I made the largest investment in my life

My wife and I have walked past this corner store dozens and dozens and dozens of times.

Since we had moved there, it had gone unloved. Maybe the owners were burnt out. It happens.

But the location was always something else... near the boardwalk of our small (but growing rapidly) beach town, tucked right where off the boardwalk... exactly where you would want a neighborhood market to be.

Each time my wife and I would walk by it, we'd say to ourselves, "man this would be the perfect place for a cute market and deli".

Then we heard it was changing hands.

The new owners had a vision that was almost exactly what we'd imagined: Boutique market. Deli. Coffee shop. Local artisanal goods. Real community focus. And they weren't rookies - they already run hotels on the island + had previous experience running businesses.

So I did something kind of brazen. I walked up to the owner and said: "I'm an investor, my wife and I have had this exact same dream, is there anyway we could get a seat at the table?"

We talked. The deal made sense. And I became a minority owner of Carolina Beach Market & Sea Bean Coffee.

I don't want to disclose too much of the numbers, but I will say this:

My investment was in the six-figure range
The deal includes minority (<10%) ownership in the business
The deal includes the real estate and the business (this was what made it a great opportunity in my eyes)
I believe this story shows exactly why I believe so strongly in Buffett-style investing - and I hope you can learn something from reading this and maybe do something similar one day!

Why a stock investor bought a bodega

There's a Buffett quote I keep coming back to, y'all have heard me say it 100 times...

"I am a better investor because I am a businessman, and a better businessman because I am an investor."

I always understood it intellectually, and I believe that's why I've done well in my day job since transitioning out of the military.

Before I committed to this investment, I went on Flank and started studying publicly traded grocery companies. BJ's. Costco. Kroger. I wanted to understand the category... the basic economics of how a grocery business actually works. This was extremely helpful.

What I found confirmed something I suspected: conventional grocery is a brutally thin-margin business.

You need massive volume just to make the numbers work. Which means the pivot to boutique... adding a deli, a coffee shop, local artisanal products... isn't just aesthetically nicer. It's a fundamentally smarter economic model. Higher margins hiding inside a rebrand.

^the coffee shop that was added!

Luckily I didn't need to make any recommendations. The owners knew this and was already driving towards it well before I was involved.

This wouldn't have been possible without the work I'd been doing on Flank, and before Flank when I just studied this stuff and kept it in my head (dumb idea). That's the whole point. Flank is the gym. This deal was one game.

And honestly? There's NO way I would've been comfortable signing a six-figure check into a local business without being a relatively experienced Buffett-style investor.

The valuation math, the deal structure, understanding what made the economics attractive... that all came from years of studying businesses like they're businesses, not treating stocks like little pieces of paper to be traded.

How I evaluated it

Howard Marks has a line I keep coming back to: "It's not what you buy, it's what you pay."

To call this a Buffett-style investment is a little disingenuous. This business model isn't fully proven yet. Buffett famously does not go for businesses that still need to grow, or are unproven.

The owners are transforming what was a standard corner store into a boutique market and deli. That takes time. That takes execution. I want to be honest about that risk.

But the valuation made sense. The real estate underpins the value. The location is genuinely strong... near the boardwalk, limited commercial competition nearby.

And the owners have operating experience with other businesses on the island. This isn't their first rodeo.

This is more aligned with Buffett style investing - I'm just along for the ride on this investment. I don't run anything day-to-day.

"The important thing we do with managers, generally, is to find the .400 hitters and then not tell them how to swing."

I also want to be clear: I'm genuinely grateful to the owners for this opportunity. They didn't have to bring me in. I'm not an experienced operator. I'm growing alongside them. That's a privilege and I don't take it lightly.

We structured this like Buffett would. Permanent capital. Quarterly distributions. No operating role (though I'm helping a little with tech, which is honestly just fun for me).

The bigger point

Most people my age who are interested in investing are chasing fast money. Day trading. Options. Whatever's moving.

I get it. It feels exciting. But I genuinely think there's something powerful about the slow path... about studying businesses like they're businesses, building real understanding, taking positions when you see something that you understand, and letting that compound over time.

Because here's what happened to me: I walked past this corner store for years. But because of the work I'd been doing studying companies on Flank, I had the vocabulary to recognize what I was looking at when the moment showed up. And I had the confidence to knock on a stranger's door and say: I want in.

Ask me any questions you'd like! I'm about to shoot a video on this :)