Param Shah from Lynnfield on Succession, SMB Acquisitions, and Life After an Exit

I am excited to have Param Shah, the CEO of Lynnfield, a serial entrepreneur with a proven track record of building and scaling successful technology companies. In this episode, Param shares his journey from leaving Johns Hopkins mid-degree to build Factory Four, selling it in 2020, and going on to found Lynnfield, a holding company that buys and holds small businesses from retiring owners. Discover insights on the “silver tsunami” of business succession, how to structure deals so sellers keep skin in the game, using AI inside traditional businesses, and designing a life around ambition, impact and health. Timestamps 00:00 Introduction to Param and his background 00:59 Leaving Johns Hopkins to build Factory Four 03:05 Life the day after an acquisition 04:54 From experiments to Lynnfield and the silver tsunami 08:23 Why Millennials and Gen Z aren’t taking over family businesses 11:04 Founder as moat vs founder as ceiling 14:06 Family involvement and seller continuity 15:55 The Lynnfield thesis: fit, risk and uncertainty 18:49 Why Lynnfield doesn’t raise a fund 21:31 Using AI in deal sourcing and portfolio companies 25:16 Will more MBAs buy small businesses? 27:53 Why acquisition entrepreneurship needs its own Y Combinator 28:51 What permanent capital allows that a PE fund can’t 30:48 Lotus Life Foundation and curing infant blindness in India 35:21 Moving from scarcity to abundance Param’s Links  LDN/ X – https://www.linkedin.com/in/pshah27/ Website – https://www.lynnfieldgroup.com/companies My Links  Podcast: https://lifeselfmastery.com/itunes Newsletter: https://partner-grow.beehiiv.com/subscribe YouTube:  youtube.com/lifeselfmastery Twitter: https://twitter.com/rohitmal LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rohit857/ Course: https://www.udemy.com/course/outbound-sales-mastery/ Lifeselfmastery podcast delves into the world of Venture capital, startups, funding, and thought leaders. Life Self Mastery podcast gives you a guide on how to get funding and analyze the tech industry and allow your business to have rocketship growth. Previous guests include Guy Kawasaki, Brad Feld, James Clear, Shu Nyatta, Ida Tin, Elizabeth Yin, Polina Pompliano, Evgenia Plotnikova, Anna Khan, Minnie Ingersoll, Sridhar Ramaswamy, Mac Conwell, Danielle Strachman, Jake Gibson, Wes Kao, Brian Requarth, Vivek Sodera, Eric Siu, Amit Garg, Nischal Shetty, Pranav Pai, Nir Eyal, Paul Shapiro, Nick Huber, Rob Walling, Andrew Dsouza, Fabrice Grinda, and 300+ incredible guests. Podcast: https://lifeselfmastery.com/itunes Newsletter: https://partner-grow.beehiiv.com/subscribe YouTube: youtube.com/lifeselfmastery Twitter: https://twitter.com/rohitmal LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rohit857/