What Does the Silver Tsunami Mean For Buffalo?

It’s no longer a secret that Buffalo’s startup scene is on fire. People all over the country are starting to notice how we do things differently here with real collaboration and a huge focus on community.

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But while everyone is talking about the next high-tech app or software company, there’s another trend quietly bubbling up that could be just as big for our local economy: Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition (ETA). Or, in plain English: buying an existing business instead of starting one from scratch.

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Instead of starting at zero with no customers and no revenue, entrepreneurs can take over established companies that already have cash flow, a solid team, and real assets. And there’s about to be a huge wave of businesses ready to be acquired.

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Known as the “silver tsunami,” over half of the 33.2M small businesses in the US will need to change hands in the next 10 years as owners above the age of 55 look to retirement. Only half of those businesses actually have succession plans, leaving up to $14T on the table of transferable wealth.

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What does this mean for Buffalo?

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Buffalo has 33,000 small businesses, almost a perfect sample size of the nation’s 33.2 million. This gives us a good reference for what we can expect to come in the next 10 years.

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Using the national numbers, we can assume Buffalo has over 16K businesses with an owner over 55 years old. Of those, over 7,000 will not have a succession plan and 5,000 will be stuck with no sales opportunities. That leaves roughly 2,000 to 3,000 businesses that will actually transition over the next decade. This shift would impact approximately 32,000 local jobs and involves about $6.5 billion in annual revenue flowing through these transitioning companies.

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As a check on these assumptions, there are currently 119 active listings on BizBuySell. While this is slightly below the 230–300 per year expected transitions, these are projected to snowball as owners get closer to retirement age.

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Are we ready to transition or lose thousands of businesses in Buffalo in the next decade?

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If you’re ready to heed the call to entrepreneurship and taking over a business sounds more feasible than starting one from scratch, here are a few places to get started:

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• BizBuySell and similar online marketplaces: Sites like BizBuySell have postings for buying and selling small businesses, letting owners list companies directly for buyers to browse by industry, location, and price. In Buffalo, listings skew heavily toward Food & Beverage (~17 restaurants, bakeries, and delis), with smaller clusters in Automotive, B2B Services, and Hospitality/Real Estate.
• Business brokers: Brokers represent sellers directly and often have access to off-market deals that never hit public listing sites. They're especially useful for larger or more complex transactions, handling valuation, buyer vetting, and negotiation on the seller's behalf.
• Digital microacquisition marketplaces: Platforms like Acquire.com and Baton.com have lowered the barrier to entry for ETA by letting buyers browse, vet, and purchase smaller cash-flowing businesses with far more transparency. They're a strong training ground for first-time buyers, offering access to SaaS products and niche e-commerce brands with validated revenue.
• University technology transfer: Universities around the country, including at UB, have Tech Transfer offices that connect prospective buyers to proprietary technologies and faculty-led ventures ready for commercialization. It also plugs buyers into a structured support ecosystem of mentorship and technical guidance to help scale lab-developed IP into a market-ready business.
• ETA Accelerator: New Majority Capital’s unique offering provides a dedicated accelerator pathway for entrepreneurs pursuing acquisition-based entrepreneurship. Here you can learn first hand about how to find, acquire, transition and manage a business.

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The incoming tsunami could have significant influence on the progress the Buffalo ecosystem has made in the last decade. If we want to maintain that economic growth, keep jobs local and maintain the institutions and local businesses we’ve grown to love, we have to start focusing on retention as much as we do new creation.

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