CORE Guides
Deep answers to the questions behind the CORE framework — Capture, Optimize, Roll-up, Exit. Buying small service businesses with structure instead of cash, deploying AI agents into their operations, and compounding the multiple to exit.
DefinitionWhat Is the CORE Framework? Capture, Optimize, Roll-Up, Exit Explained
The four phases, the Silver Tsunami thesis behind them, the four plays, and where CORE sits in the Optimus stack.
DefinitionWhat Is Multiple Arbitrage? The Math Behind Small-Business Roll-Ups
Why small businesses trade at 2–4x and platforms exit at 6–10x — and how to capture the spread without fooling yourself.
How-toHow to Buy a Business With No Money Down: Creative Deal Structures That Work
Seller financing, earn-ins, pension-style payouts, and 80/20 equity retention — why retiring owners say yes, and what the honest catch is.
How-toHow to Increase EBITDA With AI: Deploying Agents Into a Service Business
The 12-agents-in-180-days playbook: instrument the numbers first, then put agents into dispatch, estimating, billing, QA, and sales.
ComparisonAI-Powered Roll-Up vs Traditional Roll-Up: What Actually Changes
Traditional roll-ups scale the back office by hiring; the AI model deploys agents. What changes, what doesn't, and which to run.
Cost & ROIWhat Does It Actually Cost to Buy a Small Business? The Full Math
Price as a multiple of EBITDA, the four costs outside the price, how structure changes cash at close — with clearly illustrative math.
Mistakes7 Mistakes First-Time Business Buyers Make (and How to Avoid Them)
Buying a job, overpaying on a story, cutting the seller out, arriving with no plan — the failure modes and the structural fixes.
Buyer questionShould You Buy a Boring Business? An Honest Look at HVAC, Plumbing, and the Trades
The structural case for the trades this decade — and the downsides most acquisition content skips. Both columns of the ledger.
Run the CORE playbook with the Optimus stack
CORE is the strategy. FAST is the engine. If you're an architect who wants agents inside the businesses you buy — not more headcount — apply to build with Optimus.
Apply at buildwithoptimus.com