Ditch The Pitch Buy The Business!
What if your path to entrepreneurship didn’t start with an idea, a pitch deck, or building from zero?
Join Search & Sip during DC Startup & Tech Week for an evening exploring a different route to entrepreneurship: buying an existing business and building from there.
We’ll bring together entrepreneurs and operators for a candid fireside chat about the decision to buy vs. build—and what changes when you start with an existing business, customers, employees, and cash flow rather than a blank slate.
Moderated by James Faison, Lead Sponsor & Partner at Faison Law, in conversation with founders who've walked both paths, building a start-up and acquiring a business:
Chat Joglekar, Founder & CEO of Baton Market, an AI-native marketplace for buying and selling small businesses. Prior to founding Baton, Chat was an executive at Zillow and Google.
Sonya Hopson, Founder & CEO of Sage Services Group and CHPK Ventures, a business acquirer who's grown a solopreneur practice into a multi-state professional services firm
Willem Straatman, Founder of Heritage Facility Services, with a background in investment banking and corporate M&A
Whether you're actively searching for a business, building a startup, investing in entrepreneurs, or exploring what business ownership could look like, this conversation will offer a practical look at entrepreneurship through acquisition (ETA) as another path to becoming an owner.
Then stick around to meet founders, searchers, operators, investors, lenders, advisors, and others across the DMV entrepreneurship community.
Sponsors & Partners: Faison Law, Focus Social Club, New Majority Capital, DC Startup & Tech Week