Welcome to edition zero of This Is Bizness — a weekly newsletter every Sunday sharing a passion for buying and selling small businesses. What started as a personal experiment in May 2023 became the foundation for everything that followed.
The premise was simple. Every week, break down five unique small businesses. Give readers a quick snapshot of their business model, financials, and overall potential. Rate them on Growth & Scalability, Risk, Price to Value, and Innovation & Tech. And wherever possible, go deeper — with founder interviews and operational breakdowns that most deal-flow newsletters never touch.
My main goal: produce content I would enjoy reading.
Who Was This For?
The newsletter was designed for individuals interested in business and investing, with a specific focus on buying and selling small businesses. Not institutional buyers. Not private equity associates running screens. Regular people who wanted to understand a world of transactions that most never know exists.
With easy-to-digest information and insights, the goal was to make the content accessible to everyone who wanted to learn about the world of small businesses — regardless of their starting capital or experience level.
The Origin Story
Dev Shah, originally from Mumbai, India, and studying in California, had run a successful college admissions consulting side hustle for two years and decided to invest the profits. The stock market’s 10% annual returns weren’t the speed or scale of growth he was looking for. Looking for alternative investments, he realised there was no real option that matched his appetite — until he discovered Acquire.com.
Acquire.com — the world’s largest startup marketplace with over $500M in total acquisitions closed and 150,000+ registered buyers and sellers — opened up a whole new world. From developers selling pre-revenue projects to well-established businesses with owners looking to retire, the range was staggering.
The best part? You do not need a lot of money. Most people don’t realise that you can seriously look at buying businesses with as little as a few thousand dollars.
The Conviction
The businesses featured were primarily sourced from Acquire.com and Microns.io, with a focus on the $5–$10K range. The thesis was clear: small acquisitions are not just accessible — they are one of the most underexplored paths to building real wealth outside of traditional markets.
The format was deliberately early-stage and experimental. Feedback was actively encouraged, especially critical feedback. The commitment was to keep it real — sharing mistakes and breakthroughs with equal transparency.
- Weekly breakdown of 5 unique small businesses with financials and potential analysis
- Ratings on Growth & Scalability, Risk, Price to Value, and Innovation & Tech
- Deep dives with founder interviews for select businesses each week
- Businesses primarily sourced from Acquire.com and Microns.io in the $5–$10K range
Why This Edition Matters
Edition Zero was never meant to be polished. It was meant to be honest. A founder learning in public, documenting the journey of exploring small business acquisitions from the ground up — the good and the bad.
That raw, transparent approach became the DNA of everything that came after. The newsletter grew into a community. The community grew into deal flow. And the deal flow grew into Kautilya — a firm built on the conviction that the best acquisitions happen when you understand markets deeply enough to see what others miss.
Every case study on this site, every deal closed, every pipeline built — it traces back to this moment. A first edition. A Sunday newsletter. And the belief that you have to learn to walk before you can run.