E287: Building a Business Without Owning It | Strategic M&A, Turnaround Risks & Exit Planning - Watch Here

About the Guest:

Fadi Malouf is a strategic buyer, advisor, and capital partner focused on buying, growing, and exiting companies with scale potential. His career began in the fitness and wellness space before shifting into software, tech, and eventually structured M&A. Now the founder of FM Capital and FM Advisory, Fadi partners with operators and investors to fund deals, implement systems, and position companies for high-value exits. He is currently raising a $100M fund and works with over 60 independent advisors across his network.

Summary:

In this episode of the How to Exit Podcast, Ron sits down with Fadi Malouf, a seasoned M&A strategist and founder of FM Capital and FM Advisory. Fadi shares a refreshingly candid look into his evolution from personal trainer to software company exit, to advising and funding acquisition deals in the lower-middle market. The conversation covers not only how Fadi thinks about deal structure, ownership vs. control, and turnaround risk—but also how his personal values and lived experiences shape the way he buys and builds businesses.

Listeners will find this episode especially compelling if they’re trying to bridge the gap between being an operator and becoming an investor. Fadi doesn’t hold back on his disdain for turnaround deals, his belief in control over ownership, and his obsession with systems, delegation, and operational execution. But what makes this interview resonate is the philosophical undercurrent: businesses are problems to be solved, but you better love solving them.

Key Takeaways:

1. Buy with an exit in mind – Fadi learned the hard way that starting a company without thinking about its eventual exit is a recipe for pain and lost value.

2. Turnarounds are not for amateurs – He strongly advises new buyers to avoid turnaround deals unless they have the capital, team, and turnaround-specific experience.

3. Control beats ownership – Fadi prioritizes control over equity, emphasizing results and alignment rather than maximizing ownership at the expense of execution.

4. The real bottleneck is often the founder – Companies under $3M in revenue are frequently hampered by owners who haven’t fired themselves from key roles.

5. Invest in systems and delegation early – Fadi emphasizes the importance of building a company that runs without you; hire people smarter than you and get out of the way.

6. Culture kills or scales – If you buy a company with entrenched staff resistant to change, expect a battle. Culture change is slow and hard.

7. Capital without credibility is a deal killer – Bringing money to the table means nothing if the operator can’t prove capability or relinquish control.

8. Fall in love with the problem – You’ll face chaos, adversity, and setbacks. If you don’t love what you’re doing, it’ll break you.

Article:

From Personal Trainer to Power Dealmaker: Fadi Malouf on Why Turnarounds Suck and Control Beats Ownership

What do you get when a fitness entrepreneur who started with nothing walks away from his first business empty-handed… and decides never to let it happen again?

You get Fadi Malouf—now a seasoned M&A strategist who’s turned painful lessons into a blueprint for buying, scaling, and exiting businesses with surgical precision.

In this episode of the How to Exit Podcast, host Ron pulls no punches and neither does Fadi. The conversation cuts deep into the realities of business buying—why most turnaround attempts fail, what makes a deal bankable, and how ego often kills momentum faster than bad numbers.

Malouf starts with a raw recount of his early days: launching Body by Fadi after his father's death, grinding through three jobs, and building a 25-year brand with no exit plan. The result? He walked away from it with barely anything to show. That lesson—build with the end in mind—has shaped every deal since.

Once pulled into a tech company with a strong operator and technical partner, Fadi saw what scaling with systems could look like. They sold in five years. That exit changed everything.

Today, Fadi won’t touch most turnarounds.

“You need serious capital, a strong team, and the ability to move fast. Otherwise, speed kills,” he says. “The better path? Buy a healthy, cash-flowing business under $5 million and scale it from there.”

The big theme of this episode: Control beats ownership.

Fadi warns against over-indexing on equity and underestimating execution. In one vivid example, he walked from a $65 million funding deal when the founder refused to take a back seat—even though he had zero credibility and a three-year history of stalled progress.

“You can always renegotiate equity later,” Fadi says. “What matters is: can you deliver outcomes?”

Ron jumps in to reinforce that most new buyers grossly underestimate how much they’ll need to be involved—especially in the first 6 to 18 months. If you’re not willing to roll up your sleeves and move to Atlanta to save your business, maybe don’t buy one there.

Fadi is also obsessed with systems, hiring, and delegation—but he’s no fan of theory. He developed seven-page daily planning templates, built processes through trial and error, and only trusts strategies he’s implemented himself. The same applies to leadership.

“You can’t just hire someone because they look good on paper,” he says. “If I’m hiring, I want the person who’s already driving results somewhere else.”

He encourages new buyers to know themselves deeply—are they operators, builders, fixers? If not, surround yourself with people who are, and let them drive.

The episode ends with a sobering but motivating truth: businesses are messy, uncertain, and relentless. But if you love the game, the chaos becomes fuel. Fadi, now living on a motorcycle road trip across the U.S. after touring 20+ countries last year, is living proof that freedom is earned—and built deal by deal.

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