Welcome to The Business Buying Academy with Sieva Kozinsky. Here's what we have in store for you today:

1. A billionaire's advice for becoming a better investor
   ​
2. Raising $1.9 billion to buy boring businesses
   ​
3. Are Austism centers a good business?

Nick is my director of finance, and he loves Vesto.

My business has 50+ bank accounts. Last year Nick started using Vesto to check these accounts

With Vesto it takes him less than 5 minutes, so he has more time to work on all the important parts on his job.

Vesto connects all of our banks into one simple dashboard. With real-time balances, transactions, and cash flow monitoring – we went from 50+ account logins to one.

​Learn about Vesto here​

(Vesto is sponsoring today's newsletter, thank you)

You can't earn outsized investment returns with research.

That's what legendary investor Howard Marks thinks, at least.

His firm manages over $150 billion in assets and has returned 19% net of fees over the long-term (that's amazing).

Wait, isn't research the basis for investing?

Yes. But Marks argues that so many smart people have already pored through every publicly-available financial statement a million times over; the odds you find some edge that everyone else missed is basically zero.

Remember your goal in investing isn’t to earn average returns; you want to do better than average. Thus your thinking has to be better than that of others – both more powerful and at a higher level. Since others may be smart, well-informed and highly computerized, you must find an edge they don’t have.
​
​- Howard Marks

Doing thorough research is just the first step of getting into the investing game. But you'll have to do something else to get ahead.

For Marks, that's where his edge comes into play.

He's a master at understanding market cycles, managing risk, and buying assets at prices below their intrinsic value while everyone else is panicking.

That's right, having good emotional regulation is the most important part of investing.

A few examples of Howard Marks in action:

• During the 2008 Global Financial Crisis, Marks seized the opportunity to buy deeply discounted distressed debt, including corporate bonds and loans from struggling companies, at a time when panic dominated the market. As economies recovered, these assets appreciated significantly, generating substantial returns for Oaktree’s funds.
  ​
• The Asian Financial Crisis of 1997-1998. Oaktree (Marks' firm) invested heavily in undervalued debt from Asian markets when others were fleeing, capitalizing on the region’s eventual rebound.
  ​
• He made a prescient call before the Dot-Com Bubble burst in 2000. In his memo “bubble.com” from January 2000, he warned of overvalued tech stocks driven by speculative mania. By avoiding these overhyped equities and focusing on safer, undervalued opportunities like high-yield bonds, Oaktree preserved capital and positioned itself for gains as the market corrected.

Marks' unfair advantage is he remains level-headed while others are too euphoric in good times or too pessimistic in bad times (easier said than done).

Here's a question you should ask yourself to become a better investor:

Which do you worry about more?

A) The risk of losing money

B) The risk of missing an opportunity

Be honest with yourself.

A) Do you run towards an investment opportunity when the price is going up? Or,

B) Are you level headed enough to watch a stock you believe in go-down, and buy more of it while everyone around you panics?

Most investors fit into (A) above which makes them poor investors. To be a great investor you need to be born with the emotional regulation skillset, or you have to work on it daily.

🔑 Investing in an autism therapy platform doing $2M+ in EBITDA

I spend every week looking for business deals in spaces that are overlooked and not going away anytime soon. Here's one I wanted to share with you.

There’s a new deal on Mainshares for a therapy platform that serves autistic adults. Not kids—adults. 80% of their clients are on the spectrum, and over half of sessions are delivered remotely.

The combo of an underserved population + a scalable, tech-enabled model is interesting and hard to ignore.

What I like:

1. It’s a real business. $2M+ in EBITDA, growing year-over-year. Not a moonshot—just a steady, cash-flowing company with strong fundamentals.
2. The demand is clear. One in 45 U.S. adults is diagnosed with autism. Most care options vanish after childhood—this platform is filling a critical gap.
3. Proven operators. The sponsor group has deep healthcare experience, and one of their board members helped scale two of the biggest autism therapy providers in the country.

The opportunity I see:

1. Recession-resistant tailwinds. Demand isn’t going away — this is a “mission meets margin” business with long-term durability.
2. Strong referral networks. These businesses thrive on local relationships with schools, doctors, and pediatricians—a tough moat to replicate.
3. Scalable growth. Clear upside in expanding to new markets, adding adjacent services, or rolling up smaller local providers.

The more I looked into it, the more I liked it. It’s not flashy. But it’s sticky, profitable, and purpose-filled. To view this deal and others, sign-up on Mainshares.

​Find this ​deal on Mainshares​

This message is not investment advice. Please do your own research before allocating capital to any opportunities.

Thank you to our sponsor Mainshares!

‍

🔑 He Raised $1.9 Billion to Buy Boring Businesses

John Caple is one of the best at buying boring businesses.

In fact, he's raised nearly $2 billion from investors to buy them.

This video we made a few months ago shows exactly how John raised the money, and his philosophy on buying boring businesses.

This one is a must-watch:

​Watch on YouTube​

​

Have a great day,

Sieva

P.S. - Are you hiring? Get started with top global talent from Somewhere (I'm a customer and investor)

‍

Disclaimer: nothing here is investment advice. Please do your own research. The information above is just for information and learning.

‍