28: Burned by Broad Services? How Specialization Scaled Pedestal Search to a Successful Exit

Written By Bruce Eckfeldt

Aaron Levenstadt, Founder, Pedestal Search

In this episode of From Angel to Exit, host Bruce Eckfeldt interviews Aaron Levenstadt, exited founder of Pedestal Search, a performance-driven search marketing agency. Aaron’s journey began at Google, where he worked on core search products. Spotting inefficiencies in how businesses managed digital marketing, he launched Pedestal to offer high-impact SEO services.

Early on, Aaron experimented with multiple service lines—including web development and social ads—but quickly learned that dilution hurt scalability. By focusing solely on search, he “katanified” his offering and honed in on the mid-market, a sweet spot between small startups and cumbersome enterprise clients.

Aaron explains how applying buyer psychology transformed his sales conversations into structured, effective interactions. His “3 Ws” framework—Why now, Why this problem, Why us—helped increase close rates and customer alignment.

One of the biggest unlocks? Systematizing personalized follow-up to “reawaken” sleeping leads, keeping their pipeline warm and closing deals months later. This approach not only improved ROI on outbound but also proved critical in building a repeatable revenue engine.

Eventually, Aaron received acquisition interest and structured a deal with no traditional earn-out, thanks in part to solid SOPs and a non-keyman-dependent business. He offers counterintuitive but brilliant advice: tell buyers why not to buy your business during early diligence—it builds trust and streamlines future negotiations.

Today, Aaron is an investor in digital agencies via his family office, runs a community for agency founders, and is building tools to help agencies unlock warm leads at scale.

If you're a founder-CEO scaling a service-based business or preparing for exit, Aaron’s story is packed with practical frameworks and real-world lessons.

Key Takeaways

  • Specializing in one core service enabled true scalability and efficiency.

  • Buyer psychology is essential—structure sales conversations like a landing page.

  • Systematized warm outreach turned dormant leads into high-conversion pipelines.

  • Saying no to work outside your niche builds stronger client trust and delivery results.

  • Reframing sales and post-sale language unifies team efforts and drives clarity.

  • Presenting "reasons not to buy" in M&A builds credibility and smooths diligence.

  • Productization creates repeatability without losing personalization.

  • Planning for exit early enables more favorable deal structures and post-sale freedom.

Contact Information:

Bruce Eckfeldt
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27: Struggling With Niching? How Erik Olson Used SEO and Structure to Scale 3 Agencies