You’ve probably never looked at a gray, molded pulp egg tray and thought, "That’s a ticket to a $20 million empire." Honestly, most people wouldn't. We just want to get our eggs home without a gooey mess in the trunk. But for Sarah Moore, those humble egg cartons became the foundation of one of the most insane business acquisition stories in recent years.
If you haven't heard the name, she’s not the TV presenter from Money for Nothing (though they share a name and a love for "junk"). This Sarah Moore is a Harvard MBA who basically hacked the system of private equity. She didn't start a tech app or a crypto scheme. She bought a business that sells paper boxes for chicken eggs.
It sounds boring. It's actually genius.
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The Strategy Behind Sarah Moore Egg Cartons
Most entrepreneurs try to invent the "next big thing." Sarah did the opposite. She went looking for a business that was so un-sexy that no one else would want it, but so stable that it could survive a literal apocalypse. Think about it: people always eat eggs. Whether the economy is booming or we're in a recession, breakfast stays the same.
She didn't just stumble onto this. She used a "Search Fund" model, but with a scrappy, almost frantic energy.
To find the right company, Sarah Moore basically turned her college library into a command center. She hired 50 unpaid interns from Craigslist. Since they weren't all students, she reportedly had to get fake IDs just to get them past the library security. They weren't there to study; they were there to vet over 400,000 private companies.
What she was looking for:
- High barrier to entry (hard for a new guy to start).
- Established profitability (no "growth at all costs" nonsense).
- Simple operations (no proprietary tech that breaks every week).
- High cash flow.
Eventually, she landed on Eggcartons.com. It was an old-school site, a bit clunky, but it had the domain name everyone wanted and a customer base that never left.
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How to Buy a $20 Million Company with $0
This is the part that usually makes people's heads spin. Sarah Moore didn't have millions sitting in a bank account. She bought the business with effectively zero dollars of her own money.
She used a combination of bank debt and "seller financing." Basically, she convinced a bank to loan her 75% of the money and convinced the owner of the business to let her pay the other 25% over time out of the company’s future profits.
It sounds simple when you say it fast. In reality? It was a nightmare. She contacted over 100 banks before finding one that would say yes. Most bankers think egg cartons are a joke until they see the balance sheet. To survive while she was searching, she participated in medical research studies. At one point, she actually went legally blind for a short period due to a reaction to a deodorant study.
That is the level of "hustle" we’re talking about. It wasn't about fancy boardrooms; it was about grit.
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It’s Not Just for Chickens Anymore
While the core of the business is obviously for farmers, Sarah Moore realized that egg cartons are actually "specialty packaging."
If you can hold a fragile egg, you can hold a lot of other things. Under her leadership, the company expanded. Now, about 40% of the revenue comes from industries that have nothing to do with poultry.
Who buys this stuff?
- SpaceX and Boeing: They need specialized packaging for high-tech components that can’t be rattled.
- Crayola and Disney: For kits and specialty items.
- Magnolia Bakery: Because even high-end cupcakes need protection.
- Cosmetic Brands: Like EOS, which uses molded pulp for its displays.
Basically, if it needs to be "separated and protected," Sarah's company probably makes a tray for it.
The Weird Reality of the "Egg Queen"
Running a global packaging business isn't all spreadsheets. Sarah has shared stories about flying to India and China to inspect factories. On her first trip to India, customs officials held her for hours. They literally couldn't wrap their heads around the idea that a young woman traveled halfway across the world just to look at egg cartons. They thought it was a cover for something else.
She even narrowly escaped a dangerous situation in Northern India after rejecting a shipment that didn't meet her quality standards. The vendor was so livid he chased her out of the building.
It’s a reminder that "boring" businesses still have high stakes.
Why You Should Care
The story of Sarah Moore and her egg cartons is a masterclass in seeing value where others see trash. We live in a world obsessed with AI and digital goods, but the physical world still needs to be moved and protected.
The "moat" around her business isn't just the domain name. It’s the sheer scale and the boring, reliable nature of the product. No one wakes up and thinks, "I'm going to disrupt the egg tray industry today." And that’s exactly why she’s winning.
Actionable Takeaways for Your Own Project
- Look for the "Un-Sexy": The most profitable niches are often the ones people are embarrassed to talk about at cocktail parties.
- Persistence is a Metric: 100 bank rejections isn't a failure; it's just the cost of the 101st "yes."
- Structure Over Savings: You don't always need your own capital if you can prove the business itself is the collateral.
- Pivot the Use Case: An egg carton isn't just an egg carton; it’s "molded pulp protection." Changing the language opens up industries like aerospace and tech.
If you’re looking to get into the world of "boring" business acquisitions, start by looking at the things you use every day and take for granted. There’s usually a Sarah Moore behind them, making a killing while everyone else is looking at their phones.
The next time you crack an egg, take a second to look at the carton. It might just be the most interesting thing in your kitchen.
To learn more about this style of entrepreneurship, look into "Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition" (ETA). It's a formal path taught at schools like Harvard and Stanford, but as Sarah proved, you don't need the degree—just the willingness to send a few thousand faxes and maybe survive a medical study or two.