Smart Agency Masterclass with Jason Swenk: Podcast for Digital Marketing Agencies · Jason Swenk

What Do Private Equity Firms Look for When Buying an Agency? With Ben Gaddis | Ep #889

·36 min·2 clips

Ben says buying a smaller business can be healthier because a merger of equals can turn into "Lord of the Flies."

The host opens by welcoming Ben Gaddis back to the show and setting up a conversation about agency buying from the buyer’s side. Ben explains that he ran T3 in Austin for a long time, built into more complex software work, and sold the business to a private equity firm in 2019. He says the company later did a bunch of M&A and sold again. The discussion stays on what buyers need to be clear about when they evaluate an agency: leadership, control, and how the business will fit into a larger operation. Ben draws a sharp line between a merger of equals and buying a much smaller shop. In a smaller acquisition, the acquirer is obviously in charge, which settles a lot of questions on day one. Everyone knows who leads, what the processes are, and how the integration is supposed to work. When two businesses are closer in size, the structure gets harder fast and those answers have to be set early. The host agrees and pushes on how that changes the day-to-day reality after the deal closes. They talk about how acquisitions are not just about growth on paper. They are also about people, roles, and the work of bringing systems and expectations together. The conversation then turns to talent acquisition as a separate reason to buy. The host notes that agencies often want a capability, like a media arm or a specialized team, and Ben says that can make sense. He frames it as buying a team rather than buying a whole company. He also says acquisitions are hard, take a lot of time and focus away from the core business, and are especially difficult the first time you do them. Success tends to improve with experience. Ben then offers a different path: instead of trying to buy every needed capability through an acquisition, agencies can look to Latin America, Eastern Europe, or India. He says some smaller agencies resist that idea because it can feel like going down market, but the talent pool is massive and the ability to find and scale strong people is often higher than people expect. The episode keeps circling back to realism. Buying growth sounds neat until integration shows up, and buying talent can be more practical when the right people are in another market. Through all of it, the host keeps the discussion grounded in agency-owner reality rather than abstract deal theory. Ben’s perspective stays practical, blunt, and centered on what actually happens after the announcement.

As heard by us

A plainspoken look at agency exits, acquisitions, and the operational work behind growth.

This episode treats private equity in agency-owner terms: how Ben Gaddis thinks about selling, buying, and building, and why the cleanest-looking deal is often the one with the clearest leader.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

Hear how agency buying changes once you're the one integrating the deal.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from Smart Agency Masterclass with Jason Swenk: Podcast for Digital Marketing Agencies