I did something a little crazy. Not many know I’ve been working on this for the past 2 years.

I bought a hotel in Montauk, NY, for $23 million.

A lot of business people follow me. So I’m going to go through the financials, the thesis, and everything else that goes into it - in case you want to go into the hotel game or you just enjoy reading about my pain.

Here’s a little about the hotel:

It's a 73-year-old hotel on a huge piece of property right on the ocean in downtown Montauk.

I'll show you the numbers, but some background first…

Montauk is a special place. They call it the "End of the World." It's located at the far end of the Hamptons. Two hours from Manhattan.

Most people who come out and visit are from New York City. During the summer, it gets hot and muggy in the concrete jungle of New York, so people are looking for a place to escape.

For over a hundred years, that place to escape has been Montauk. There are no large buildings; everything is airy, breezy, filled with sun and ocean smells. Even though I grew up in California, I've never been to a beach town like Montauk. There's something incredible about it.

Here’s what we bought:

• 45-room hotel. All the rooms have views both ocean and the pond views which I think is pretty special.

• It’s one of the only hotels in the Hamptons that is on the beach

• A cool fact: this hotel has the largest commercial swimming pool in Montauk.

• We paid $23.5 million. That’s a lot of money! We raised some debt and some equity for the property. I personally invested a million, which is a lot of money for me.

• Originally built 73 years ago, the hotel is in the middle of downtown, next to the only grocery store in town.

• Originally an 8-room roadside motel, but expanded to 45 rooms over the years by the original owners Abe and Julia Hausman

We bought it, gutted it, and did a total remodel.

And now it’s called Offshore Montauk.

I have a lot of my personal money invested in this property. My dream is that in three years, if things go well, this little property can generate a few million of profit per year. If that happens, I think it's going to be great.

It’s the nicest hotel product in the town of Montauk. But to be honest, there aren’t that many nice hotels in Montauk, which is definitely in our favor :)

With our hotel, we really leaned into the beach thing. We focused on the feeling and the aesthetic of “drifting away”. Drifting away from the stress of the city and drifting towards relaxation.

We put in a cool spa complete with multiple hot saunas, multiple cold plunges, red light therapy, and an awesome gym.

I've never done hotels. And as you can imagine, I'm anxious, and I want people to check it out.

I'm tweeting this here because I want you all to come check out the hotel,

if you're in New York and you spend summers in Montauk, definitely give it a try.

If you're thinking of going with a group, feel free to DM me, and I'll connect you with the manager to give you a special X friend hookup

Over the last couple of years, I really put my all into this project. Lots of sleepless nights. Hand-wringing about the costs. Choosing every single furniture and fixture down to the last light bulb and bedside table.

Please let me know what you think.

I'm excited for you to check it out.

I’m going to include some pictures of the hotel below


Before we even bought the property, we had to spend a lot of money to understand what we could do with the property.

We hired local architects, talked to a bunch of general contractors who had built hotels, talked to a local land use attorney, and surveyors and engineers.

This project was daunting before we even started. But what we learned from all of our local specialists is as long as we followed the guidelines of the town, we would be able to build what we wanted. So we decided to make the jump.

Below are some of the original renderings of the property as well as a video of the original property.

If you look at these you'll see what we saw in the property and what we were hoping to achieve with the construction.

I actually think that real-life product, now that it's finished, ended up a little better than this:

I talked to a guy who built a $60 million staffing business.

He said that staffing is one of the best ways to make $150k with no upfront investment

Here’s how he’d do it: Meet Romeen Sheth @RomeenSheth, who bootstrapped his staffing business to $60m a year and sold it.

He says that staffing is one of the best business models for going from 0 to 1.

If you hustle, you can make $100k within your first year (or sooner).

17 brutal lessons from buying 17 beautiful businesses:

1. You can’t do a good deal with a bad person. 2. There’s a difference between “great” and outstanding businesses.

3. The formula is growth potential + moat + cash flow.

We've purchased 21 companies.

I've broken down the process we use to acquire cash-flow producing businesses into an easy to read 6 Part Email Mini-Course:

Day 1: Finding Businesses to Invest In

Day 2: How To Do Due Diligence

Day 3: How To Finance The Business

Day 4: How To Structure The Deal

Day 5: How To Grow The Business

Day 6: How to make $500k+ per year in cash flow

Buying a business is scary but I hope this helps!


I forgot to mention this resource is completely FREE.

When I started my journey in acquisitions I read these two books below.

I still recommend them as a primer to anyone getting into this space.

My course above is a bit more tactical and specific though (and a bit shorter)

My secret to public speaking:

The day before my speech, I re-watch my 3 favorite speeches of all time.

It helps me learn and mimic the best speaking styles.

This is my favorite presentation of all time.

Watch how Steve Jobs does the following:

1. he tells you how you should think about what's coming

"a revolutionary device"

2. he crafts a story arch and takes you on a journey

3. he re-builds credibility

"the first iPod changed the entire music industry"

4. he uses repetition

"An iPod, a phone, an internet communication device"
"An iPod, a phone, an internet communication device"

5. he speaks slowly and pauses for dramatic effect

What is YOUR favorite speech of all time?

if you found this helpful, drop a comment below and follow me @SievaKozinsky for more like this
if you're going down the Steve Jobs rabbit hole. This is another one of my favorites, less business, more about life:

There are thousands of "good" businesses.

But GREAT businesses are rare.

Here are 3 things I look for in great companies: There’s a lot of traditional metrics for what makes a company “successful.”

But in my experience, great businesses are fairly simple

Here are 3 things I believe all wonderful companies have in common:

Buying a home service business?

These are answers I look for:

🔵 do sales rely on key relationships?
⚪️ are you paid before or after the job?
🔵 what are the net margins?
⚪️ is it seasonal or cyclical?
🔵 price? As a multiple on earnings
⚪️ can you hire people you need? If the business succeeds because the owner has long standing relationships with customers.

When the owner leave.

You will struggle.

An underrated business skill:

Reading P&L statements.

There's hidden info in all of them.

Here are 5 key things to look for in P&Ls: 1. Examine gross margin

I’m looking for 40% or higher. Any lower indicates the company is likely underperforming.

Monitor a company’s gross margin over time. Is it improving or getting worse?

The US Government wants YOU to own a business.

Think of the IRS as one big incentive machine.

The government decides certain activities benefit its citizens, and incentivizes us to act accordingly.

Here are 8 good reasons to own a business: Summary of tax benefits for business owners

- Deduct Interest from investment properties
- Deduct business-related travel
- Deduct business expenses
- Drive your car benefit
- Hire your children
- Section 179
- SEP IRA
- Home office

More on each of these below:

Today I Learned that the IKEA brand is owned by a non-profit.

And they make $40 billion in annual revenue.

This means they get to avoid a lot of taxes...

Here's how they do it: First a bit of background...

IKEA was founded by Ingvar Kamprad in Sweden in 1943.

Ingvar grew up on a farm but wasn't destined to be a farmer.

He was a natural entrepreneur.

At age 5 he went door-to-door and sold matches to his neighbors.

Last night I met with a pension fund manager who manages $30 Billion.

His words of advice:

“A recession is coming.

Do not invest based on last years’ numbers.”

We talked about the San Francisco office building that sold for $300M in 2019 and is listed for $60M today.

The… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… What am I doing with our investments?

1- I’m a quick pass on any business that grew over 30% last year (COVID bump)

2- paying close attention to performance for last 3 months in 2023. If any softening, be ready to run.

3- not engaging with sellers or brokers with 2022… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

Newsflash...

Your rich neighbors didn't go to Ivy League colleges.

They:
- skipped college
- learned sales
- sell high-ticket products or services Most likely path to wealth and financial stability for your family:

1. learn sales

2. learn a trade

There are no gatekeepers to worry about.

If you learn one of these skills (or both), you will be unstoppable.

This Turkish immigrant went from producing cheese on his family farm to building a company worth $2.1 billion.

I love an immigrant success story… Hamdi Ulukaya was born in 1972 in eastern Turkey.

He was raised by a family of sheep farmers and learned how to make yogurt and cheese at an early age.

Yogurt would become a recurring theme in his life.

But he wouldn’t realize this until later…

The story of SVB makes me think of a late 1800s story…

About the richest banker in California.

He famously stopped runs on his bank multiple times… Isaias Hellman was a Jewish immigrant who started a small bank called Farmers & Merchants.

One day while he was on vacation in Europe, his bank president closed the bank to customers…

It caused a panic.

On learning this he rushed home.

He showed up surrounded by guards…

Here's a quick primer on how I plan to save money on taxes: (I first wrote about this in my newsletter, will share a link in the comments)

I like to invest for the long term out of my Roth IRA.

This allows me to pay taxes today, and avoid paying taxes on capital gains made from the investment...

Ken Fisher is an American billionaire.

And the founder and chairman of a company you’ve never heard of.

His famous quote changed how I think about investing:

“Time in the market beats timing the market.”

Here’s what I learned… Time in the market can help you:

• Generate more cash flow
• Save on taxes
• Weather volatility

The benefits are endless.

But only if you implement a solid value investing strategy.

Last week I met a founder who reached $7 MILLION in sales in less than 24 months.

And she self-funded it…

Here are a few secrets she shared that helped her grow: Before diving in, here’s some background on the founder:

Adriane never planned on starting a company.

She started her career in finance. And led recruiting at her firm for 8 years..

Then one day she gets a call from her friend, @jspujji ...

just saw an interesting deal

Enterprise SaaS focused on the Door and Hardware Distribution vertical.

$470k EBITDA in 2022, small but growing nicely.

Comment below if you want an intro... The business explained:

Say you're a GC building a large apartment/office building.

You need someone to estimate and build the doors for you.

Those builders can use this 👆 software to help them with estimation.

I spend hundreds of hours meeting with cool companies.

Here are my favorite businesses from the last 12 months: 1. Swim schools

I met a swim school owner named John, who brings $300k/year in cash flow.

He works 10 hours a week.

The best type of person to buy this business is someone who is good with people and community marketing.

A recession is coming.

Here’s what I’m doing, and what you can do to prepare: 1. Find quality mentors

Find people with experience in your industry. The more hands-on experience, the better. 

Just because someone is older or has more business experience than you doesn’t mean they are an ideal mentor for you.

I used to stress about everything a lot.

Then I adopted the “Last Time” principle: Stress feels more acute when you don’t know when it’s going to end.

- ‘my startup isn’t working’
- ‘investors don’t believe in me’
- ‘my child is crying’
- ‘my parents are annoying’