1. Carlos Cashman of Thrasio
Carlos Cashman co-founded Thrasio in 2018 to buy Amazon FBA brands. He and his team looked for sellers earning at least $1 million a year.
They aimed to boost marketing, streamline supply, and use shared data across brands.
In 2020, Thrasio made $500 million in sales and earned $100 million in profit (according to TechCrunch).
Cashman, hailed as the king of e-commerce aggregation concept, focused on:
Clear numbers: cost per acquisition, inventory turns, and ad return.
He hired small teams to test new ad channels quickly.
He also standardized logistics to cut shipping costs.
By late 2020, Thrasio managed more than 200 brands and reached about $1 billion in annual sales.
Cashman’s story shows that a clear plan and data tracking can turn many small brands into a single engine of growth.
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2. Matthew Moulding of THG (The Hut Group)
Matthew Moulding launched The Hut Group (THG) in 2004 selling CDs online.
In 2011, he bought the sports nutrition brand Myprotein for £58 million (Source).
Myprotein had bootstrapped to about $25 million in sales. THG moved the site onto its own platform, cut middlemen, and used its global warehousing network.
As a result, Myprotein saw roughly 19 times sales growth after its acquisition, positioning it as one of the largest online wellness brands on the globe.
By 2024, THG had £1.75 billion in annual revenue and a broad roster of beauty and nutrition brands, according to Wikipedia.
What’s Moulding's secret to this huge success?
Well, he set a clear rule:
Only buy brands with at least £15 million in sales and a healthy repeat-order rate. He then added each brand to his shared tech and logistics platform.
This cut costs and improved delivery times. By focusing on core measures—site conversion rate, cost per order, and repeat purchase rate—Moulding turned a mid-market niche brand into a global leader.
3. Dan Peskorse and ThinkFitLiveFit.com
Dan Peskorse saw an offer for ThinkFitLiveFit.com on a broker site. The site sold home fitness gear.
He knew fitness equipment was in demand and fit his skill set. He closed the deal in 2019 and set a target to grow site traffic by improving its SEO and referral partnerships.
He also added clear product guides and customer reviews.
After two months, he hit over 10 percent growth in revenue, according to Entrepreneur.
Peskorse tracked his metrics daily: site visits, conversion rate, and average order value.
He cut underperforming ad channels and reinvested in search-engine ads that returned at least three times the spend.
Within six months, revenue had grown by over 25 percent!
He used a simple subject-verb-object plan: Test, Measure, Adjust.
His clear steps and focus on basic numbers turned a small fitness site into a steady income.
This particular acquisition also serves as the perfect example of using your own expertise to acquire and grow an existing business.
Key Lessons from These Stories
Each of these acquisition entrepreneurs followed a few clear steps:
First, they chose a niche with growth signs—rising search trends or viral potential.
Second, they invested in a small number of high-impact tweaks: user experience, influencer outreach, fulfillment partners, or upsells.
Third, they tracked real metrics—traffic, conversion rate, and order value—and focused resources on what moved those numbers most.
Finally, they either scaled the business for long-term revenue or flipped it when the value peaked.
These steps show that you can take a ready-made online business and turn it into a profit engine with focused work.
Related: 7 E-commerce Acquisition Mistakes That Can Kill Your Investment
Conclusion
Buying an e-commerce business can speed up your path to profit. These 3 acquisition entrepreneurs show a simple pattern: find a business around a niche with clear demand, set basic growth goals, and track a few key numbers closely. Remember to measure results daily and adjust what you need. Clear plans and simple metrics can turn an existing business into your next success.
Need help finding a profitable, established business with high growth potential? Our Acquisition Partnership program helps you find profitable opportunities, navigate due diligence, negotiate the deal, and manage a smooth ownership transition. Post-acquisition, we help scale your business by up to 2–4×—all while preparing you for a successful, profitable exit. Let us guide you every step of the way.
We Help You Buy / Build, Manage and Scale E-commerce Brands for an EXIT
E-commerce Simplified for Busy Individuals – We handle the buying, building, and scaling, so you can focus on what matters.
Growth-Focused Strategies – From sourcing to marketing, we drive growth and prepare you for a profitable exit.
Expertly Managed Exits – We build a high-value brand designed for a Lucrative exit.
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