Ivona Butcher·October 23, 2025

From €4 Million, to Zero, to €12 Million | Ivona Butcher Interview

Ivona Butcher, a Czech economist-turned-Wall Street investment strategist, and her husband Corbin (a former US military officer turned finance professional) conducted the first search fund in the Czech Republic, entirely self-funded after traditional search investors declined to back a Czech Republic search. They acquired two interlinked exhibition services companies (trade fair booth design, fabrication, and installation) near Prague in 2018 for roughly 3-5x EBITDA, using 60% bank debt, a 25% seller note, and 15% equity, with the businesses generating ~€4m revenue at ~30% EBITDA margins. COVID wiped their revenues to zero within days of the pandemic hitting Europe in early 2020, threatening bankruptcy; they survived by diversifying into kitchen fabrication and metal pergolas to keep staff employed, aggressively renegotiating their bank loan, and buying back the seller note from the former owners at a steep COVID-era discount that effectively reduced the purchase price by one turn. On the other side of COVID they captured significant market share as competitors were slower to ramp, and by the time of this interview had nearly tripled revenue (to roughly €12m) and doubled EBITDA. The episode covers searching in a smaller, less mature market, the husband-wife co-CEO dynamic, the value of local brokers and investor relationships, and the psychological and strategic dimensions of surviving an existential crisis.

Deal facts

multiple: 3-5x EBITDA (not stated precisely; described as 'what you would expect for a company of this size')
sde ebitda: ~€1.2m EBITDA at acquisition (implied: €4m revenue at ~30% EBITDA margin)
revenue: €4m at acquisition; ~€12m post-COVID growth (tripled revenue)
financing structure: 60% senior bank loan + 25% seller note + 15% equity (investors + Ivona & Corbin)
notes: Self-funded search (no funded search capital). Seller note was later bought back at a significant discount during COVID by the investor group, effectively reducing purchase price by 'a turn' (one year of EBITDA). Two companies merged at acquisition. Business owned its own land and buildings (collateral). Czech Republic market. Two prior companies also looked at: passed on IT company which was sold to local PE via finder's fee.

Why this business

They hadn't known the exhibition services industry existed, but were immediately drawn to it: it was fast-moving, outward-facing, export-oriented (mostly Western European clients), had good margins (~30% EBITDA), wasn't capital-intensive, and clients kept returning even if revenue wasn't technically subscription-based. It also matched their thesis of bringing Western sales and marketing capabilities to Czech engineering-strong but marketing-weak companies, and avoided government clients and cyclical industries.

What's working

Export orientation: nearly all clients are Western European companies, insulating the business from Czech domestic market limitations and post-communist institutional distrust
Selective client targeting by non-cyclical industry (defense, chemicals) to avoid exposure to cyclical downturns
Exhibition organizers' spot-protection mechanic: clients cannot miss a year without losing their prime hall position, creating strong reoccurring (if not technically recurring) revenue
Husband-wife co-CEO structure with clear division of labor (Ivona: operations; Corbin: sales and marketing), aligned incentives, and mutual support through crises
COVID survivor advantage: retained employees and ramped up faster than competitors, capturing significant market share when exhibitions resumed
Seller note buyback at steep discount during COVID uncertainty, effectively reducing purchase price by one turn and offsetting the lost EBITDA year
Nearly tripled revenue and doubled EBITDA since acquisition, now well above €2m EBITDA

What's hard

COVID eliminated 100% of revenues within days; full pipeline went to zero within one week in early 2020
Highly leveraged at the time of COVID; feared bank could call the loan and bankrupt the company given covenant violations
Emotional and psychological toll of multi-year crisis: sustaining morale for employees while personally exhausted and uncertain
Self-funded search with no search capital meant doing preliminary due diligence without external advisors and operating on a very tight budget after leaving high-paying New York careers
Operating in a market where investors were skeptical of the Czech Republic as a viable search market, requiring them to proceed without funded search capital
Complex, operationally intensive business (carpenters, electricians, metal smithers, designers, project managers, logistics) made it unattractive to PE but required hands-on management
Finding a business in a small market with fewer targets and significant PE competition even at the €1m EBITDA level

Notable quotes

I'm convinced that big part of being a successful entrepreneur is not to be discouraged and really go after what you want.

We put gun to their head and tell them that okay if you don't agree to our modified terms you are going to lose your loan completely because we are walking away. So it was thanks to investors that we had the courage to be so aggressive in negotiations which ultimately saved us.

We really want to do this and if we have to do it alone we will do it alone.

Every problem we face right now it's a good problem. Like really compared to COVID now anything happens we like always smile.