our site 👇 smbash.com/agenda/keynote-ad…

In his SMBash talk, @mhp_guy breaks down the trap that cost him over a decade: a business can pencil out perfectly and still be the wrong move. The spreadsheet says you can. It never asks if you should. Full talk from @mhp_guy on Youtube👉 youtu.be/t5ZJsC7FHhE

In his SMBash panel on attributes-over-experience hiring, @MatznerJon breaks down the exact test he ran on 10 potential assistants, and why only one made the cut. The lesson: how someone handles ambiguity tells you more than any credential. Full panel with @pinpulleddrmf on hiring like a Special Operator, plus every talk from SMBash 2026, on our site 👉smbash.com/agenda/building-m…

The military's most elite units don't recruit the best pilots. They recruit for grit, integrity, and the will to win, then teach the flying. @pinpulleddrmf spent a decade in special operations before turning that idea into a hiring playbook for SMB owners: who someone is beats what they've done. Watch the full talk on our site 👇

If you've ever felt like you're figuring out the buy-and-run journey alone, SMBash is the opposite of that. SMBash 2026 put buyers, operators, sellers, brokers, lenders, and the people who serve them all in the same room. Here's a look. 👇