How PACT Simplifies Investor Deals Using SBA (October 2025)

Investor-backed SBA deals used to mean bespoke documents, sky-high legal fees, and occasionally predatory terms. Not anymore. In this Office Hours session, Tim Ericson (COO of Shareholder Ventures), Joe Spina (Partner at Cullen and Dykman), and Chelsea Wood (Co-Founder of Acquisition Lab) introduce PACT — a free, standardized legal framework designed to make investor-backed business acquisitions faster, fairer, and more operator-friendly. If you're raising outside capital for an SBA acquisition, PACT may be the most important framework you haven't heard of yet. In this video: → Why bespoke SBA investor deals were slow, expensive, and sometimes predatory → What PACT is — and why it was modeled after Silicon Valley's SAFE documents → The standardized economics: preferred equity, common equity, and the stepped-up basis → Why investor stakes are structured to stay under 20% — and what that means for your personal guarantee → How PACT puts distributions at the operator's discretion — not the investor's → The light-touch governance model: no board of directors, just a short list of major actions requiring consent → The major announcement: Acquisition Lab merges with Shareholder Ventures to pair elite education with professional capital. About the Speakers: Tim Ericson – COO of Shareholder Ventures, former venture-backed CEO (Zagster), and operator of We Rent Copiers. Co-creator of PACT, built to bring entrepreneur-first investment terms to the ETA space. Joe Spina – Partner at Cullen and Dykman, legal expert in ETA and independent sponsor deals, and co-creator of the PACT legal documents. Chelsea Wood – Co-Founder & Managing Director of Acquisition Lab, sharing how the Shareholder Ventures merger expands post-closing support for members. Will Smith – Host of the Acquiring Minds podcast and session moderator. 🔗 Learn more about Acquisition Lab: https://www.acquisitionlab.com LinkedIn:   / posts   Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/acquisition... Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?... feedView=all X: https://x.com/Acquisition_Lab Threads: https://www.threads.com/@acquisition_lab TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@acquisition.l... #SmallBusiness #Entrepreneurship #ETA #BusinessAcquisition #AcquisitionLab #SearchFund #InvestorPitch #RaisingCapital