How To Partner with 20 Operators ($100m in Sales) | Neil Twa Interview
How To Partner with 20 Operators ($100m in Sales) | Neil Twa Interview  
Podcast: Buyers and Builders
Published On: Fri Jun 06 2025
Description: Neil Twa is a veteran e-commerce operator and investor who’s built and exited multiple 8-figure physical product brands. He raised $100M to launch an Amazon aggregator — and then walked away before deploying a single dollar.Now, Neil is a partner at Patriot Growth Capital, where he focuses on acquiring businesses in the $5M–$50M range and backing veteran entrepreneurs.Thank you to our newest sponsors:Scalepath: https://www.joinscalepath.com/Spacebar Studios: https://www.spacebarstudios.co/In This Episode We Discuss:00:00:00 - Intro & Neil's background00:00:28 - Biggest lesson: Patience and perseverance00:01:25 - Why Neil got into physical products00:02:28 - Build vs Buy in physical product businesses00:04:34 - Building businesses with the end in mind (exit focused)00:06:17 - Sponsor: Scalepath00:07:18 - Neil's early business journey & first exits00:08:34 - Meeting Kevin Harrington & shift to 'build to sell'00:11:19 - Sponsor: Spacebar Studios00:12:14 - Timeline: affiliate - FBA - aggregators00:16:00 - Neil 1.0 vs Neil 2.0 - mindset transformation00:21:00 - The '5 Fs' framework00:22:03 - Pulling back from $100M aggregator plan00:26:33 - Operational chaos in the Amazon rollup space00:31:00 - Mass adoption of ecommerce & timing the market00:34:34 - Creative deal structures & leaving owners with equity00:40:21 - Ideal acquisition targets & buy box explained00:43:31 - One deal with massive upside potential00:46:30 - Building a new SaaS product: Cayman Data00:50:00 - How Neil manages focus & projects00:51:24 - Neil's current role: investor/operator00:53:07 - One key lesson from being in the trenches 00:56:33 - Advice: don't sell $20 products on Amazon00:57:34 - Current frustration: Amazon TOS enforcement00:59:11 - Five-year vision for fund and SaaS (2030 goals)01:00:25 - Favorite book: Good to Great by Jim Collins01:01:48 - Best investment advice: Invest without expectation01:02:00 - Closing remarks  ----------------------------------------------Subscribe on Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/show/6lr5bE3SNZF2uEE7Nb0DHhSubscribe on Apple Podcasts:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/holdco-builders/id1695713724Follow Mikk/PrivatEquityGuy on Twitter: https://x.com/PrivatEquityGuy⁠⁠⁠Neil on Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠https://x.com/voltagefbaThis podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as a basis for investment decisions.