In this episode, we're joined by Alexander Kelm, an acquisition entrepreneur and founder of a micro private equity firm focused on buying, growing, and scaling digital businesses across Europe.

Alexander shares his unconventional path into acquisitions, including how he sold a business before he had even fully started it. He explains why acquisition entrepreneurship can be such a powerful strategy for digital business owners and how focusing on your strengths, rather than chasing every opportunity, dramatically improves your odds of success.

For first-time buyers, Alexander offers practical, no-fluff guidance on getting started. He breaks down the most common mistakes new acquirers make, how to find quality acquisition opportunities, and what his due diligence process looks like in practice.

The conversation also dives into the European acquisition landscape, where Alexander explains the funding options available to entrepreneurs and the real-world challenges of setting up and operating businesses in the EU.

If acquisitions are on your radar as a growth strategy, learning from someone actively sourcing deals, closing acquisitions, and scaling real businesses can save you years of trial and error.

• Alexander's background and how he sold a business before even launching it (01:42)
• Why acquisition entrepreneurship is so powerful for digital businesses (09:35)
• Avoid failure by playing to your strengths (12:24)
• Alexander's advice for a first-time business buyer (15:58)
• Common mistakes first-time buyers make (18:09)
• Finding and vetting business acquisitions (21:25)
• Alexander's due diligence process (26:50)
• European funding options for entrepreneurs (30:23)
• Alexander's post-acquisition growth playbook (34:09)
• The challenges of setting up a business in the EU (36:44)

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  • Create an Empire Flippers account
  • Subscribe to our newsletter
  • Buyout Diary newsletter
  • Alexander's LinkedIn

Sit back, grab a coffee, and learn the ins and outs of acquisition entrepreneurship in Europe.

Most online business owners have a complicated relationship with conferences. Some leave feeling energized and full of new ideas. Others leave wondering if they just paid a lot of money for bad coffee and small talk.

In this episode of the Opportunity Podcast, Greg breaks down when conferences are actually worth your time and when they're not.

He starts by outlining the difference between attending as a practitioner versus a vendor. Practitioners tend to gain the most from learning new strategies, seeing how others operate, and uncovering ideas that can indirectly unlock new revenue.

Vendors have a tougher time finding success. Without a clear plan to justify the investment and a proven offer, sponsorship can be expensive and risky. Greg explains why aggressive selling almost always backfires and why trust, education, and long-term relationship building are what actually drive results.

Greg also shares practical advice on how to make conferences work without massive budgets. Most importantly, he reveals where the real value of conferences shows up, not in the talks and workshops, but during dinners, drinks, and informal conversations.

If you want a clear, honest take on how to approach conferences and actually make them work for your business, this episode is worth a listen.

• Assessing the value of conferences for sellers vs vendors (01:25)
• The real cost and risk of sponsoring conferences (03:54)
• Getting the best ROI as an event sponsor (09:00)
• Where the real business happens at conferences (12:44)
• Final verdict: Are conferences actually worth it? (18:36)

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Sit back, grab a coffee, and learn how to get the most value out of conferences!

AI tools are already answering your customers' questions. The real question is, how do you ensure your business is part of those answers?

In this episode, we sit down with Sergey Lucktinov, an AI search visibility expert who has spent more than a decade navigating algorithm shifts and rethinking how businesses get discovered online.

Sergey breaks down how visibility works in the age of AI and what business owners need to do to make sure their brand is actually being mentioned, not silently skipped.

We explore how AI has fundamentally changed SEO. The focus is no longer on keywords and backlinks alone, but on meaning, trust, and whether your content is eligible to be retrieved by AI systems in the first place.

Sergey shares how years of surviving major search changes led him to develop Semantic Retrieval Optimization (SRO), a framework built specifically for how AI systems retrieve, evaluate, and surface content today.

He explains how to format content so large language models (LLMs) can easily understand and reuse it, and why AI has quietly leveled the playing field, giving smaller companies new opportunities to compete with much larger brands in search.

We also break down Semantic Entity Networks (SENs) and how they fit into modern on-page optimization, as well as the biggest mistakes and misconceptions businesses have about LLM optimization.

If you want to understand how to increase your visibility in AI search, this episode is a must-listen.

• How Sergey developed his Semantic Retrieval Optimization (SRO) strategy (02:35)
• How AI has transformed SEO and how this affects visibility (06:18)
• Understanding how to format your content to suit LLMs (08:29)
• AI has leveled the playing field for smaller companies in search (13:57)
• Explaining SENs and how they fit into on-page optimization (17:09)
• The biggest mistakes and misconceptions about LLM optimization (22:11)
• Cost optimizations you can use to increase your retrieval rate (24:38)
• Calculating leads and audience size that come from LLMs (30:38)
• The future of SEO and AI (32:26)

• • Empire Flippers Podcasts
  • Empire Flippers Marketplace
  • Create an Empire Flippers account
  • Subscribe to our newsletter
  • Semantic Vector
  • Sergey's personal site
  • Sergey's book about semantic SEO, SRO & AI

Sit back, grab a coffee, and learn how to dominate AI search visibility!