Nick Huber’s Journey From College Entrepreneur to RE Acquirer Back to Full Time CEO; A Case Study in Entrepreneurial Private Equity

Today’s guest is Nick Huber, founder and owner of Bolt Storage and current CEO of Somewhere.com, a worldwide staffing business acquired in 2024. 

Nick joins Peter to discuss the formative acquisitions across his entrepreneurial journey – from growing a distressed storage portfolio into 60+ properties, to the $52M acquisition of worldwide remote staffing firm, Somewhere.com. They cover his transition from operator to acquirer and back to CEO, capital structuring tactics, and why he bet so big on Somewhere.com. 

On top of it all, Nick found time to publish his book, The Sweaty Startup, and offers key insights from the book and why he wrote it.

Discussion Points:

• Nick’s first storage buildout in 2015 and the pivot to acquisitions
• A turning point deal: buying a mismanaged Erie, PA portfolio at public auction
• Transitioning from scrappy operations to managing a global team
• Building out a PE-backed acquisition engine for Bolt Storage
• Underwriting and managing 62 storage acquisitions with global remote staff
• Why Nick slowed down storage deals after the 2022 interest rate spike
• The story behind acquiring Somewhere.com for $52M
• Breaking down the deal structure and equity incentives
• Rebuilding operations post-acquisition: new hires, new brand, new funnel
• Why South Africa became central to Somewhere.com 
• Transforming sales and recruiting teams using global talent
• Which industries are adopting global hiring (law, construction, SaaS, architecture)
• Why AI is not replacing Somewhere.com’s business model anytime soon
• Lessons from raising outside capital and the pressure that comes with it
• The overlap between operating and authoring The Sweaty Startup

Masters in Small Business M&A (sign up for podcast drops here) is produced by its host, Peter Lehrman, and the team at Axial (www.axial.com). 

Axial helps qualified business owners confidentially explore growth capital and exit transactions with top-ranked M&A advisors and professional capital partners in the lower middle market. The podcast seeks to explore the dynamic world of small business M&A, interviewing a mix of proven and emerging owners, operators, acquirers, and M&A advisors whose strategies and methods are being put to the test.

If you’d like to go deeper, head to Axial.com, where we make available the Axial member directories, downloadable tools for dealmakers, the Axial quarterly lower middle market investment banking league-table rankings, the SMB M&A pipeline report, and other useful information. If you’re a business owner, professional acquirer, or M&A advisor, you can start using Axial for free at Axial.com.

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Resources

• Peter Lehrman LinkedIn
• Peter Lehrman X
• Nick Huber Website
• Nick Huber LinkedIn
• Nick Huber X
• The Sweaty Startup Book
• Sweaty Startup
• Bolt Storage
• Somewhere.com
• RE Cost Seg
• AdRhino
• Spidexx Pest Control
• BoldSEO
• Titan Risk
• Bolt Builders