business
Hosted by Harvard Business School · business · EN · 47 episodes
Are you looking for an alternative to a career path at a big firm? Does founding your own startup seem too risky? There's another compelling path open to you: acquiring a small business and running it as CEO. Co-hosted by Harvard Business School Professors Richard Ruback and Royce Yudkoff, the show is an extension of their courses on small firms, including Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition, which has been taken by thousands of MBA students, and their highly-regarded book, HBR Guide To Buying A Small Business, which has sold more than 65,000 copies. In this series, Rick and Royce guide listeners through the different milestones of the journey to acquiring an enduringly profitable small business, sharing insights on how to evaluate prospects, raise capital, and ultimately determine if this path is right for you.
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Contact path
Verified email
Booking probability
32%
Guest openness
Selective
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Signup to Generate a PitchAre you looking for an alternative to a career path at a big firm? Does founding your own startup seem too risky? There's another compelling path open to you: acquiring a small business and running it as CEO.
Think Big, Buy Small is hosted by Harvard Business School. The show has published 47 episodes to date.
Recent episodes include "Navigating the Legal Process of Buying a Small Business" (26 October 2026, 57 minutes), "When Search Doesn’t End in an Acquisition" (19 October 2026, 45 minutes), and "From Entrepreneur to Acquisition Entrepreneur" (12 October 2026, 49 minutes).
Think Big, Buy Small publishes roughly weekly, with episodes averaging 49 minutes across 47 episodes.
Booking probability for Think Big, Buy Small is 32%, and the host is rated Selective on guests. Think Big, Buy Small requires a Pod Score of 81 or higher. Think Big, Buy Small's contact route on record: verified email.
The strongest fits for Think Big, Buy Small are Business & Management Consulting and Business & Professional Training. Think Big, Buy Small has a business audience.
Harvard Business School hosts Think Big, Buy Small, a business show with 47 episodes published.
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Think Big, Buy Small
Buying a small business involves much more than simply agreeing on a price. To explore the legal process of getting a deal across the finish line, Rick and Royce are joined in the studio by Jared Shwartz, a mergers and...
Think Big, Buy Small
What happens when a searcher doesn’t find a company to buy? In this episode, Rick and Royce talk with Kristin Wihera, a Navy veteran and HBS graduate who spent nearly two years searching for a business to acquire before...
Think Big, Buy Small
Entrepreneurship through acquisition doesn't always begin with a formal search. In this episode, Rick and Royce talk with Aaron Wyatt, an entrepreneur who built his business organically after leaving a sales job to...
Think Big, Buy Small
Bruce Isaacson spent two years searching for a company to buy before acquiring a decades-old marketing research firm in 2005. Since that time, he has transformed the business, shifting its focus to litigation research...
Think Big, Buy Small
Jeff Stevens, one of the earliest searchers and a longtime investor in the ETA ecosystem, joins Rick and Royce to discuss how search has evolved over the past thirty-five years. In this episode, he reflects on the early...
Think Big, Buy Small
Michael Horowitz is a former searcher who acquired, scaled, and ultimately sold a portfolio of Wingstop franchise restaurants before becoming an investor in the ETA ecosystem. In this episode, he shares his...
Think Big, Buy Small
Michael Horowitz is a former searcher who acquired, scaled, and ultimately sold a portfolio of Wingstop franchise restaurants before becoming an investor in the ETA ecosystem. In this episode, he shares his...
Think Big, Buy Small
After a self-funded search led to the acquisition of Ally Waste in 2020, James Crawley grew the company more than thirty-five-fold. What did it take to scale the business from a handful of employees to a nationwide...
Think Big, Buy Small
In Season Two, Kent Weaver, one of the most experienced operators and investors in the search ecosystem, joined Rick and Royce for a wide ranging conversation about entrepreneurship through acquisition. In this episode...
Think Big, Buy Small
<p>Hosted by producer Katie Zandbergen, Rick and Royce return for their end-of-season dive into listeners’ most pressing questions – those that many aspiring acquisition entrepreneurs wrestle with. They explore how age...
Think Big, Buy Small
<p>Partners in search, Nick Kerr and Shaquille Walker, join Rick and Royce to share their journey from risk-averse upbringings to acquiring HealthBridge, a concierge primary care clinic on Long Island. In this...
Think Big, Buy Small
<p> In this special “Friends and Family Night” episode, Rick and Royce speak with Meghan Orzetti about the experience of entrepreneurship through acquisition from the perspective of a searcher’s spouse. Drawing on her...
Think Big, Buy Small
<p>Ike Ukawuba was a self-funded searcher whose path to entrepreneurship began far from the boardroom. Raised in a single-parent household in Chicago, he began his career in engineering before discovering his true...
Think Big, Buy Small
<p>In this episode, Rick and Royce sit down with Rob LeBlanc, Co-Founder at Ambit Partners, to explore the evolution of search fund investing beyond traditional markets. Rob traces his path from building an ETA platform...
Think Big, Buy Small
Michael Aubrey, having walked the path from searcher to successful operator and investor, draws on his wealth of experiences to offer a masterclass in small business growth. In this episode, he talks candidly about...
Think Big, Buy Small
<p>In this bonus episode, hosted by Adam Outland, we're featuring a conversation from our friends at The Action Catalyst, a top-rated leadership and entrepreneurship podcast. While Think Big, Buy Small focuses on the...
Think Big, Buy Small
In this episode, Rick and Royce are joined by A.J. Wasserstein, Senior Lecturer at the Yale School of Management, for a deep dive into one of the most critical – and often misunderstood – aspects of buying a small...
Think Big, Buy Small
Rick and Royce sit down with a former student of theirs, Paige Sopcic, an engineer turned entrepreneur, to discuss her inspiring entrepreneurship through acquisition journey. After leaving a promising career at GE and...
Think Big, Buy Small
In this episode, we’re joined by Bruce Marks, a veteran SBA lender with decades of experience and well over 1,000 business acquisition deals under his belt. Bruce draws on his deep expertise in the acquisition lending...
Think Big, Buy Small
<p> It's always fascinating to hear the journey of someone who doesn't have a conventional MBA background but still finds their way to ETA, identifies high-quality acquisition opportunities, and then successfully buys...
Recent guests on Think Big, Buy Small. Study who booked and why before you pitch.
professor at UPenn, Senior Fellow for Technology and Innovation at the Council on Foreign Relations, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Force Development and Emerging Capabilities, Director of the Emerging Capabilities Policy Office at the DoD, Federal Reserve Board, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
Senior Vice President SBA M&A And Manufacturing & Exporting Sales Manager, First Bank Of The Lake
guitarist, songwriter, founding member, The All-American Rejects
Ambit Partners
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