Disclaimer: Unless noted otherwise, views and analysis expressed here are the author's own and based on public sources. The article is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only. This is not financial advice. Please consult a professional for investment decisions.

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Welcome to Episode 8 of our Rollup of Tomorrow podcast series.

Germany is facing a succession crisis. According to a recent study, 532,000 SME owners (out of a total of 3.8M) plan on handing over the reins in the next 3-5 years. That’s over 100,000 succession events per year!

The number one obstacle to retiring is finding a successor: three-quarters of business owners mentioned it. Matthias Wilrich saw this challenge and created EterniTeam - a succession vehicle that acquires essential German small businesses and places incentivised successors - and future owners by design - to run them.

I sat down with Matthias to learn about his journey as a serial acquirer in one of Europe's most interesting markets.

Matthias walked me through:

1. Why Germany needs EterniTeam

2. Recent acquisitions and key learnings

3. Deal funnel and sourcing strategy

4. The ownership transfer model

5. Matthias’ asks from the RollUpEurope community

If you'd rather listen to the audio version of the interview, check out our Rollup Stories podcast on Spotify!

Also, a shoutout to our sponsor Reef Pass Investors: THE serial acquisition investors. If you are seeking HoldCo or rollup funding in North America or Europe, you should talk to Reef Pass Investors. Interested? Apply directly on RPI’s website or simply hit reply with a description of your idea + pitch deck.  

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Alex: Welcome Matthias! Tell us about yourself and how you came up with the idea of EterniTeam.

Matthias: My background is in venture, but I've always seen myself as an operator. I was the COO of an ecommerce company, responsible for logistics and building warehouses. I've always liked working with physical things. Later, I worked for Tier Mobility - lots of supply chain, maintenance, and repair. I was overseeing mechanics all over the globe.

When I left Tier, I went on sabbatical. There, I received a call from a relative who was leading our family business. He was calling to say he had decided to sell the company. That was my first exposure to succession. During the process, I noticed the buyer never asked the entrepreneurial questions - who will lead this company after the deal closes? That irritated me. The outcome for the company itself wasn't great because the entrepreneurial spirit didn't endure.

Around that time, I saw Teamshares in the US solving succession from an entrepreneurial angle. They put in Presidents who are incentivised. I thought that's the only logical solution for small companies that no one would touch as purely financial transactions.

Are you familiar with Teamshares? If not, check out our deep dive: Teamshares wants to dominate America’s SMB succession game - but do the numbers add up? 5 observations after digging through the SPAC docs 

1. Why Germany needs EterniTeam

Alex: Your website does a great job framing the challenge. 75% of German SMEs that will need a successor within the next few years don't have a solution. But why does the world need EterniTeam? Is the market broken? Will these essential businesses disappear without intervention?

Matthias: Does the world need EterniTeam? Absolutely. 

Many of these companies would shut down otherwise. The owner of our first acquisition actually told the employees, "I'm pleased we closed this transaction, because otherwise I was going to shut the business down."

We've also built up a huge talent pool of potential successors. Without EterniTeam, entrepreneurship via succession is something people can't do because they're taking on so much risk. I'm talking about people who are certified HVAC engineers in Germany - people with knowledge about what they're doing, but no knowledge about due diligence, negotiations, or financing.  Moreover, one reason many countries face societal problems is that people, especially from blue-collar jobs, don't feel empowered anymore. By putting them in the same boat, incentivizing them, and giving them shares in what they do eight to ten hours every day, we're giving them real participation. That makes a big difference.

We do get rewarding moments where we feel what we're doing is appreciated by all stakeholders. The entrepreneurs are really happy. And when we tell employees they're getting actual shares, they react much better than some people thought. People said, "They won't understand, they won't be fascinated." But we get really positive feedback.

2. Recent acquisitions and key learnings

Alex: It's not the first time you're appearing in the RollUpEurope community. At our February 2025 Services Summit, you spoke about your focus on crafts businesses. What have you acquired since, and what are the key learnings?

Matthias: So far we've acquired 3 companies and we have several others in the diligence stage. All 3 can be loosely described as engaged in "haptical services" - physical touch services. I think that's what you call crafts, though one isn't really crafts but has a very similar profile.

One is a distributor for fruit and vegetables - seems like retail but isn't. They have no inventory risk and supply fresh produce to gastronomy, hotels, and public institutions.

Then we have a door-and-window installer, both B2B and B2C. 

Finally, we acquired an HVAC doing only B2C full-service bathrooms. When you build a house and want a bathroom, you typically go to three different people for electrical, flooring, and plumbing. They do all of it integrated - your dream bathroom on request.

The biggest learning? Every company is different. You can automate the upper funnel of your deal flow, and we do that. Everyone needs to do that, especially when working with bigger numbers. But down the funnel, it's very individual. You have to build trust with the seller and the employees. You cannot operate with a standard playbook because the DNA of every company is different. You need actual people to manage this change process. 

3. Deal funnel and sourcing strategy

Alex: And since you talked about TeamShares, it prides itself on having a huge sample, allowing them to go after the most attractive businesses. What does your deal funnel look like? Where do leads come from?

Matthias: More than 95% of deals come from brokers, and that's because we want it that way. We don't do any cold outreach.

Good brokers can have a real impact on transactions. They navigate the process and prepare sellers for what's reasonable. Most sellers do this once in their life and don't know the market terms. When they ask questions, our answer doesn't count much because we're the buyer. You need someone in between. Plus, that person validates that there's a real willingness to sell. Right now, we're passive. But we're getting an automated inflow of 500-600 deals per month. 

Alex: How big is the team that analyses this deal flow?

Matthias: Currently, two people, plus a lot of technical help. Yes, there's AI involved, but also automated processes.

Alex: And your sweet spot in terms of EBITDA?

Matthias: Above €300K, but looking at our transactions, we go up to €2M. We want to solve the problem in a market segment with few buyers.

Alex: It's interesting - there are a lot of commonalities with Baltic Family Capital. We haven't been as productive as you, but 85% of our deal flow is proprietary. It's a double-edged sword. On one hand, you're the first and only party talking to the seller. But that's exactly what you said - the pushback about market terms, the longer sales cycle, and it's hard to ascertain willingness to sell. 

Matthias: To add to the list, we have trouble explaining working capital when there isn't a broker involved. We had one deal we really wanted to do. The seller liked us, and said, "Okay, but you're going to pay me that, plus you're going to pay me all of my receivables because those are projects I sold." I said, "Yes, but you never have zero receivables unless you shut down your business. And we're not planning to shut down your business." There was no way of convincing him that it's not standard to get paid out all your inventory and receivables. I think he hasn't found a buyer - it just fell apart.

We write an email now every three months saying, "Hey, are you willing to talk again?" Direct outreach if there's no broker involved is very difficult.

4. The ownership transfer model

Alex: You talked about the ownership transfer and finding successors - similar to Teamshares but also different. How do you come up with succession people given that you don't intend to run those companies? How much equity do you give? And how do you transfer it - over time, based on milestones?

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