About Dealmakers Academy

Dealmakers Academy helps entrepreneurs, investors, and business owners learn how to buy profitable businesses through practical education, proven acquisition strategies, and real-world dealmaking experience.

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13,000+ Dealmakers Helped 25+ Years Experience 70+ Acquisitions

What is Dealmakers Academy?

Dealmakers Academy is the education hub behind the wider Dealmakers brand. It is built for people who want to understand how business acquisition really works, from finding the right opportunity to funding, structuring, negotiating, and growing a business after the deal is done.

Meet the Founder

Meet Jonathan Jay

Jonathan Jay sold his first business in 1999, and that experience opened his eyes to the opportunity of buying and selling businesses instead of building everything from scratch. Over the last 25 years, he has bought and sold more than 70 businesses across multiple industries.

In 2007, he acquired a group of distressed businesses for £1, turned them around, and later sold them to a private equity firm for £1.25 million. More recently, Jonathan has turned decades of legal, financial, and negotiation experience into a repeatable system for other buyers.

25+

Years

70+

Acquisitions

Proven

System

Buy a Business. Don't Build One.

The core philosophy behind Dealmakers Academy is simple. Buying an established business can be a faster route to growth than starting from zero. Instead of building a team, a brand, and a customer base from scratch, acquisition gives you the chance to step into an existing business with proven cash flow, systems, and momentum.

Search

Finding off-market opportunities that aren't publicly listed

Structure

Using smart deal structures like leveraged buyouts

Scale

Building the company as an asset, not a job

Built on Real-World Experience

One of the strongest things about the Dealmakers brand is that it does not present Jonathan as a theorist. With decades of experience "in the trenches" of the UK M&A market, the method is backed by student success stories and case studies from dealmakers who have applied it in practice.

Track Record

70+ personal acquisitions and exits across multiple industries.

Reach

Host of the UK's #1 business acquisition podcast, with hundreds of episodes and a large content ecosystem.

Mission

To help people "buy your way to freedom."

Keep Learning with Dealmakers Academy

Explore interviews, articles, and case studies to see how smarter business buying works in the real world, then take the next step when you're ready.

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