Brian Boland and Onu Okebie·October 2, 2025

$60m Roll-Up That Started With an SBA Acquisition | Brian Boland and Onu Okebie Interview

Brian Boland (originally from Ireland, background in KPMG consulting and building materials M&A) and Onu Okebie (from Lagos, Nigeria, background in accounting, trucking entrepreneurship, and supply chain finance) met at Emory's Goizueta Business School and co-founded HTL Freight, a freight brokerage roll-up platform. They started with a 2.5-year self-funded search and in 2021 acquired a small Charlotte, NC flatbed freight brokerage for ~$1.5m (SDE ~$500k, revenue ~$4.5m, five employees) using personal capital and an SBA loan, retaining 100% equity. The pair immediately attacked working capital — extending vendor payables, accelerating receivables — generating enough free cash to fund their second acquisition within nine months. Over 18 months they completed three acquisitions with no outside equity, building a track record that allowed them to raise ~$3m from their professional and Emory alumni networks (at far better terms than early-stage capital would have cost) to fund their fourth deal, a white-glove managed services brokerage. A fifth deal — a refrigerated freight brokerage on the West Coast with seller equity roll — brought the total to five acquisitions, ~70 employees, and a platform offering full truckload, LTL, DAR, hazmat, and supply chain managed services. The key thesis: acquire niche freight brokerages with specialized knowledge, carrier networks, and customer relationships, then cross-sell across a growing full-service platform while defending margins through expertise and human service that digital marketplaces have failed to replicate.

Deal facts

purchase price: $1.5m (first acquisition)
sde ebitda: ~$500k EBITDA (first acquisition)
revenue: ~$4.5m (first acquisition); ~$60m platform (implied by title/trajectory)
financing structure: SBA loan + SBA Express line of credit (first deal); SBA loan (max $5m) + seller note + ~$3m equity raise from private network (fourth deal); equity roll from seller (fifth deal)
notes: Five total acquisitions. First deal bootstrapped with personal capital and SBA. Second and third deals funded from balance sheet cash and seller notes. Fourth deal required maxing SBA and raising ~$3m from professional/alumni network. Fifth deal (refrigerated freight, West Coast) funded from balance sheet with seller equity roll. 70 employees at time of interview. Business partners are a three-person founding team (Boland, Okebie, plus one unnamed third partner).

Why this business

Both founders had logistics experience — Okebie on the carrier/trucking side and Boland on the customer/shipper side — and identified freight brokerage as a fragmented industry ripe for consolidation. They chose a non-asset, third-party logistics niche (flatbed freight initially, then expanded to multiple niche freight types) because niche brokerages command higher margins, require specialized expertise, and are harder for competitors to replicate. The platform acquisition in Charlotte, NC was chosen for its proximity to Atlanta, its untapped working capital opportunity, archaic processes ripe for modernization, and a seller willing to transact at a price achievable with personal capital and an SBA loan, allowing them to retain 100% equity.

What's working

Aggressive working capital optimization — extending payables, accelerating receivables — generated enough free cash flow to fund the second acquisition within nine months without raising equity
Niche specialization in high-margin freight types (flatbed, refrigerated, hazmat, LTL, DAR) that require expertise and human service, insulating them from tech-marketplace disruptors like Convoy and Uber Freight
Geographic diversity across five acquisitions (North Carolina x2, Northeast, Chicago, West Coast) providing carrier network coverage and lane diversity
Cross-selling and upselling across acquired customer bases by becoming a one-stop full-service freight brokerage
Retained 100% equity through first three deals, building a track record that allowed raising ~$3m at dramatically better terms than early-stage fundraising would have permitted
Bringing in 'smart money' investors with logistics operating expertise and M&A track records, including a former managed services executive and a veteran multi-acquisition operator
Collegiate athletics background instilling discipline, speed, and bias to action that carried into operational velocity post-acquisition
Targeting small-to-medium manufacturer/distributor customers that grow alongside HTL, providing organic revenue growth

What's hard

Search took two and a half years (partly due to COVID disruption), requiring patience and significant pipeline-building before finding the right platform deal
First year post-acquisition required both founders to take pay cuts, commute weekly Atlanta-to-Charlotte, and live in a downtown apartment during the week
Bringing acquired employees along on a high-growth trajectory was consistently difficult — lifestyle-business staff often resistant to the pace of change
First outside equity raise was initially unsuccessful because founders focused on equity dilution they wanted to retain rather than the investor return needed; required a full 180-degree mindset shift
Maxing the SBA loan for the fourth deal created a capital gap that forced a fundraise under time pressure, with LOI already signed before capital was secured
Scaling from small-business operator to CEO of a 70-person multi-location platform required continuous personal reinvention
Working capital management is ongoing hand-to-hand combat requiring daily focus even at scale

Notable quotes

I realized this is what I want to do actually. I want to get into the deal making business.

I cannot believe you can flip the 90% risk of failing as a startup and flip it into 90% success if you just manage the free cash flow appropriately.

What we raised eventually after three deals was probably close to 10 times what we could have raised at the start for the same equity dilution.

In order to be good at anything, you have to be bad first. I believe a lot of us never get great at anything because we don't want to be bad first.