Mays Business School Hosts Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition Forum as Texas Braces for Wave of Business Ownership Transitions
Current business students joined Texas A&M former students, business owners, and investors to explore buying, owning, and operating existing companies.
As thousands of Texas business owners near retirement, Texas A&M University’s Mays Business School convened 182 students, former students, business owners, and investors on Friday, Sept. 18, for the inaugural Mays Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition (ETA) Forum, a full-day event on buying, owning, and operating existing businesses as a career path.
Hosted by Mays’ Center for Applied Entrepreneurship and Innovation, the application-only forum drew interest beyond its original 150-person capacity, with invitations extended to applicants who demonstrated a clear connection to or interest in the ETA space. Students made up roughly half of the room, alongside active searchers, business owners, executives, investors, brokers, and others already working in the field.
The forum focused on a shift with major implications for the Texas economy, one of the world’s largest. Panelist Curtis Feeny ’79, senior advisor at Peterson Partners, said the number of business owners reaching retirement age has grown from roughly 2,000 a year over the past decade to an estimated 10,000 a year today, while capital available to support those transitions is at an all-time high.
“The timing is better than it’s ever been,” Feeny said. “And Texas is a great market. A&M, with its large footprint of alumni and the closeness of the alumni, makes it the perfect place to start building this program.”
Dr. Nate Y. Sharp, dean of Mays Business School, opened the day by highlighting the unmatched benefit the forum offered students.
“There is no substitute for sitting across the table from someone who has actually bought and scaled a company,” Sharp said. “Events like this reflect the strength of the Aggie Network and our commitment to give our students experiences that prepare them to lead the businesses of the future in Texas and beyond.”
Levi Belnap, executive director of the Center for Applied Entrepreneurship and Innovation, speaks during the inaugural Mays Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition Forum at Texas A&M University’s Mays Business School.
Levi Belnap, executive director of the Center for Applied Entrepreneurship and Innovation, said the program is designed to build a pipeline of Aggie owners and operators.
“We built this event around what sets our students up to be the best business owners they can be, building a pipeline of Aggies who are ready to own, operate, and grow Texas businesses for generations to come,” Belnap said. “Our goal is not just to introduce students to this path, it is to give them the judgment and the network to actually walk it, so that when the right business comes along, they are ready to make the move.”
A Full Spectrum of Expertise
Sessions, each followed by live audience Q&A, moved from investor expectations to day-to-day operations to deal sourcing:
- Search funds and institutional capital: Feeny; John Lippe, owner and CEO of Federal Thermal; and Omar Garza ’15 ’19, CEO of Sector 7 Energy and managing partner of Saddle Ridge Capital Partners, examined how elite search funds work and how Texas A&M is preparing Aggie operators for the state’s succession needs. Feeny described the traits investors look for in a search fund candidate: sound judgment, trustworthiness, flexibility, grit, and a strong work ethic.
- Modern operations: Robin Alex ’07, co-founder and COO of HighLevel, showed how technology and automation can drive margin growth and scale in small and medium-sized businesses.
- From corporate to construction: At a luncheon fireside chat, David Lockett ’76, owner and CEO of Austex Fence & Deck, described leaving a 21-year career at Dell to acquire and modernize a regional business.
- Operating for equity: Gina Luna ’95, of Genesis Park SBIC Fund; Bill Sims ’89 ’95, of Accent Family of Companies; and Jay Vaughn III ’17 of Opifex-Synergy made the case for wealth creation in traditional industrial and service businesses.
- Sourcing deals: Robert Irving ’14 ’16, of Buffalo Growth Partners, and Mark Gibson ’11, of Focus Strategies Merchant Investments, discussed buy-and-build rollups across Texas’ lower-middle-market service sectors.
Keynote: “There’s a Pathway for Everyone”
Dan Tinker ’96 speaks during the keynote fireside chat at the Mays Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition Forum.
The day closed with a keynote fireside chat with Dan Tinker ’96, founder of SRS Distribution, who described growing the building materials distributor from an early operating role to its 2024 acquisition by The Home Depot for $18.25 billion, a deal that returned more than $3 billion in proceeds to SRS employees.
“There’s a pathway for everybody,” Tinker told attendees. “You don’t have to have a ton of money. You don’t have to already have an idea. If you have the passion, the work ethic, and the drive, you can go find the right industry, the right size company, and the right opportunity for you.”
He also said Texas A&M has the potential to lead nationally. “The two biggest schools known for this are Stanford and Harvard, and trust me, people didn’t grow up thinking of ETA at Stanford and Harvard. They became that over time. There’s no reason A&M cannot become thought of as the premier place for ETA in the central part of the U.S.”
Students Take the Lead
Texas A&M student Jay Ravathur ’27 participates in a live Q&A during the inaugural Mays Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition Forum.
Mason Siegmund ’27, a current student pursuing a BBA in accounting and a master’s in finance, said the forum showed him how accessible the path can be. “I learned that there are much more resources to acquire a business than previously imagined, and many people willing to help along the way,” he said.
Joseph Wilson ’28, a junior finance major, said the forum expanded his understanding of how to enter the ETA space. “I’d kind of imagined ETA to be only accessed through the search fund, which very few people ever actually get,” he said. “Being able to see this new pathway through a more operationally focused approach was a really cool lens I hadn’t thought of before. It made this feel way more attainable and something that could be more tangible for me to actually do.”
Gregory Miller ’26, a graduate student in the Master of Science in Entrepreneurial Leadership program, said the day reinforced that ETA demands maturity and strong relationships. “Value creation is both analytical and human,” he said.
Get Involved
Texas business owners planning for succession, and Aggie investors and operators interested in mentoring or partnering with students, can connect with the Center for Applied Entrepreneurship and Innovation by contacting Belnap at levibelnap@tamu.edu.
