Newton Zheng did not build Epropel with a sale in mind. What started as a side hustle gradually became a real SEO agency, serving local businesses, ecommerce brands, and regulated industries where paid ads were often not an option.
Over time, Epropel built recurring revenue, kept long-term clients, and grew a distributed team across North America and the Philippines. The business had become established, profitable, and still capable of further growth.
That is what made the next decision matter. Rather than keep leading the agency’s next stage himself, Newton chose to make room for a new chapter and eventually hand the business over through Acquire.com.
A Side Hustle That Became a Real Agency
Epropel did not start as a polished agency with a clear roadmap. Like many service businesses, it began as a side hustle. Newton built it on the side before going all in. He went full-time in 2020, during COVID, and incorporated the business in 2021.
From there, the agency grew around a simple idea: help businesses win through organic search. At first, that meant working with local businesses and e-commerce brands that needed more visibility on Google. Later, the agency also found traction in regulated industries, including CBD and cannabis.
That shift mattered. In those industries, paid ads were often restricted or blocked. As a result, SEO became one of the few reliable ways to acquire customers. That made the work more valuable and the agency’s positioning easier to understand.
As the search changed, Epropel adapted. In addition to traditional SEO, the agency began helping clients appear in newer AI-driven search tools like ChatGPT Search and Perplexity. Even so, the core offer stayed the same. Epropel helped clients get discovered, and that value held up as the market evolved.
Cold Outreach Became the Growth Engine
Newton did not grow Epropel through brand awareness or steady inbound demand. His first client came through his network, and that early win helped validate the service. Still, that source dried up fast. To keep growing, he needed a better way to reach new clients.
He built that next step through outbound. First, he tested cold calling, Instagram outreach, and LinkedIn outreach. Then, cold email took the lead. It helped the agency reach more companies, test messages faster, and build a repeatable process instead of waiting for scattered introductions.
The outreach got stronger once Epropel had proof. Newton helped an early CBD client get strong results. Then he used that case in cold emails to other retailers in the same space. That made the message more credible and the timing more relevant.
Many of those businesses could not run paid ads, so they needed other ways to acquire customers. In that setting, Newton could pitch SEO as a practical growth channel because the need already existed.
Recurring Revenue Changed the Business
As Epropel grew, Newton changed the shape of the business. He did not rely only on one-off projects. Instead, he built the agency around monthly retainers. Clients chose from clear packages, and the team delivered ongoing work each month.
That model gave the company more stability. It also gave buyers a clearer view of the business. They could look at monthly revenue, client retention, and cash flow over time. In an agency, that kind of predictability matters.
Newton also built a team that could handle delivery across North America and the Philippines. That gave him more room to focus on strategy, systems, and growth. Over time, Epropel looked less like a founder-led service shop and more like a business another owner could step into and run.
That shift changed the way Newton started thinking about the company’s future.
The Decision to Sell Came Later
By that point, Epropel had already become a more structured business. It had recurring revenue, long-term clients, and a team that could keep delivery moving. At the same time, Newton started thinking about building something new, which gradually changed the way he saw the agency’s next stage.
For a while, he tried to keep both businesses moving. As he described it, that meant shifting back and forth between Epropel and another business. When one demanded more attention, the other slowed down. Then the focus shifted again, and the same pattern repeated itself.
That tension changed the question in front of him. Newton no longer had to ask whether Epropel had value. He had to ask whether he still wanted to be the one leading its next phase. Once that became clear, the next step was no longer only strategic. It became practical: finding the right path and the right buyer to carry the business forward.
Acquire.com Opened the Door to an Exit
For a long time, Newton assumed only software companies could exit. Like many founders, he linked acquisitions to SaaS, venture capital, and the startup stories people hear most often. An agency did not feel like the kind of business that naturally fit that world.
That changed when one of his coaching clients completed an acquisition through Acquire.com. Seeing that happen made the path feel more real. It also changed Newton’s expectations. He no longer saw an exit as something reserved for perfect businesses with every detail in place. Instead, he started to see it as a practical option for a company that already had demand, recurring revenue, and room for a new owner to keep growing it.
Once he entered the process himself, that shift became more concrete. The Guided by Acquire team helped simplify the exit and made the process easier to understand. As a first-time founder going through an acquisition, Newton did not need more noise. He needed clarity on what mattered, what buyers would look for, and how to move forward without getting buried in unnecessary work.
The platform also gave the listing real visibility. Newton said two newsletter blasts played a major role in bringing buyers in. Together, they helped drive much of the interest that followed and contributed to roughly 40 to 50 NDAs. Each newsletter brought in around 15 to 20 NDAs on its own. That momentum turned the listing into real conversations, then into calls, and eventually into three offers.
Three Offers and One Buyer That Fit
By then, the challenge was no longer whether Epropel had buyer interest. It was about how to choose the right buyer from it. The listing had drawn dozens of NDAs and, eventually, three offers. Even so, Newton did not treat that stage as a simple race to the highest number. Price mattered, but it did not settle the decision on its own.
He looked at the business more broadly. Some team members had worked with him for years, so continuity mattered. He wanted a buyer who could keep the company moving, support the team, and handle client relationships with care. That made the decision more specific. Newton was not only choosing terms. He was choosing who would take over something he had spent years building.
Personal fit also shaped the outcome because an acquisition does not end at signing. It moves into a transition period, and that stage works better when both sides communicate well and trust each other. Deal structure still mattered, of course, including the balance between upfront payment and seller financing. However, the final choice came down to a fuller picture. Newton moved forward with the buyer who made the most sense across continuity, working relationship, and long-term fit.
Lessons for Founders Planning an Exit
Newton’s experience offers a useful reminder: exit prep starts before the business goes on the market. In Epropel’s case, strong fundamentals made the company easier to understand and easier to hand off.
- Keep the books clean. Buyers will want financial records early, especially P&Ls and core reporting. Clean numbers reduce friction and build trust faster.
- Recurring revenue changes the conversation. Monthly retainers made Epropel easier to evaluate because buyers could see revenue patterns, retention, and stability over time.
- Longer contracts can strengthen buyer confidence. Newton noted that many clients stayed for a long time, but often on month-to-month agreements. In hindsight, longer contracts could have made the business even more attractive.
- The business does not need to look perfect. Buyers are not only looking for polished assets. They also look for real companies with demand, structure, and room to grow.
- Transferability matters. A business becomes more attractive when another owner can step in, understand how it runs, and continue operating it without rebuilding everything from scratch.
Those same choices make a business stronger now and easier to exit later.
What Comes Next
After the acquisition, Newton moved quickly into a new chapter. He started another business in the creator economy and brought two team members with him. The work is still in its early stages, but the direction is already different from the SEO agency he spent years building.
That shift gives the story a fitting close. The exit did not mark the end of Newton’s work as a founder. Instead, it gave Epropel a path forward under new ownership while giving him room to build again with full focus.
Newton’s next chapter is already underway, and his story shows that strong exits rarely happen by accident. They come from building a business that buyers can understand, operate, and grow.
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If you are building with exit in mind, or want help understanding what buyers look for, talk to the Guided by Acquire team before you list.
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