Tampa Target Shortlist — 2026-05-03

Why this is in the vault

This shortlist supports the Service-as-a-Software acquisition thesis laid out in ~/rdco-vault/04-finance/2026-05-03-path-to-5m-liquid-analysis.md. Goal: deploy ~$1M dry powder + SBA 7(a) + seller financing into a Tampa-metro small business where 60%+ of revenue is structured knowledge work that an agent stack can absorb (L1 production + L2 pattern application), expand margins, and compound toward $5M liquid net worth in 5–7 years. Each candidate is scored not for “good business” but for “good business where Ray can replace a meaningful slice of payroll with agents within 18 months.”

TOP 5 — re-ranked after healthcare-adjacent pass (2026-05-03 PM)

Re-ranked to mix marketing-agency, vocational-school, and healthcare-adjacent candidates by AI-rebuild fit AND family-doctor edge applicability. The healthcare additions are not a wholesale replacement of the prior top 5 — they’re added as cross-cutting candidates where the brother-in-law (ICBD Holdings / ABA Centers of America billing) angle is a real diligence + reference-customer edge.

1. SBA Pre-Qual Digital Marketing Agency for Financial Institutions (Tampa) — UNCHANGED

• HIGH AI-rebuild fit, $1.73M revenue, 60 active bank clients, <2% monthly churn, 4-yr avg client tenure, 10-yr-old, asking $1M–$5M, SBA 10% down. Reg-aware niche = defensible. Best top-of-funnel candidate. ID: BizQuest BW2497669.
• URL: https://www.bizquest.com/business-for-sale/sba-pre-qual-digital-marketing-agency-for-financial-inst-60-clients/BW2497669/

2. Florida Home Health Agency — Medicare Certified, TJC Accredited (Pasco County) — NEW

• HIGH AI-rebuild fit + brother-in-law diligence edge. $314,578 asking / $1,383,868 revenue / SDE not disclosed (likely $200–$400K based on home-health margin benchmarks) / Established 2018 / Multi-county license (Greater Tampa Bay) covering skilled nursing, PT, OT, ST, MSW. Medicare PTAN + TJC accreditation already in place = two of the three highest-cost barriers to entry in home health are pre-built. Reason for sale: parent org focusing on hospice/palliative core. Seller financing offered ($235K down / $79K @ 7% over 36mo). Office space NOT included — buyer relocates. Workflow shape: intake, scheduling, prior auth, OASIS-E documentation, billing — all knowledge-work that compresses 60–80% with agents. Brother-in-law’s ICBD / ABA Centers experience translates directly to home-health prior-auth + payer-mix workflows. ID: BizBuySell 2446291.
• URL: https://www.bizbuysell.com/business-opportunity/florida-home-health-agency-medicare-certified/2446291/

3. SBA Pre-Qual Digital Marketing Firm — Niche Home Services (Tampa) — UNCHANGED (now #3)

• HIGH AI-rebuild fit. $1.45M rev / $822K EBITDA / 57% net margin / 90 clients / $139K MRR / 33% YoY / asking $1M–$5M / SBA 10% down. Productized retainer agency in a single vertical = lowest-friction agent-rebuild target in the funnel. ID: BizQuest BW2496757.
• URL: https://www.bizquest.com/business-for-sale/sba-pre-qual-digital-marketing-firm-niche-home-services-sector/BW2496757/

4. Integrated Medical & Behavioral Health Platform — $2.4M+ Revenue (Tampa) — NEW

• HIGH AI-rebuild fit + behavioral-health vertical = brother-in-law ABA-billing translation. $600K asking / $1.1M gross revenue (per detail page; title says $2.4M — flag for diligence) / $244,200 SDE / Established 2017 / 19 employees (FT + contract) / Hillsborough County / WebsiteClosers® broker (Seller Force). 77+ payer plans contracted, 30 referrals/wk, 20+ new clients/wk. Whole-person care model (primary care + psychiatry + counseling) — billing, prior auth, scheduling, telehealth coordination = pure agent-rebuild surface. Founder will stay on as advisor (key to preserving referrals). Asking-price-to-SDE multiple is 2.5x — extremely cheap if SDE is real and confirmed. Discrepancy between title revenue ($2.4M) and detail-page revenue ($1.1M) is the #1 diligence question to ask in the teaser conversation. ID: BizBuySell 2466935.
• URL: https://www.bizbuysell.com/business-opportunity/integrated-medical-and-behavioral-health-platform-2-4m-revenue/2466935/

5. Access Computer Training (ACT) — Hillsborough County tech vocational school — UNCHANGED (now #5)

• HIGH AI-rebuild fit. $440K asking / $561K revenue / SDE not disclosed (request via teaser) / Established 2014 / Reason: retirement & new ventures / 1,123 SF leased space (lease expires 11/30/2025 — needs renewal) / Hillsborough County. Florida CIE-licensed, approved for WIOA, VA, Voc Rehab, MyCAA funding. Curriculum: CompTIA, Microsoft 365, ITIL, etc. Workforce-funded enrollment pipelines = recurring student stream; agents can absorb curriculum delivery, marketing, and grant-management workflow. ID: BizBuySell 2434650.
• URL: https://www.bizbuysell.com/business-opportunity/unlimited-growth-in-the-booming-tech-education-market/2434650/

Bumped from prior Top 5:

• ACA Health Insurance Agency (BBS 2400228) — moves to candidate #11 below; 2024 founding still a diligence flag, healthcare-adjacent additions are higher conviction.
• Tampa Bay Home Health Agency 12 MA Contracts (BizQuest BW2501422) — moves to candidate #12 below; license/contracts shell with no proven revenue is build-not-buy compared to the Pasco home health candidate (#2 above) which has $1.4M actual revenue + active TJC + Medicare cert.

Search methodology

Search dates: 2026-05-03 (initial WebSearch pass + Playwright re-scrape).

Channels queried:

1. BizBuySell Tampa (FL category w/ Tampa-promotion filter, pages 1–5) — full listing data via Playwright
2. BizQuest Tampa-FL listings page — full listing data via Playwright
3. DealStream Florida-Tampa — BLOCKED (DataDome captcha challenge); skipped per guardrails
4. Sunbelt Business Brokers Tampa office — partial: 9 active listings on broker site, 5 Tampa-area via Playwright
5. Transworld Business Advisors Tampa Bay — BLOCKED (consent wall + 404 on the businesses-for-sale path); broker direct outreach is the workaround
6. Synergy Business Brokers, Lobo Business Sales, Michael Shea/Your Florida Business Broker — broker commentary (snippet-only)
7. Acquire.com (digital/SaaS micro-acquisitions) — searched Tampa, agency, FBA (snippet-only)
8. Targeted niche queries: MSP, marketing agency, insurance agency, payroll, property management, HVAC trades, content/copywriting, staffing

Filters applied: asking price $200k–$3M (with a few outliers if AI-rebuild fit was unusually high), SDE $200k–$500k, B2B service preferred, 5+ years operating preferred, repeatable knowledge work in core delivery.

Methodology caveat (UPDATED 2026-05-03 after Playwright pass): The original snippet-only methodology has been superseded for BBS + BizQuest — direct Playwright browser scrape captured full listing pages including financials, employee counts, reasons for sale, lease terms, and listing IDs. DealStream and Transworld remain blocked even via headless browser (DataDome / consent wall respectively). Sunbelt-Tampa office page renders but shows only 9 listings (their teaser-only public inventory). For DealStream/Transworld inventory, the workaround is direct broker email outreach with a buy-side mandate — those firms aggressively gate inventory behind broker conversations.

Confidence levels:

• Top 5 (above): broker-call-ready. Real financials, listing IDs, location specifics. Next step is teaser/CIM request, not more browsing.
• Candidates 6–10 (below): broker-call-ready for the in-band ones; thesis-fit-questionable for the rest.
• Honorable mentions: lead-only, mostly snippet-derived or out-of-band on size.

Other candidates (post-Playwright, ranked)

6. Tampa Catering Franchise Re-Sale ($450K SDE)

• LOW AI-rebuild fit (food service). $1.2M asking / $2.3M revenue / $450K SDE / 35 employees (5 FT, 30 PT) / Established 1985 / Reason: corporate location converting to franchise model / Pinellas County / leased. Strongest in-band SDE we found, but the AI thesis doesn’t apply — kitchen labor and event ops aren’t agent-replaceable. Including for completeness as a comp-data point. ID: BizBuySell 2493043.

7. Scalable Landscaping Platform — Tampa, 50% Recurring Revenue

• LOW-MEDIUM AI-rebuild fit. $1.8M asking / $1.32M revenue / $447K SDE / 20 FT employees / Established 1987 / Reason: retirement / Tampa. Recurring monthly maintenance contracts across Hillsborough/Pinellas/Manatee/Sarasota/Charlotte. Back-office (scheduling, route opt, invoicing, customer SLA) is agent-craftable but the field labor is irreducible — same arbitrage logic as commercial cleaning in original list. ID: BizBuySell 2479308.

8. Pinellas Drycleaner Chain — 5 stores, 60+ years

• LOW AI-rebuild fit. $1.1M asking / $360K SDE / Pinellas County / 5 locations / Est 1958. Mature multi-unit retail. Some back-office surface (POS, customer comms, route/delivery) but core ops are physical. ID: BizBuySell 2200058.

9. Designer Sunglass / Eyeglass Business — Sarasota Metro #1973

• LOW AI-rebuild fit. $1.06M asking / $1.0M rev / $297K SDE / Sarasota / Owner manages no more than 2 days/week (semi-absentee profile). In-band SDE, in-Tampa-Bay-region, but retail eyewear isn’t a Service-as-a-Software target. ID: BizBuySell 2423542.

10. Tampa MSP for eCom Brands (LATAM Market)

• MEDIUM AI-rebuild fit. $1M–$5M asking / $2.18M rev / $398K EBITDA / 29 clients / 45% renewal rate / 90% on full-service plans / revenue = % of marketplace sales. Note: NOT a traditional IT MSP — this is a marketplace-ops shop (Mercado Libre, etc.). LATAM concentration + percentage-of-sales revenue model = different risk profile than US-domestic recurring SaaS-like contracts. ID: BizQuest BW2492700.

11. 25-Year Chiro/Rehab Practice — Baywest Medical, New Port Richey

• MEDIUM AI-rebuild fit. $1.5M asking / 25 yrs / NPR / SDE not in snippet (request teaser). Healthcare practice = some AI surface in scheduling, billing, intake notes; harder on clinical workflows. ID: BizBuySell 2494365.

12. Confidential CPA practice — Tampa/Orlando corridor (carry-over from snippet-only research)

• HIGH AI-rebuild fit. ~$375K–$444K SDE per Michael Shea broker commentary. Listing not surfaced via Playwright on BBS/BizQuest (likely off-market or NDA-gated via broker). Action: request directly from Your Florida Business Broker / Michael Shea. No new data this pass.

Healthcare-adjacent candidates (added 2026-05-03 PM via Playwright)

This section is the narrower healthcare-specific pass on top of the general Tampa shortlist. Family connection: brother-in-law works at ICBD Holdings (ABA Centers of America) with direct billing-company experience in autism applied behavior analysis. Family of doctors generally. Healthcare-adjacent angle is a real edge for sourcing, diligence (he can read the CIM faster than any third party), and reference-customer conversations.

SCAN SCOPE THIS PASS: BizBuySell Tampa Bay Metro home-health-care category (full scrape), BizBuySell FL medical-billing category (only 2 listings statewide, none Tampa), BizBuySell Tampa Bay all-listings (full scrape, healthcare keywords filtered), BizQuest Tampa city + Hillsborough County + Pinellas County aggregate pages (full scrape). BizQuest’s keyword-filter URL is broken — it returns generic results regardless of keyword= parameter, so all BizQuest discovery this pass is via city/county aggregate pages.

Methodology confidence: HIGH on listing existence and headline financials (asking price, revenue, employees, established date, location, broker). MEDIUM on SDE — most healthcare-adjacent listings hide SDE behind NDA or “Sign In to View.” LOW on real underlying margin profile and customer-concentration risk — that requires teaser/CIM. Treat asking-to-revenue ratios as flags, not valuations.

HC-1. Florida Home Health Agency — Medicare Certified, TJC Accredited (Pasco County) — TOP HEALTHCARE PICK

• Vertical: Home health (Medicare-certified, TJC-accredited multi-county FL agency)
• Tampa specifics: Pasco County / Greater Tampa Bay (multi-county license including Hillsborough + Hernando — buyer must relocate office)
• Asking: $314,578 / Revenue: $1,383,868 / SDE: Not Disclosed (likely $200–400K based on FL home-health benchmarks, request teaser to confirm) / Multiple: ~0.23x revenue (cheap)
• Established: 2018 (8 years operating as of close)
• Reason for sale: Parent organization is “focusing resources on its core hospice and palliative care services” — strategic divestiture, not distress
• URL: https://www.bizbuysell.com/business-opportunity/florida-home-health-agency-medicare-certified/2446291/ | Listing ID: BBS 2446291
• Broker: Listed via BBS broker channel (specific broker not disclosed on listing page; standard intake form)
• AI-rebuild fit: HIGH. Home health workflow = continuous, structured knowledge work: intake, eligibility verification, OASIS-E assessment documentation, prior authorization with payers, scheduling clinicians to patient locations, billing follow-up, denials management, recertification cycles. 60–80% of admin headcount in a $1.4M home health agency is doing repeatable, rules-bound work that an agent stack can absorb (eligibility lookups, prior auth submissions, denial appeals, schedule optimization). The clinical visit itself is irreducible — agents cannot replace the nurse in the home — but the operational margin between $200K and $400K SDE is exactly the band where the cost-to-serve compression from agents shows up. Brother-in-law’s ICBD billing experience is directly transferable: same CMS payer logic, similar prior auth workflow shapes (ABA + skilled home health both lean on Medicaid/Medicare authorization with multi-week back-and-forth).
• Honest red flags: (1) Office NOT included — buyer must relocate operations, modest cost but a small disruption to staff continuity; (2) SDE undisclosed — could be lower than $200K floor; (3) “Parent org refocusing on hospice” suggests this is a sub-line being shed, ask whether referral relationships transfer cleanly; (4) home health is heavily reg-scrutinized in FL (AHCA + ACHC/TJC + CMS) — surveys are non-trivial events.

HC-2. Integrated Medical & Behavioral Health Platform — $2.4M+ Revenue (Tampa) — STRONG ABA-ADJACENT

• Vertical: Behavioral health + integrated primary care (whole-person care model: primary care + psychiatry + counseling under one roof)
• Tampa specifics: Tampa, FL (Hillsborough County)
• Asking: $600,000 / Revenue: $1,100,000 per detail page (title says $2,400,000+ — DISCREPANCY, diligence-critical) / SDE: $244,200 / Established 2017 (9 yrs) / Multiple: ~2.5x SDE if revenue/SDE accurate
• Reason for sale: Not explicitly stated; founder remaining as advisor post-handoff
• URL: https://www.bizbuysell.com/business-opportunity/integrated-medical-and-behavioral-health-platform-2-4m-revenue/2466935/ | Listing ID: BBS 2466935
• Broker: WebsiteClosers® / Seller Force (sponsoring broker Ron Matheson)
• AI-rebuild fit: HIGH. 19 employees across clinical + admin. 77+ payer-plan contracts. 30 referrals/wk. EMR + RCM + telehealth stack already modern. Behavioral health admin = scheduling (no-show prediction), eligibility checks across 77 payer plans, prior auth (especially for psychiatry medication management), billing follow-up, telehealth coordination. All structured knowledge work. Founder advisor relationship preserves referral funnel during agent rebuild. SPECIAL FLAG: this is the closest direct analogue to the brother-in-law’s ICBD/ABA Centers business — different patient population but identical billing/auth workflow shape. Brother-in-law could read this CIM in 30 minutes and tell you whether the back-office is the slop expected of a $1M behavioral-health practice (i.e., where the agent-margin lives) or unusually lean (less rebuild upside).
• Honest red flags: (1) Revenue title-vs-detail discrepancy ($2.4M vs $1.1M) is the FIRST thing to ask the broker — could be cumulative-since-inception vs trailing-12, or could be a marketing inflation. Until clarified, treat the $1.1M as the conservative basis; (2) 19 employees is a LOT for $244K SDE — labor-leverage compression is the entire thesis but it also signals the operation may be diluted across too many lower-utilization clinicians; (3) “Strong payer mix including commercial plans and Medicare” — but no payer-concentration disclosure. Top-3 payer concentration is a standard healthcare-services diligence question; (4) WebsiteClosers® listings tend toward marketing-polish over conservatism, so independently verify EBITDA + working capital before LOI.

HC-3. Established Mental Health & Wellness Practice (Pinellas County) — TRANSWORLD NDA

• Vertical: Behavioral health (therapy + psychiatry + sex therapy specialty)
• Tampa specifics: Pinellas County, FL
• Asking: $600,000 / Revenue: $734,039 / SDE: Not Disclosed (Sign In to View on BizQuest, then NDA for actual figures) / Established 4 yrs / Multiple: ~0.82x revenue
• Reason for sale: Owner moving out of state
• URL: https://www.bizquest.com/business-for-sale/established-and-reputable-mental-health-and-wellness-practice/BW2433412/ | Listing ID: BizQuest BW2433412
• Broker: Transworld Tampa Bay — Dave DeCamella (broker name disclosed in listing as ref# 3353945519)
• AI-rebuild fit: MEDIUM-HIGH. Same workflow shape as HC-2 (scheduling, eligibility, prior auth for psychiatric meds, billing) but smaller — fewer rebuild dollars but also faster diligence cycle. Rent $2,900/mo through 1/31/2030 (good lease runway). 2,600 SF.
• Honest red flags: (1) NDA-gated financials — can’t fully evaluate without engaging Transworld; (2) founder is the licensed clinical social worker AND the brand — buyer must either be an LCSW or hire-and-retain one + handle credentialing transfer to keep the practice operating. This is closer to a personal-brand professional service than a transferable platform. The previous shortlist had Florida physician-licensure exclusion as an explicit guardrail; for FL LCSW practice the same logic applies — the buyer needs the clinical ownership structure to be either (a) an LLC where a licensed clinical director is hired, or (b) a sale to a licensed individual. Confirm in teaser. (3) The Transworld listing prompts direct outreach to Dave DeCamella — convenient because he’s already on the broker outreach list (item #2 in the broker section).

HC-4. National Digital Behavioral Health Community Platform (Tampa-listed)

• Vertical: Digital behavioral health / peer-support recovery community SaaS
• Tampa specifics: Tampa, FL (Hillsborough County) — relocatable
• Asking: $1,750,000 / Revenue: $569,000 / EBITDA: $400,000 (~70% margin — high for a content/community business, suggests bootstrapped + low headcount) / Established 24 yrs / Multiple: ~3.1x revenue, 4.4x EBITDA
• Reason for sale: Owner pursuing other ventures
• URL: https://www.bizquest.com/business-for-sale/a-national-digital-behavioral-health-community-platform/BW2471737/ | Listing ID: BizQuest 2471737
• Broker: Richard McDonald (independent — broker firm not on listing card)
• AI-rebuild fit: MEDIUM. This is asset-light SaaS-like (subscription + advertising + partnership revenue, 4 employees, 1 FT + 3 PT, recurring member base). It’s NOT a service business with payroll-replaceable knowledge work — it’s a content + community platform where the AI surface is on the “user-side” (engagement, content moderation, peer-meeting facilitation, summarization for clinical/employer reporting) rather than back-office labor compression. Different thesis fit than HC-1 / HC-2: closer to “buy a small SaaS, add AI features for ARPU expansion” than the Service-as-a-Software thesis. Behavioral-health vertical adjacency to brother-in-law is REAL (ABA Centers of America also targets the recovery / behavioral-health ecosystem) but the customer is end-user / B2B-employer, not provider-facing.
• Honest red flags: (1) 24-year operating history is unusual for a “digital platform” — verify the platform was actually digital from inception or just a long-running brand that pivoted; (2) the recovery-community space is mission-sensitive — buyer reputation matters and a botched commercialization push can torch member trust overnight; (3) revenue concentration across “subscription + advertising + partnership” is unclear — top-1 revenue source could be a single sponsor/partner.

HC-5. Established In-Home Autism Therapy + In-Home/Online Tutoring (Clearwater) — SPECIAL ABA FLAG

• Vertical: ABA (Applied Behavior Analysis) / in-home autism therapy + K-12 tutoring (dual-line franchise)
• Tampa specifics: Clearwater, FL (Pinellas County) — protected franchise territory
• Asking: $39,000 / Revenue: $524,680 / SDE: Not Disclosed / Established: Not Disclosed (franchise resale, likely 2-4 yrs) / Multiple: ~0.07x revenue (essentially franchise-fee + WIP value, not a market multiple)
• Reason for sale: “Lack of time for current owner”
• URL: https://www.bizbuysell.com/business-opportunity/established-in-home-autism-therapy-in-home-online-tutoring/2414983/ | Listing ID: BBS 2414983
• Broker: Direct from owner / franchise resale (specific broker not disclosed)
• AI-rebuild fit: MEDIUM (WITH MAJOR CAVEAT). SPECIAL FLAG: This is the most direct ABA listing in the Tampa funnel — exactly the workflow brother-in-law sees daily at ICBD/ABA Centers (insurance auth, BCBA supervision, RBT scheduling, parent communication). BUT — corporate handles billing in this franchise model. The franchisor owns the agent-rebuild surface, not the franchisee. The buyer here gets to optimize local marketing, RBT/BCBA recruitment, and customer service, but the highest-value AI rebuild (claims, prior auth, BCBA-RBT supervision documentation) is locked behind franchise-corporate. Below SDE band as a standalone investment.
• Honest red flags: (1) Asking $39K = barely above franchise transfer fees, suggests the territory is underdeveloped, not a polished cash-flow business; (2) Franchise model = recurring royalty + restricted operational changes — exactly the wrong shape for an AI-rebuild thesis where the buyer wants to keep all the labor compression; (3) Use case for this listing: conversation-starter with brother-in-law about ABA acquisition pipeline broadly, not a standalone deal to pursue. If brother-in-law confirms ABA as the right vertical, the better path is to find a non-franchise independent ABA practice (ICBD-style) at $1–3M revenue range.

HC-6. High-Revenue Home Health Platform — $5M+ Annual Revenue (Tampa) — STRETCH SIZE

• Vertical: Home health (multi-service: skilled nursing + PT/OT/ST + pediatric + VA + LTC + private duty + HHA)
• Tampa specifics: Tampa, FL (Hillsborough County)
• Asking: $2,500,000 / Revenue: $5,428,359 / SDE: Not Disclosed / EBITDA: Not Disclosed / Established 2008 (17 yrs) / 210 staff (10 FT, 200 contractors) / Multiple: ~0.46x revenue
• Reason for sale: Owner ready to transition after 17+ yrs
• URL: https://www.bizbuysell.com/business-opportunity/high-revenue-home-health-platform-for-strategic-growth-5m-annual-r/2472997/ | Listing ID: BBS 2472997
• Broker: Direct/asset (broker not disclosed on listing card)
• AI-rebuild fit: HIGH on workflow shape, but stretch on size. $5.4M revenue with 210 contractors = exactly the operational profile where agent-rebuild creates significant SDE expansion. 20+ active payer agreements, diversified service mix. BUT $2.5M asking is at top of dry-powder budget and this is a “platform” not a “small business” — likely competing with PE bolt-on bidders. SDE undisclosed means valuation could be $400K (10% margin = within band) or $800K+ (would put multiple at <3x and very attractive but stretch on absolute deployment). 2,000 SF leased through 1/2030 is fine.
• Honest red flags: (1) 200 contractors is the central diligence question — contractor vs employee classification is a chronic FL home-health audit risk, especially with the DOL’s evolving classification rules; (2) “Diversified payor agreements” sounds great but home-health PDGM reimbursement model can have severe revenue cliffs on case-mix changes; (3) Strategic acquirers (Encompass, Amedisys regional bolt-ons, PE-backed roll-ups) are the natural buyer here — the founder may already be quietly running an LMM process in parallel.

HC-7. Two Non-Medical Home Health Franchise Territories (Hillsborough County) — TINY BOLT-ON

• Vertical: Non-medical home care franchise (Alzheimer’s/dementia specialty, companion care)
• Tampa specifics: Hillsborough County, FL
• Asking: $99,000 / Revenue: $450,000 / SDE: $100,000 / Established 2023 (2 yrs) / 50 employees / Multiple: ~1.0x SDE (cheap for franchise resale)
• Reason for sale: Not stated explicitly
• URL: https://www.bizbuysell.com/business-opportunity/two-non-medical-home-health-franchise-territories/2326847/ | Listing ID: BBS 2326847
• Broker: Jim Boyd (BBS direct broker channel)
• AI-rebuild fit: LOW-MEDIUM. Non-medical home care = much less reimbursement complexity than skilled home health (private-pay or LTC insurance, no Medicare PTAN burden) → less of the prior-auth/billing slop that’s the highest-margin agent target. AI surface limited to scheduling, caregiver matching, and lead conversion. Below SDE floor.
• Honest red flags: (1) Below SDE band; (2) Only 2 yrs operating, one territory not yet ramped; (3) Franchise model caps owner’s freedom to deploy AI in core ops. Best use: tuck-in for a roll-up thesis post-platform purchase, not a standalone target.

HC-8. Healthcare Staffing & In-Home Care Agency, Owner Retiring (Crystal Beach) — TINY BUT HIGH-FIT WORKFLOW

• Vertical: Healthcare staffing + in-home care + medical transportation
• Tampa specifics: Crystal Beach, FL (Pinellas County, coastal) — relocatable
• Asking: $49,999 / Revenue: Not Disclosed / SDE: Not Disclosed / Established: Not Disclosed (described as “long-standing”)
• Reason for sale: Owner retiring
• URL: https://www.bizbuysell.com/business-opportunity/established-healthcare-staffing-and-in-home-care-agency-owner-retiring/2442446/ | Listing ID: BBS 2442446
• Broker: BBS direct broker channel
• AI-rebuild fit: HIGH on workflow shape. Healthcare staffing = continuous credentialing + license verification + shift-matching + payroll/billing reconciliation — high-volume, structured, rules-bound knowledge work that an agent stack absorbs cleanly. BUT no financials disclosed, asking price is essentially “buy the license + book of relationships.” Below SDE band.
• Honest red flags: (1) No revenue/SDE disclosure on a $50K asking price = effectively a license-and-rolodex sale; (2) “long-standing” without a year is a yellow flag; (3) Multiple service lines (staffing + in-home + transportation) for a $50K business = either super tiny across the board or one viable line + two ghost lines. Best use: ask the listing broker for a one-page financial snapshot, then either pursue as a low-cost license-and-relationships acquisition or skip.

HC-9. Tampa Bay Home Health Agency — 12 MA Contracts (Tampa, asset sale) — UNCHANGED FROM PRIOR PASS

• Vertical: Home health (Medicare Advantage contract shell — license + accreditation + 12 MA contracts, no operating revenue yet)
• Tampa specifics: Tampa, FL (Hillsborough)
• Asking: $250K–$500K / Revenue: $0 (pre-revenue) / SDE: $0 / Established: licensed and accredited but not operating
• URL: https://www.bizquest.com/business-for-sale/tampa-bay-home-health-agency-12-ma-contracts-medicare-certified/BW2501422/ | Listing ID: BizQuest BW2501422
• AI-rebuild fit: MEDIUM. Strong AI surface in workflow shape but no proven revenue means this is a build-not-buy play. Compared to HC-1 (Pasco home health with $1.4M actual revenue + same Medicare cert + same TJC), HC-9 is strictly inferior unless the 12 MA contracts include a payer (e.g., Humana FL) that HC-1 lacks.

HC-10. ACA Health Insurance Agency — 800 Clients (Tampa) — UNCHANGED FROM PRIOR PASS

• Vertical: Healthcare-specialty insurance brokerage (ACA marketplace)
• Tampa specifics: Tampa, FL (Hillsborough)
• Asking: $192,000 / Revenue: $240,000 / SDE: $220,000 / Established: 2024 (1.5 yrs — diligence flag) / 1 employee / 100% virtual
• URL: https://www.bizbuysell.com/business-opportunity/aca-health-insurance-agency-800-clients-20k-month-in-revenue/2400228/ | Listing ID: BBS 2400228
• AI-rebuild fit: MEDIUM-HIGH on workflow (eligibility, plan-fit recommendations, renewal outreach all agent-amenable), but Open Enrollment seasonality + 1.5-yr-old book = high transferability risk.

Excluded from this pass (out-of-thesis or out-of-band)

• Med-Spa Wesley Chapel (BBS 2446883) — $350K, mostly equipment-asset sale on a 2023-founded med spa. Wrong thesis (in-person aesthetic services).
• Top-Rated Luxury Spa Lutz/Tampa (BBS 2488255) — $189K, founded 2024. Same as above.
• Apollo Beach Non-Medical Home Care (BBS 2467629) — $40K, too small even for tuck-in evaluation.
• Pinellas Franchised Nurse Registry (BBS 2401729) — $150K asking / $45K SDE / new franchise. Below band, franchise constraints.
• Pinellas 10-Bed Assisted Living Facility (BBS 2454072 + 2426961) — both ~$825-850K with $94-137K SDE. ALF = real estate + 24/7 caregivers, not a Service-as-a-Software thesis.
• 25-Year Chiro/Rehab — Baywest Medical New Port Richey (BBS 2494365) — $1.5M asking, kept in main “Other candidates” section. FL chiropractic-license rules apply.
• Walk-In Medical Clinic (BizQuest BW2406570) — out-of-scope per “no direct medical practices” guardrail.
• Premier Coastal Plastic Surgery Practice (BizQuest BW2489366) — same exclusion.
• Scalable Disaster Mental Health & Crisis Response (BizQuest BW2484295) — $8M asking, way over budget (over $5M acquisition price band).
• Recurring Medical Marijuana Card Business (BBS, Martin County) — outside Tampa Bay.
• High-Growth Direct-Pay Wellness Clinic Lee County (BBS) — outside Tampa Bay (Lee/Bonita Springs / Fort Myers).
• Bonita Springs Outpatient PT Practice — outside Tampa Bay (Lee County).
• All Tampa healthcare-adjacent eCommerce (Orthopedic FBA, Guided Fitness Journals, Health & Wellness brands) — wrong thesis (DTC physical product or content brand, not B2B service).

What’s NOT in the funnel (negative findings)

• Medical billing / RCM services in Tampa Bay: ZERO listings. BizBuySell’s medical-billing sub-category for Tampa Bay returned “no listings”; FL-statewide medical-billing sub-category had only 2 listings (a Lee County direct-pay wellness clinic and a Martin County medical marijuana card business — neither is a billing service). This is structurally important: medical billing/RCM is the #1 prior-priority vertical and the public marketplace is empty. Conclusion: medical billing acquisitions in Tampa happen entirely off-market via M&A advisors (RCM is a hot PE roll-up category — most operators are getting direct LMM / strategic acquirer outreach before listing).
• Credentialing services: ZERO listings in Tampa Bay across BBS + BizQuest.
• Practice management services / back-office for physician practices: ZERO listings publicly.
• Healthcare-specialized marketing agency: not surfaced in Tampa. The two SBA-prequal marketing agencies in the prior shortlist (BW2497669 financial-institutions, BW2496757 home-services) are vertical-specialized but neither is healthcare. Worth asking WebsiteClosers® if they have a healthcare-vertical agency in inventory not yet listed publicly.
• DME brokers / suppliers in Tampa Bay: ZERO listings publicly.
• Telehealth back-office services: ZERO listings.
• EHR / practice tech consulting: ZERO listings in the right size band.
• Healthcare staffing / locum tenens at the SDE band: only the Crystal Beach micro-listing (HC-8, $50K). Larger Tampa-area healthcare staffing platforms are likely off-market.

Working hypothesis on the structural emptiness: the highest-AI-fit healthcare-adjacent verticals (RCM, credentialing, healthcare staffing platforms) are exactly where PE roll-ups have been most active 2024–2026. Operators in those categories generally never list publicly — they get inbound from advisors before listing. The play is buy-side mandate outreach to the FL/Southeast healthcare M&A advisors, not more public-marketplace scraping.

Recommended healthcare-specific next steps (incremental to main “Recommended next steps”)

1. Request teaser on HC-1 (Pasco Home Health, BBS 2446291) — strongest healthcare candidate this pass, in-band asking, real revenue, Medicare cert + TJC = barriers to entry monetized. Goal: CIM in hand by 2026-05-10.
2. Request teaser on HC-2 (Tampa Integrated Medical & Behavioral Health, BBS 2466935) — resolve the $2.4M-vs-$1.1M revenue discrepancy in the first call. Brother-in-law angle most translatable here.
3. Email Dave DeCamella at Transworld Tampa Bay about HC-3 (Pinellas Mental Health Practice, BizQuest BW2433412) — he’s already on the broker outreach list, this is a low-friction add-on ask. Confirm whether the LCSW-credentialing requirement transfers cleanly to a non-clinical buyer with a hired clinical director.
4. Show HC-1 + HC-2 listings to brother-in-law (ICBD billing experience) for a ~30-min reaction call before requesting CIMs. He can read the listing copy and tell you whether the operational shape is the slop he sees daily at ABA Centers or whether something looks unusually lean. This is the highest-leverage diligence step in the entire pipeline.
5. Send a healthcare-vertical-specific buy-side mandate to two Southeast healthcare M&A advisors (separate from the general Tampa broker outreach):
   • Murphy Business Sales Tampa (Luis Zavala, who listed HC-disaster-response BW2484295, has the healthcare network)
   • WebsiteClosers® / Seller Force (Ron Matheson — already holds HC-2)
   • Ask specifically about: medical billing / RCM services ($300K–$700K SDE), credentialing services, healthcare staffing platforms (above the Crystal Beach micro), behavioral-health back-office (NOT direct clinical practices).
6. Skip HC-5 (Clearwater ABA franchise) as a deal but USE IT as a brother-in-law conversation prompt. “Here’s a tiny ABA franchise resale at $39K — can you walk me through what makes the ICBD model work that this franchise model doesn’t?” That single conversation will sharpen the entire ABA-vertical thesis.

Honorable mentions / leads (snippet-only or out-of-band)

• Established Bookkeeping Practice — Tampa ($80K asking / $72K SDE) — below SDE floor; potential roll-up tuck-in. (BizQuest snippet, original list.)
• Tampa SBA Pre-Qual Immigration Services Agency (Tech-Enabled Visa) — $6.5M ask / $2.83M cash flow / Tampa. HIGH AI fit but 4x over budget. Worth tracking as a late-stage comp once founder closes a smaller platform deal. ID: BizBuySell 2497187 / BizQuest BW2497187.
• Sunbelt-Tampa: Integrated Metal Building Fabricator — $1.75M rev / $300K SDE / Tampa. In SDE band. LOW AI fit (industrial fabrication). Sunbelt URL: tampa-fl/buy-a-business/listings/listing-details/metal-building-fabricator-niche-58717.
• Sunbelt-Tampa: Gulf Coast Roofing Brand — $730K rev / $200K SDE / Confidential FL. In SDE band. LOW AI fit (trades).
• St. Lucie County staffing business (NOT Tampa) — $250k asking / $132k SDE; possible Tampa-staffing tuck-in.
• 24+ year economic-marketing-development firm (FL near Tampa): $1.9M revenue / $700K+ SDE — above SDE band.
• Florida-near-Tampa “Authoritative Tax Information & Services Website” — $3M ask. Above budget but high thesis fit; content + tax compliance.
• SBA Pre-Qualified AI SaaS Company (Humanizing AI Content) — 2,800 sub (BizQuest BW2498826) — Tampa, listed via WebsiteClosers. SaaS thesis, would need broker conversation for size band.
• Sticky Enterprise SaaS Mission-Critical Platform — 90% Recurring Revenue (BizQuest BW2490570) — Tampa, listed via WebsiteClosers. Sounds like the right shape; need broker call to size.
• eLearning and Business Services Company w/ Significant Seller Financing (BizQuest BW2497213) — Tampa-listed.
• Tech-Enabled Audio Guest Book Services Company (Weddings & Events) (BizQuest BW2497755) — Tampa-listed; small but interesting tech-enabled service.

Skips (confirmed wrong-thesis or out-of-band):

• Tampa LED flashlight FBA, Tampa orthopedic FBA — physical product, wrong fit.
• SalonPLEX 30-unit franchise (real estate), commercial cleaning Tampa Bay storefront, tire shop, 30+ year home-improvement — physical labor businesses where the AI margin lift is capped at 5–10pts.
• Tampa Bar/Grill ($346K owner benefit), Brandon Pawn & Gun Range, all the Tampa Bay restaurants — wrong thesis.

Tampa M&A broker list — for off-market deal flow

These are the brokers who consistently surface in Tampa Bay lower-middle-market commentary. The play is to email each with a 1-paragraph buy-side mandate (size band, industry filters, AI-rebuild thesis, financing posture) and ask to be added to their buy-side list.

1. Sunbelt Business Brokers of Tampa — 615 Channelside Dr Suite 207, Tampa, FL 33602. (813) 771-6844. sunbeltnetwork.com/tampa-fl. Largest Tampa franchise; 9 listings live on public site as of 2026-05-03 (Tampa-area: 5).
2. Transworld Business Advisors of Tampa Bay — 400 Carillon Pkwy Ste 110, St. Petersburg, FL. (727) 215-7530. tworld.com/locations/tampa. Brokers: Dave DeCamella, Michael Shea. Public marketplace consent-walled — direct outreach is the only path.
3. Michael Shea — Your Florida Business Broker (Transworld) — yourfloridabusinessbroker.com. Particularly active in CPA / accounting practice deals.
4. Hyde Park Capital — Tampa-based boutique investment bank, lower-middle-market M&A. hydeparkcapital.com. Better fit for $3M+ end of budget.
5. Stratus Corporate Finance — Tampa, sell-side advisory $1M–$20M.
6. Sailfish Equity Advisors — Tampa, 25 years, 1,000+ deals. sailfishequityadvisors.com.
7. TAMBAY Mergers & Acquisitions — tambaymergers.com. Tom Brubaker, 33 yrs experience.
8. Viking Mergers & Acquisitions — Tampa office. vikingmergers.com.
9. Lobo Business Sales — lobobusinesssales.com. Active publisher on Tampa Bay 2026 trades market outlook.
10. Edward Valaitis — independent lower-middle-market advisor, Tampa Bay.
11. Crowne Atlantic Business Brokers — crowneatlantic.com. Active in FL property management deals.
12. Truforte Business Group — trufortebusinessgroup.com. Source of pre-vetted SBA deals statewide.
13. WebsiteClosers® — appears as the broker on the two HIGH-fit SBA-prequal digital marketing agency listings AND the Tampa MSP. Specializes in tech-enabled / digital businesses; direct outreach is high-priority since they hold the right shape of inventory.

Recommended next steps (this week)

1. Request teasers (NDA-gated) on Top-5 candidates 1, 2, and 3 — the two SBA-prequal digital marketing agencies via WebsiteClosers (BW2497669, BW2496757) and Access Computer Training via BizBuySell broker (listing ID 2434650). These are the three highest AI-rebuild-fit profiles with full listing data. Goal: 3 CIMs in hand by 2026-05-10.
2. Send a buy-side mandate email to WebsiteClosers® — they hold a disproportionate share of the right-shape inventory in Tampa right now (3 of the top candidates this pass were their listings). 1-paragraph mandate: $200K–$500K SDE, B2B service with structured knowledge work, SBA 7(a) + seller financing.
3. Email Michael Shea (Transworld / Your Florida Business Broker) for the Confidential CPA practice (Top 5 #12 carry-over) — this is the strongest AI-rebuild fit on the original snippet pass and Playwright couldn’t surface it (likely off-market / NDA-gated).
4. Pass on the LOW-fit candidates even when SDE is in-band — Tampa Catering ($450K SDE), Tampa Landscaping ($447K SDE), Pinellas Drycleaner ($360K SDE), Sarasota Sunglass ($297K SDE), Sunbelt Metal Building Fabricator ($300K SDE). Tampa SDE is plentiful in physical-labor businesses; Ray’s edge is on the knowledge-work side.
5. Skip DealStream entirely going forward — DataDome blocks programmatic access. The 1–2 deals they hold exclusively will surface on broker conversations anyway.
6. Skip Transworld marketplace as a research surface — consent wall + 404s. Direct broker email is the only path to their inventory.
7. File a follow-up note in ~/rdco-vault/01-projects/acquisitions/ within 7 days documenting which brokers replied, which CIMs landed, and refresh this shortlist with verified financials from the CIMs (vs. listing-page claims).

Honest pipeline assessment (post-Playwright)

The Playwright pass changed the picture. The original snippet-pass made the funnel look thinner than it actually is. WebsiteClosers® has at least 3–4 active Tampa listings in the right shape (digital agencies with recurring revenue, SBA-prequal, 5–10 yr operating history) — these are the bullseye candidates and they were all under-surfaced in the snippet pass. The CPA-practice thesis from the original pass holds, but the digital-marketing-agency thesis is now equally strong with better public data to act on this week.

Surprises:

• Two Tampa SBA-prequal niche digital marketing agencies are publicly listed RIGHT NOW with strong unit economics (one is 57% net margin, 33% YoY; the other has <2% monthly churn and 4-yr avg client tenure). This is the under-marketed segment for the AI thesis — agencies are usually viewed as commodity, but vertical-specialized agencies with recurring retainers and long client tenure are the best Service-as-a-Software targets in the funnel. Both are worth a teaser request this week.
• The ACA insurance agency is 2 years old, not long-tenured — material change to the diligence story from the snippet pass. Owner is “consolidating to focus on other high-growth venture” — translation: this was a side hustle, not a built business. Cheaper to acquire (small SDE), more risk on transferability of the book.
• Tampa-area trades and food service are pricing in line with national multiples — Catering $1.2M ask on $450K SDE = 2.7x; Landscaping $1.8M on $447K SDE = 4.0x; Drycleaner $1.1M on $360K SDE = 3.0x. Not the “Tampa premium” the original notes suggested; trades may be cooling.
• DealStream and Transworld are effectively dark to programmatic research. That’s a structural fact about the funnel — broker relationships are the only way in for those two channels. Worth treating as such going forward (don’t waste tool budget on re-scraping).

Tampa Bay remains rich for trades and home-services deals, moderate for CPA/bookkeeping and marketing agencies, and thin for pure digital/SaaS at the founder’s SDE band — but the marketing-agency lane is stronger than the original snippet pass suggested. Founder should expect to look at 8–12 teasers from this list, move 3–5 to LOI, and close 1 within a 4–6 month horizon if the buy-side outreach starts this week with WebsiteClosers + Michael Shea + the two BBS listing brokers.

Mapping against Ray Data Co

This shortlist operationalizes the Service-as-a-Software acquisition thesis, sized for the founder’s $1M dry powder + SBA 7(a) capacity. Every Top-5 candidate is scored against:

1. AI-rebuild fit — does 60%+ of revenue depend on structured knowledge work an agent stack can absorb? This is the primary filter from ../../06-reference/2026-05-03-heyrico-service-as-a-software-shift (L1 production + L2 pattern application as the layers AI eats first).
2. Recurring-revenue defensibility — SBA pre-qualification, multi-year client tenure, low churn. The two SBA-prequal digital-marketing agencies for financial institutions and home-services niches are the bullseye because they combine vertical specialization (regulatory or operational moat) with retainer revenue.
3. Family-doctor diligence edge — healthcare-adjacent candidates (HC-1, HC-2) leverage the brother-in-law / ICBD Holdings channel (../../06-reference/2026-05-03-icbd-holdings-curative-ai-research) as a real diligence + reference-customer advantage, not just social capital.
4. Exit optionality — for healthcare-RCM rebuilds, ICBD / Curative AI is the natural strategic acquirer if the agent-rebuild playbook works; for marketing-agency rebuilds, larger agency holdcos are the path.

This shortlist is the demand side of the ../../04-finance/2026-05-03-path-to-5m-liquid-analysis $5M-liquid plan and informs the supply side of ../physical-ai-thesis/2026-05-03-opportunity-map (the alternative atoms-not-bits thesis the founder is also evaluating).

Related

• ../../04-finance/2026-05-03-path-to-5m-liquid-analysis — the financial plan this shortlist serves
• ../../06-reference/2026-05-03-heyrico-service-as-a-software-shift — the L1/L2/L3 framework used for AI-rebuild scoring
• ../../06-reference/2026-05-03-icbd-holdings-curative-ai-research — healthcare-RCM exit acquirer + family-channel research
• ../../06-reference/2026-05-03-yc-build-company-with-ai-from-ground-up — agent-deployer operating model the rebuilds will use
• ../physical-ai-thesis/2026-05-03-opportunity-map — alternative thesis (atoms-not-bits) the founder is evaluating in parallel