Turning acquisition into opportunity with Nunzio Presta

Twelve years ago, I noticed there was a huge shift from the traditional 9-to-5 lifestyle. Everyone wanted to be their own boss; the next Steve Jobs or Mark Zuckerberg—they aspired to start that unicorn business from their garage.
For me, the drive to succeed started long before this cultural shift - on the ice rink. If there's one thing that makes me a real threat in the business world, it's the lessons I've learned from hockey (external link) . Playing hockey meant waking up at 5:00 a.m. and training until I felt like I couldn’t go on, which fueled the self-discipline that led me onto my path to entrepreneurship. Just off the heels of my hockey career, my journey at Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) started as a mature student (Entrepreneurship ’12).
During my entrepreneurial studies, I came up with the idea for BuyAndSellABusiness.com. I had this lightbulb moment: create a platform to reduce the risks of starting a business. And this is where the topic around entrepreneurship through acquisition (ETA) really hit me.
Essentially, ETA is a business strategy where an individual or group of buyers acquire an existing business—instead of starting a new one from scratch. ETA is all about entrepreneurs that know how to operate and how to grow, but they want to de-risk their path.
But over a decade ago, there was zero momentum for this entrepreneurial strategy. Many speculated that if someone’s selling a business, it must be doing poorly—right? Ultimately, ETA was a massive learning curve for the market because no one really understood it. And for the first five or six years, our team took many punches. We had pitched BuyAndSellABusiness.com to entrepreneurs and investors who didn’t hesitate to squash our proposal. Yet, in 2020 during the pandemic, we started seeing more people inclined to consider ETA. People lost the stability from their jobs and were finding new ways to make money. And buying an existing business was a less risky form of entrepreneurship as it is already established and generating revenue. So, if a person had the financing to work out a deal, why wouldn’t they?
It didn’t take long to start seeing thought leaders and influencers coming out on social media platforms, pitching the idea about buying and growing existing businesses. This made BuyAndSellABusiness.com a place where people could search for businesses for sale and connect with sellers. Basically, we were facilitating those connections in addition to automating the whole purchase and sale experience for users. I’m truly thankful for the team's resilience and their commitment to staying persistent. After all, you want to make sure that you're creating relationships that really matter to you.
In the last year and a half, we started contemplating the next steps for our business. I started reflecting: maybe the team that builds isn't always the team that can scale. I think a big part of being an entrepreneur is knowing when to step back and let in some fresh blood—a new set of eyes to take advantage of the growth in the market. This is when we decided to look for a potential strategic buyer. And this past October, we closed the deal and announced the acquisition (external link) of BuyAndSellABusiness.com.
Building a startup from the ground up comes with a high rate of failure. And there are a lot of pros to buying an existing business versus starting a business. For example, if you go to an investment banker, they'll want to see a business that has a minimal viable product—some sort of traction to de-risk their investment. So, asking an investor to cut a check to even create a bare-bones business, most of the time, is going to be a no.
On the flip side, if you're buying a business through acquisition and you try to raise capital, whether it's debt or equity, it's defendable. You have a live running business with history and with numbers—this means less risk for the investor. Ultimately, it all comes down to your risk profile, goals, and skills.
This outlook greatly influenced my entrepreneurial journey, shaped by the lessons I learned at TMU. The foundation I built at the Ted Rogers School of Management (TRSM) has stayed with me long after graduation, influencing how I navigate opportunities and setbacks. That connection to the school continues to be invaluable. So much that, even thirteen years later, I still reach out to my professors for insights and advice. In 2021, I was honoured to receive one of the Top 10 of the Last 10 Alumni Achievement Awards, but more importantly, I remain committed to giving back. Learning doesn’t stop after earning a degree, and neither do the relationships.
This continued connection to TMU has played a key role in shaping my approach to entrepreneurship. The knowledge and relationships I built there have influenced how I navigate ETA, where the goal is to pursue your aspirations and make your mark. That same mindset has guided me in finding my own niche - something I’m passionate about, great at, and able to monetize. All three need to exist together; without one, the others won’t accomplish much. Even though I will no longer be involved in the day-to-day of BuyAndSellABusiness.com, I'll still be in the background ensuring that the business continues to create valuable products and services. But most of all, I’m excited to embrace new passions and look forward to the opportunities ahead.