Travis Jamison - Founder of Smash.vc

Hi, I'm Travis Jamison, founder of Smash.vc

I’d love to tell you a bit about my backstory, and why I started investing through Smash.

(Big Disclaimer: This page is long and ~~probably~~ boring. Read at your own risk).

Like many investors, I started out as an entrepreneur. “Serial entrepreneur” to use the trendy term. I founded roughly a dozen small businesses, all bootstrapped. I was in the trenches day-in and day-out, frequently working on multiple projects at once, probably just like many of you reading this.

Everything from SaaS, ecommerce shops, my community, health products, and my long-standing search marketing agency. I’m not going to lie, entrepreneurship can be really damn hard, and can go from extreme bliss to complete exhaustion and back all in a matter of hours.

And I loved *almost* every minute of it.

Over the many years of grinding hard, learning from my mistakes, and from the guidance of others, my entrepreneurial skills slowly improved. I got fairly good at getting traction on projects and executing quickly. As some of the projects grew far bigger than I ever expected, I was lucky enough to have some take-off, leading to a few sizable exits.

Post-exits, I did what most do: I became “an investor” (insert eye-roll).

I allocated capital to just about every type of investment out there. Dozens of angel investments in traditional high-risk, high-reward startups, an LP in half a dozen funds, dabbled in public equities, private debt deals, real estate, and last but not least… started buying small businesses in their entirety to add to my growing portfolio. I was in search of “my thing.” A type of investing that I could latch on to and pour my professional soul into, something that provided great returns but also something that felt right.

So, guess which one I decided to double down on?

None of them.

There is nothing wrong with any of the above types of investing, but they just aren’t right for me.

Angel investing is a lot of fun and makes you feel cool (it gets status for some reason), but seeing 8 out of 10 companies go bust from throwing profitability out the window in the search for maybe-billions just doesn’t fit with what I want to do all the time. Add to that a decade+ of illiquidity and stressed-out founders, and I’m just not the man for it.

It’s not wrong (plenty get very rich), and some of my angel investments have been quite successful; it’s just not really what I want to spend all my time doing.

VC doesn’t align with how my brain works, and also I’m still not convinced that it’s a good investment overall, especially once you consider the downsides and required luck-factor.

Almost seems like half of VC is just timing the waves of easy money.

Real estate has a nice ring to it. It’s tangible and useful, but I also personally feel that it’s an over-saturated market that only works best in declining interest rate environments (which are gone, IMHO). I also believe it only works at scale, as owning a few rental properties is not worth the hassle.

The RE people that I know who crush it are complete experts in a very narrow market.

Stocks – Public equities certainly have their appeal, but shoving my head in financials all day and being so far removed from the business doesn’t tick the “winning at life” box for me. Also, what are the chances I could even beat the returns of an index fund? (slim to none)

So, what’s the point of spilling to you my entire life story?

I want to let you know that I DID find what I wanted to be doing and who I wanted to do it with.

It’s back to my roots. It’s working directly with small businesses.

I built Smash to be the type of partner, investor, and possible mentor for small businesses I wish had existed earlier in my career. My life would be much different if it had.

All of my largest financial successes have been in small businesses (SMBs).

I also realized that most other financially successful people I know are usually in the same boat.

Go and visit your local country club. Ask around and see what careers members have.

Unless you’re in NYC, the answer is probably not “picking stocks”.

The answer is probably something more simple. “I own a dumpster company“. “I own a small agency“. “I own a painting company“.

Real businesses, with real profits, owned and compounded over the long term.

No financial trickery. Little care about the latest hot niche.

Simply real, tried-and-true companies that play long-term games with long-term people.

These are the people I want to do business with.
These are the companies I want to own over the long term.

I want to invest in the types of companies that I love the most, and that I love to build myself.

At Smash, we partner with existing profit-focused businesses in order to:

1. Help acquisition-entrepreneurs get access to capital

I love the ETA (entrepreneurship through acquisition) SMB model. It’s doing good for our world (allowing founders to retire or move on), it helps talented entrepreneurs skip the startup game, and it provides great returns for everyone involved.

Self-funded searchers and independent sponsors are perfect partners for Smash.

We will help fund your equity checks for your acquisition and offer to help you grow the business post-close with our unique skillset.

We’re open to working with acquisition-entrepreneurs who want to own over the long term or for those who wish to grow and exit in the future.

Or

2. Give founders the option for a partial exit.

For entrepreneurs who already own a business, this option might be for them.
Instead of wondering if they should grow it or sell it, founders should have the option to only sell a portion of the company. To take some chips off the table, and keep the upside of continued growth. I’m open to buying anything from 5% to 50% of a business.

And

3. Literally do the work to help your company grow.

When I invest, I come with a world-class SEO agency at my side to help your business reach the next level. Those who co-invest with me on each deal all have unique mastery-level skills of their own, from techies, to ad specialists, to systems and outsourcing pros. We come ready to get our hands dirty.