A competitor then raised $50 million and began matching TCM on price and quality. On the advice of a friend who had sold his own company, Heath started answering the acquisition emails he had been deleting for years. One became a letter of intent for more money than he had ever seen. Half of it was an earnout, so he turned it down, hired a sell side firm, and put the company in front of 300 buyers. Four wrote letters of intent. The one he signed was worth more than double what he had turned down. In this week's episode of Built to Sell Radio, you discover how to

• Turn the acquisition emails you've been ignoring into free valuations and a rehearsal for diligence

• Tell the difference between the money in an offer and the promise attached to it

• Pass on the highest offer and pick the buyer instead

• Build a walk away number backwards from the life you want to fund rather than a multiple of earnings

• Hold diligence at arm's length so it does not paralyze the company you are selling

Stuart Faught has made a career of the second approach.

He has started and sold 20 software businesses, making him the number-one seller on Acquire.com. His model is deliberately small: build a simple tool for a niche of local businesses, grow it to $50K to $100K in annual recurring revenue, sell it for four to five times that, and move on to the next one.

Rob Walling sold Drip with 40 percent of his purchase price tied to an earnout and collected all but a fraction of it.

In this episode of Built to Sell Radio, John Warrillow puts the two founders side by side to work out what actually separated the two outcomes, and you discover how to negotiate an earnout you have a chance of collecting.

You'll learn:

• Why a revenue-based earnout hands the acquirer the calculator, including the right to change how your revenue is recognized partway through the year

• Walling's ranking of earnout milestones from worst to best, and the one type he tells founders to refuse outright

• Why taking more cash at close makes an acquirer less likely to fight you over the back end

• What a private equity buyer admitted over dinner about how often his firm plans to replace the founder

• The reporting clause Hilow left out of his agreement, and what its absence cost him

• How old Slack messages and a verbal instruction to work from home became grounds for a termination with cause

• Why an acquirer who intends to fold your company into theirs should not be offering an earnout at all

When they took the company to market in 2025, nine buyers cleared the proof-of-funds screen and four of them wrote an LOI. The best offer came in close to four times SDE with a holdback attached. Dane countered for all cash at close, watched two of his four offers disappear, and signed at 3.6

Owners find searchers appealing for good reasons. They may pay your asking price, and they promise to look after your employees rather than fold them into someone else's operation.

Over the next seven years, White told The Knot exactly that, met with their corporate development team every quarter for four years, and shared her revenue and margins with them along the way. When she finally emailed to say she was ready, the letter of intent arrived within a week.

Travis Jamison runs Capital Pad, where investors fund independent sponsor deals. He sees dozens of them for every one he approves. Independent sponsors are now behind roughly 28% of lower middle market acquisitions, which is more than traditional private equity does.

Katz says the greatest benefit of wealth isn't what it buys. It's the freedom of never needing anyone again. Not your clients, not a boss, not a buyer. He argues that kind of independence is impossible to understand until you're on the other side of the deal, which is why, even after decades of coaching founders through liquidity events, he admits he is still adjusting to it himself.

Here's what most owners miss: you have a built-in advantage no salesperson can replicate. Your founder story defines the enemy, the problem, and why you built something better, and you tell it instinctively because you lived it. A new rep who tries to recite your story will sound like a fraud. The fix isn't better sales training. It's giving your team professional positioning, and nobody on the planet knows more about positioning than April Dunford. She spent 25 years as an executive at seven B2B technology startups, companies that were acquired for a combined total of more than two billion dollars, and her books, Obviously Awesome and Sales Pitch, are the standard playbooks for explaining why customers should pick you over the competition.

So the question went to two people who spend their days on the buy side, valuing companies and deciding what to pay. Lee McCabe is a private equity veteran who advises PE firms on the businesses they acquire. Jason Swenk built marketing agencies and spent time acquiring them. In this episode, you discover how to tell whether burnout is a signal to sell or a problem worth fixing first, and how a buyer prices the difference either way.

Most owners have received the email. It usually starts with something flattering: "I love what you've built…" Then comes the ask: a quick call to learn more about your business.

Increasingly, those emails are coming from ETA buyers — entrepreneurs using entrepreneurship through acquisition as their path into business ownership. Instead of starting a company from scratch, they look to buy an existing business and run it themselves.

In this episode of Built to Sell Radio, John Warrillow talks with Will Smith, host of Acquiring Minds, one of the leading podcasts covering entrepreneurship through acquisition. Will has interviewed hundreds of ETA buyers and brings rare insight into how they think, how they finance deals, and where deals fall apart.

Whether you're actively considering selling your business or just exploring your options, this conversation covers what every owner should understand before entertaining an offer from an ETA buyer:

• How to tell the difference between a funded searcher and a self-funded buyer — and why it matters for your deal structure
• Why some ETA buyers use heavy debt to acquire a business — and what that means for you as a seller
• How to spot the hidden risk in a seller note — a key piece of most ETA transactions
• How to evaluate whether a young buyer has the leadership experience to run your company after you exit
• How to protect your employees from a buyer who may not fit your culture
• Better questions to ask before signing a letter of intent (LOI) with an ETA buyer
• How to judge whether a buyer can actually close — not just sign

ETA buyers can be a great fit for owners of profitable niche businesses that may not attract private equity or a strategic acquirer. They're often motivated, passionate, and willing to pay fair value for the right business.

But they come with real risks. A buyer may need your financing — in the form of a seller note — to get the deal done. They may still need to raise money after you sign an LOI. And they may look great on paper but struggle to lead the team you've built over years.

That's why this conversation is worth your time. Before you take the next call from someone who says they "love what you've built," listen to this episode.

Will Smith is the host of Acquiring Minds, a podcast dedicated to entrepreneurship through acquisition. He has interviewed hundreds of search fund entrepreneurs and self-funded searchers, making him one of the most knowledgeable voices on the ETA buyer landscape.

Built to Sell Radio is hosted by John Warrillow, author of Built to Sell: Creating a Business That Can Thrive Without You. Each week, John interviews business owners who have navigated the process of selling their company — sharing what worked, what didn't, and what every owner should know before they sell.

Keywords: ETA buyer, entrepreneurship through acquisition, selling your business, search fund, seller note, business acquisition, how to sell a business, Built to Sell Radio, Will Smith Acquiring Minds, exit strategy, business exit planning

Cameron Passmore built one of the largest independent wealth management firms in Canada, roughly 3,000 families and about $8 billion under management, and owned half of it. Most founders in that seat cash out and leave. Cameron sold to OneDigital at 60, and has no intention of going anywhere. He rolled 40% of the deal into equity, and now uses OneDigital's capital, deal expertise, and acquisition currency to buy other firms. He has acquired five and roughly doubled the business in under two years.

In this episode of Built to Sell Radio, part of our popular After the Deal series, Swann explains why the trap survives the wire transfer

When Tim and his four brothers took their $105 million family appliance business to market, six letters of intent came back, and the spread between the lowest and the highest was 60 percent. Most of that gap had nothing to do with the multiple. Don's Appliances ran on a mountain of inventory, refrigerators and ranges and washers sitting across two distribution centers, and every buyer had a different view of how much of that had to stay locked in the company on closing day. Whatever stayed in was money the brothers did not get to take home. Tim assumed they would simply get their inventory money back. That is not how it works.

Jaryd Krause sees it differently. He's a buyer. And when he looks at a 20-year-old company run by an owner who is "scared of AI and selling because of it," he sees an acquisition opportunity, not a write-off.

Krause has been acquiring online businesses since 2014.

In this episode, you discover how to:

• Open the conversation with your partners without triggering a defensive reaction or a stall

• Anchor your price to a prior valuation event so the number is hard to argue with

• Use a deliberately low ask as leverage to get speed, certainty, and 100% cash upfront

• Identify which one of your partners is most likely to write the check, and approach them first

• Source the cash from a platform partner, franchisor, or custodian who holds the underlying assets

• Negotiate a "ceasefire" non-compete that protects the buyers without trapping you

• Read inbound acquirer silence as market signal before you push the group toward a full sale

• Spot the partner who is too eager to buy, and what that eagerness usually means

Dori Yona spent six years and raised $14 million building what he thought was a price protection company for consumers. Earny tracked everything its users bought online and automatically clawed back refunds whenever the price dropped within the retailer's protection window.

The model never quite worked. After two rounds of layoffs, a shutdown plan presented to the board, and a move out of the Santa Monica office, Dori pivoted to selling the one thing the company had in abundance: SKU-level purchase data on 3.5 million users.

That pivot found the acquirer.

To a consumer packaged goods (CPG) giant trying to understand what shoppers were actually putting in their carts during COVID, the data was the prize. The consumer app was almost incidental.

Pentavere built AI to unlock patient data trapped inside PDFs and clinical notes years before large language models existed.

The headline number was $15 million. What it did not reveal was the structure underneath. Part of the consideration was paid in the volatile stock of the acquirer. Aaron and his partners also rolled 49% of their equity into the new entity. Now Aaron returns, and you might be surprised to learn how it all played out.

When it comes time to sell, most business owners want 100% cash at closing. Almost no one gets it. Most deals come with structure, and structure usually comes down to three levers: what currency the buyer pays you in (cash versus stock), how they keep you tied to the future after giving up control (earn-out versus equity roll), and what rights either side has to unwind the relationship later.

A year later he wrote a blog post titled "I regret selling my startup" that went viral inside the exited founder community.

He came down the mountain, sold Ned, his natural remedies company, and now guides people through life transitions on multi-day vision quests in the mountains of Colorado.

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In this week's episode, we hear from someone who chose a smaller slice of a bigger pie. Simon Lorenz co-founded Klara, a patient communication platform for medical practices, and raised roughly $32 million across six rounds of outside capital before selling to ModMed at 15 times forward revenue.

The path there was not a clean one. Every funding round was painful. Most of them came down to a single term sheet, take it or leave it, because an early valuation had set an equity story Simon spent years chasing. He hired salespeople he later had to fire. He took on an apparatus he could not easily shut off. And when ModMed's CEO first reached out, Simon almost ignored the email because the company had finally started humming and he was preparing another round.

What turned a distraction into a deal was Simon's willingness to act genuinely uninterested, which pulled ModMed up to a price that made his eyeballs pop out. What let him walk away twelve months after closing was a single clause his lawyer negotiated into the contract.

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Curious what your business is worth? Find out now

In this episode of Built to Sell Radio, you discover how to negotiate a clean exit with no earn-out complications and no equity rollover.

You'll learn:

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Curious what your business is worth? Find out now

Then issues surfaced in diligence and the deal collapsed.

This week on Built to Sell Radio, Jay walks John Warrillow through the full story of selling Imagen Insights, a qualitative research platform with clients like Visa, Google, and Amazon, and how you discover how to navigate two very different acquisition conversations and come out the other side with a deal you are genuinely happy with.

You'll learn why:

• an LOI means far less than you think, and how problems in your books can kill a deal

• founders who shop their company can signal desperation, and what Jay did instead

• the eventual buyer valued the business on EBITDA instead of revenue, and why that worked in Jay's favor

• Jay accepted an earn-out worth more than half the deal, and why he was comfortable with it

• handing out equity without vesting created a problem at the worst possible moment

• a long-standing accountant relationship does not guarantee clean books, and how this nearly killed the deal

• the moment the DocuSign came through did not bring relief, but a flood of new ideas

Then an acquirer asked them a simple question, and they answered it. That answer nearly cost them $20 million.

Recorded live at the Value Builder Summit, this is David Sinkinson's second appearance on Built to Sell Radio. This time he goes beyond the mechanics of the deal — into the surprising struggles he faced after the sale, and a take on employee equity that is going to challenge what most founders believe.

After more than a decade of bootstrapping, consulting on the side to fund payroll, and raising just $275,000 from three people she knew personally, Sharon sold Boardroom Insiders to London-based public company EuroMoney for $25 million — all cash at close, no earn-out. In this episode, you discover how to build and sell a business where customers love you so much they follow you from company to company.

You'll learn:

• Why a cold call from a PE firm offering $48 million was actually the worst thing that could have happened to Sharon — and what she did instead

• The one overheard side conversation that changed her negotiation posture entirely and helped her push from a $17–20M offer to $25M

• Why Sharon insisted on all cash at close — and why her angel investor told her a lower number in cash beats a higher number with strings attached

• What convertible notes look like after a decade — and why her investors converted their notes just six months before the sale

• Why Sharon cried on her birthday, the day she was quietly walked out of the company she had spent 13 years building

• How she watched the acquirer run Boardroom Insiders into the ground, tried to buy it back — and then decided to rebuild from scratch anyway

• The land-and-expand growth strategy that took Boardroom Insiders from zero to $5 million ARR without ever cracking the demand generation problem

In this episode of Built to Sell Radio, John Warrillow talks with Ferrer about what he has learned after moving from founder to buyer, and why every owner needs to know whether they are a transactional, transitional, or transformative seller before they go to market. In this episode, you discover how to identify your seller type before a buyer does it for you.

You'll learn:

• Why a transactional founder who insists they just want the money often turns out to be something else entirely — and why getting that wrong poisons the deal

• What a buyer learns about you when they ask whether you would sell to your biggest competitor for the same price

• Why the multiple is just the starting point, and how cash at closing, seller financing, and rolled equity can swing the real outcome by more than most founders expect

• How Mark lost 8 to 14 percent of his own deal proceeds not because of bad faith, but because he did not ask the right questions about his rolled equity

• Why pushing for agreement after a sale closes is the fastest way to destroy a partnership — and what to focus on instead

• What working capital and normalized earnings actually mean, and why founders who gloss over both almost always regret it

• How to clarify the role you want after closing before it becomes the source of tension no one saw coming

This week on Built to Sell Radio, Joe Soelberg joins the Inside the Mind of an Acquirer series to pull back the curtain on what that kind of buyer actually looks like — and what it means for you as a seller. Listen and you discover how to:

• spot the tells of a real buyer versus "capital partners" theater

• pressure-test proof of funds without turning it adversarial

• use a seller note as a credibility filter, not just a concession

• understand why individual buyers consistently misread the cash down, seller note, bank structure and how to use that to your advantage

• ask questions that surface risk early, before lawyers get involved

In this episode of Built to Sell Radio, Andrew walks through the pivot that saved his business, why his VC backers stayed on board, and the exact moment he realized that a "short buyer list" is a dangerous trap for founders.

Listen in to discover how to:

• Spot the "hidden ceiling" in a business that looks like it's doubling—right up until it isn't.

• Move a cap table from a failed bet into a new one without lighting your professional relationships on fire.

• Understand liquidation preference in plain English (and why it can erase a founder's take-home pay at exit).

• See why a banker's real value isn't just managing the process—it's forcing pressure and widening the field of potential acquirers

• Avoid the "I can sell this myself" mindset that often results in a year of free research for buyers and zero leverage for you.

For business owners, ETA is a double-edged sword. On the upside, more buyers courting you means more choice, more urgency, and more liquidity. On the downside, many ETA buyers are first-timers who lean on heavy leverage and seller financing. If they misread your business or hit a snag they can't handle, the part of the deal you financed can quickly become the part you never collect.

But what happens when the machine starts to sputter?

What if the margins are too thin, the operations are exhausting, and you are simply burned out?

It is easy to assume that a broken business model means a worthless company. But as this week's guest on Built to Sell Radio proves, sometimes the individual parts are worth more than the whole.

Meet Jason Patel.

Jason built Transitions Education, a college counseling marketplace. On the surface, it looked great: upper six-figure revenue and a noble mission. But under the hood, customer acquisition costs were eating his margins, and he was carrying $250,000 in personal debt to keep it afloat.

He was ready to walk away. He assumed he had zero leverage.

Then, a "Micro Private Equity" firm reached out. They didn't want his headaches. They didn't want his operations. They didn't even want his business model.

They wanted his "parts."

Specifically, they wanted his SEO ranking, his blog traffic, and his 5-star reputation. They realized they could strip away the expensive service delivery and plug his high-performing marketing assets into their own portfolio.

In this episode, Jason breaks down how he structured an asset sale that allowed him to:

• Sell the high-value "parts" (marketing assets) without the operational baggage.

• Avoid a grueling earn-out (because the buyer didn't need him to run the company).

• Pay off his debt and fund his next venture.

If you feel like your business model is grinding you down, this episode will open your eyes to the hidden value sitting on your balance sheet right now.

When Nick Katz tried to sell acasa on his own, the downside wasn't just a slow process. It created a setup where buyers had the leverage: they could keep asking for information, keep "exploring," and never commit to an LOI.

Instead of chasing the US (the move most founders are told to make), they went big fish, small pond: dominate their home market first. That focus helped them build DesignMyNight into a business that sold for more than $40M.

In this episode of Built to Sell Radio, Nick shares what happened, so you discover how to:

• Turn one clear customer frustration into a business idea you can explain fast

• Choose focus over hype when everyone tells you to chase the biggest market

• Set a "financial freedom" number and use it to make cleaner decisions

• Run a sale process without tipping off competitors too early

• Negotiate an earn-out tied to revenue so the targets stay in your control

• Plan for the morning after the deal, when your identity gets reset

When clients hire you—because of your reputation, your name, and your specific expertise—you haven't built a business; you've built a high-paying job.

And as Gavin Bell realized, you can't sell a reputation.

Gavin was known as the "Facebook Ads Guy" in the UK. He was making good money, but he knew that to build a sellable asset, he had to fire himself as the face of the company.

He rebranded his firm from "Gavin Bell" to "Yatter," productized his service, and systematically removed himself from sales and delivery.

The result? He sold Yatter to a larger agency, Velstar, in a deal that closed just one minute before a major tax deadline.

In this episode of Built to Sell Radio, Gavin breaks down exactly how he made the switch.

This Built to Sell Radio episode follows Shenar Wood, who built an underground power business by taking on personal risk, earning trust job by job, and eventually selling when he hit a ceiling that had nothing to do with demand, you discover how to:

• Recognize the hidden ceiling that has nothing to do with demand and everything to do with your balance sheet

• Stop confusing "more revenue" with "more value" when margin and risk aren't improving

• Build a reputation flywheel where customers feed you better work because they trust how you operate

• Separate assets from value so you don't overestimate what a buyer will pay for "stuff"

• Fix the financial story before a buyer forces an expensive cleanup under pressure

• Negotiate earn-out terms so the buyer can't hit your results by moving costs onto your books

• Decide when it's smarter to sell now than grind for years just to add a rounding error to valuation

Stay "on the tools" and keep making great money. Or start feathering back your personal involvement so the business can grow beyond you.

In this episode of Built to Sell Radio, Dr. Michael Filosi walks through how he made that shift in a dental practice, without jeopardizing cash flow. He didn't rip the band-aid off. He reduced his patient days one day at a time while the practice added clinicians and transitioned patients carefully. Over a few years, his billings went from roughly 43% of revenue to single digits, and he only went to zero once the business was already producing most of his take-home income.

In this episode, you discover how to

• Spot the "capped upside" moment when your time becomes the constraint
• Feather back from four days on the tools to three, then two, then zero
• Time each reduction using numbers, not hope
• Transition customers off the owner without breaking trust
• Remove key-person risk by ensuring no one producer dominates revenue
• Keep cash flow steady while you trade personal production for enterprise value

The result: Filosi sold his practice and collected 100% of his cash at closing, which is almost unheard of in dentistry.

Across four formats (Exit Story, Inside the Mind of an Acquirer, Mastering the Deal, and After the Deal), you discover how to

• Choose exit value over lifestyle income before comfort caps valuation
• Spot the "founder-dependent" trap that scares off serious buyers
• See how buyers price risk, not just revenue and EBITDA
• Use imperfections as leverage instead of liabilities
• Build leverage before a first offer quietly sets your ceiling
• Create real alternatives so negotiations stop feeling one-sided
• Prepare for the identity shift that hits after the wire clears

In this episode of Built to Sell Radio, John Warrillow talks with Ryan O'Leary, who saw a similar wave coming in payments when Shopify started bundling merchant processing into its plans. O'Leary chose to sell before the shift crushed margins, structuring a deal that put most of his cash in hand up front. In this episode, you discover how to

• Decide whether to raise capital, hire a CEO, roll equity, or sell • Spot the early signals that a platform is about to "bundle" you into irrelevance • Run a tight sale process with a short target list and still generate multiple LOIs fast • Negotiate for deal structure that protects you, not just a higher multiple • Limit earnout risk by keeping the earnout short and the rules hard to game • Separate emotion from the numbers so you can negotiate clean • Keep your team aligned through the transition by sharing upside, including the earnout

In this week's episode of Built to Sell Radio, John talks to a physical therapist who turned a fully booked, owner-dependent practice into a boutique fitness business with recurring revenue, a second-in-command, and a clean exit on her terms. After a first deal collapsed on closing day thanks to a last-minute bank clause, she went back to market with three non-negotiables and still got a seven-figure outcome.

In this Inside the Mind of an Acquirer episode of Built to Sell Radio, John Warrillow sits down with Speyside Equity managing director Eric Wiklendt.

Chris Hutchins' story makes the point. He co-founded Milk, acquired by Google, and later founded Grove, acquired by Wealthfront. Both saw assets they could plug in—product, team, IP—even when revenue and EBITDA weren't impressive.

If you want a strategic acquirer to pay for what you've built rather than how much money you make, this episode of Built to Sell Radio is for you. You'll discover how to:

• Define and prioritize the assets a strategic may value now (team, product, customer list, roadmap, even your lease) • Reframe your pitch so a distribution-rich buyer may see an immediate lift from your assets • Run a fast, momentum-led process that invites quick noes and surfaces real interest • Split assets across buyers when it improves the overall outcome • Protect employees and customers while you move quickly toward a decision

If a strategic exit is on your radar, this playbook helps you create options when EBITDA won't carry the deal.

CoachNow caught on quickly with busy coaches. Then a run of decisions—turning off revenue under "grow fast" advice, stacking convertibles and preferences, and accepting stock-for-stock deals—left Spencer with little to show for a product customers loved. This is a cautionary tale for any owner negotiating with "sophisticated" investors.

There's another path: growth equity, which lets you take chips off the table via a secondary while maintaining control. That's the business John Ruffolo is in as Founder & Managing Partner at Maverix Private Equity (he also founded OMERS Ventures).

In this Built to Sell Radio episode, Zain explains how he rode the smartphone wave to a $780M all-cash exit to Blackstone—and why he personally took home more than $100M. Then he gets candid about what came next.

In this episode, Stan shares how he and his co-founders built a cash-flow-positive business that turned a clunky, paper-based process into a digital marketplace—and sold it to a private-equity firm for seven times revenue in just two years.

Post-sale, Woods now serves as the SVP of Strategic Growth Opportunity at Valtech, a role dedicated to identifying potential acquisitions for the business. In the latest installment of Built to Sell Radio's Inside the Mind of an Acquirer series, we sit down with Woods to discuss how to:

• Make your company irresistible to an acquirer.
• Leverage a "put option" to cover your downside.
• Understand the factors that influence how acquirers value businesses.
• Target potential acquirers who would see your company as a strategic addition.
• Avoid deal breakers during negotiations with potential acquirers.

McCabe argues the old model of buying cheap, piling on debt, and hoping for multiple expansion is over. Interest rates are up, LPs are demanding more, and the firms that win will need to act more like operators than bankers. If you're planning to sell, and private equity is your natural buyer, you'll want to hear this.

Despite those scars, Sifry has built an extraordinary career. He has founded nine companies and today is founder and CEO of Warmstart, a platform that helps entrepreneurs turn old contacts into new business.

But the journey wasn't smooth. Cash was often razor-thin with 75 employees on payroll, and an early inbound offer at 3× ARR forced Tad and his partners to decide: take the deal, or gamble on building more value.

In this week's episode of Built to Sell Radio, you discover how to turn common transition structures from potential pitfalls into opportunities for upside.

But after raising $27M in venture funding and navigating liquidation preferences, his personal payout was just under $20M.

In this week's episode of Built to Sell Radio, Dan reveals the surprising math behind his deal and shares the emotional highs and lows of walking away from his company.

Then a banker came back with five acquisition offers — each at the "absurd" number Adam and his wife had thrown out as a hypothetical. The winning bid came from SRA International, a publicly traded defense contractor, for a price that created generational wealth for his family. Adam took all cash and walked away with no earn-out.

But as Adam discovered, the hard part wasn't negotiating the deal — it was figuring out what to do after it closed.

His goal was simpler—and harder. He wanted his equity stake to be worth $50 million.

To get there, he skipped the usual playbook. No blitzscaling. No VC treadmill. He raised a small seed round, built a profitable company, and avoided dilution. By the time he sold StackCommerce, Payne still owned 75%—and hit his number.

David Hauser did that—he built Grasshopper to $30M Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) and sold it for $175M – almost 6 times revenue. He and his partner owned the majority of the shares so the deal was life-changing for Hauser. But what makes this interview different is what Hauser did next: he crossed the table to become an investor and now acquires businesses through Durable Capital.

It's a study in contrasts. As a founder, Hauser chased growth. As an investor, he's ruthlessly disciplined. He mocks the PE herd chasing home services roll-ups and avoids auction-driven deals. Drawing on his experience founding Grasshopper and Mark Cuban-backed Chargify, he outmaneuvers ETA buyers and first-time acquirers with quiet, direct, close-ready offers. This is a rare window into how someone who's built and sold a business thinks about buying one—and what makes a deal attractive from the other side.

The model worked. They grew CORE Resources into a go-to firm for specialized technology talent solutions and ultimately sold the company to 24 Seven—one of the largest privately held marketing, creative, and digital talent firms in North America—in an eight-figure exit.

In this week's episode of Built to Sell Radio, Ryan shares how they structured the deal, avoided resentment, and nearly lost the sale in the final hours.

Christopher Hadnagy, author of Human Hacking, teaches elite military units and Fortune 500 companies how to negotiate using psychological insights. In this conversation, he shares how founders can use the same tools to level the playing field with sophisticated buyers.

He got 80% of the proceeds up front, agreed to a small earn-out, and became the face of Thrasio, the acquirer.

Then things started to go sideways.

But there's a different kind of buyer out there. One who wires 100% of the money at closing—and lets you walk.

Dan Mytels represents this type of buyer. Through his firm, Salt Creek, he's acquired 100 businesses—most of them mature, profitable, niche companies where the owner was ready to move on. They don't always offer the highest multiple, but they do offer something many founders value more: a clean break.

But getting there required more than just strong financials. Doug had to rethink how he led his team, structured his business, and prepared for life after the deal.

In this episode of Built to Sell Radio, CK opens up about what life looks like when work becomes a choice, not a requirement. From cross-continental travel to difficult conversations with his kids about wealth, this is a rare, candid look at what happens after the wire hits.

Jeff DeGarmo's story is different. No private equity windfall. No tech hockey stick. Just a well-run, 20-person service business built over 16 years and sold for a solid 5.5x EBITDA.

This is a Mastering the Deal episode of Built to Sell Radio—designed to help you punch above your weight in a negotiation to sell your business.

Jon Pole has acquired 19 traditional radio stations. On paper, it's an industry many assume is in decline. But for an experienced buyer like Pole, these deals are less about media trends and more about community, cash flow, and culture.

If you lost your car keys and went to a locksmith to cut a new set, chances are your locksmith got the replacement key from Sean's business. He bought cheap keys from Asia and sold them to locksmiths. Nothing fancy. Like so many businesses, Sean was a middleman. He'd never really thought about selling—didn't think anyone would want to buy it—but when a private equity group offered him millions, Sean realized he was sitting on a potential goldmine.

Sequoya Borgman has acquired 19 companies and exited two. He's raised capital on a deal-by-deal basis, working outside the traditional private equity model. In this episode of Built to Sell Radio, Borgman explains how "independent sponsors" operate—and why more wealthy individuals are now pooling money to buy lower middle-market businesses.

You discover how to:

Eight years later, he bought out his co-founder, bootstrapped the company with bank debt (collateralized by his house), and sold it in a stock deal that peaked at $190 million.

That's the minimum amount required to join Tiger 21, the exclusive network where ultra-high-net-worth entrepreneurs learn how to preserve and grow their wealth.

Michael Sonnenfeldt founded Tiger 21 after selling two companies and realizing that the skills that made him a successful entrepreneur didn't translate into smart investing. He built the group to help other entrepreneurs avoid costly post-exit mistakes.

Rob Walling has started, built, and sold multiple companies. As an investor and conference organizer, he's seen hundreds of founders exit—some thriving, others struggling. He teamed up with Dr. Sherry Walling, a clinical psychologist specializing in supporting entrepreneurs, to codify what separates a successful exit from one that leaves an owner adrift. Their insights culminated in their new book Exit Strategy.

• Bootstrap a capital-intensive business without giving up control

• Reduce your risk when taking on an investor

• Attract entrepreneurial employees who will care as much as you do

• Think about the $10 million milestone (and why it matters to private equity)

• Know when to take some chips off the table—and when to double down

• Ace management presentations with an acquirer

• Play hard to get (even when you want to sell)

• Get an acquirer to bump up their offer

• Max out an earn-out payment—even if you don't quite hit your targets

• Spot an acquisition offer that's likely to be re-traded

But Bob Gilbreath flipped the script.

He navigated two complex earn-outs across two service businesses and turned both into massive financial wins. In this episode of Built to Sell Radio, Bob shares how he turned the dreaded earn-out into his greatest asset.

But when an acquirer attempted to re-trade the deal at the last minute—adding a $25 million seller's note, a $10 million earn-out, and a 36-month call option—Kevin learned a hard lesson: just because an offer is on the table doesn't mean the deal is done.

The acquirer assumed Kevin and his brother would be too invested in the deal to walk away. But thanks to their advisor's guidance, they stood firm. The result? The acquirer backtracked, offering the original terms. Kevin and his brother still walked, ultimately selling a majority stake at a $90 million valuation to a better partner.

In this episode of Built to Sell Radio, Brock reveals the strategies that helped him attract Fortune 500 buyers like PetSmart and Petco. This episode is a roadmap for anyone who wants to sell their business to a strategic acquirer.

In this episode, we speak with Preston Holland, author of Private Jet Insider and an expert in private aviation. Preston shares why private jet travel isn't just for celebrities and explains how business owners use private aviation to buy back their most valuable asset: time.

In this episode of Built to Sell Radio, Adam pulls back the curtain on how acquirers often push for cashless deals, offering equity instead of cash—and how sellers can negotiate to ensure they get the deal they deserve.

For most founders, the ultimate dream is to sell to a strategic acquirer: a well-funded, industry leader with deep pockets. Egan shares exactly how he positioned his company to become a natural acquisition target, avoiding common pitfalls along the way.

In this week's Built to Sell Radio, part of our After the Deal series, James opens up about life post-exit. Selling a company can bring financial freedom, but as James reveals, it also comes with unexpected challenges.

This week's episode is part of our Inside the Mind of an Acquirer series, where we dive into the strategies and motivations of different types of buyers. Jordan Dubin, co-founder of Guild, shares how he raised $35 million to create a roll-up of garage door companies and reveals what he looks for in a potential acquisition.

In his interview on Built to Sell Radio, Mike dives into the journey that saw him go from construction worker to the sale of Manitoba Harvest to Tilray for $419 million.

By 2022, her company, A Plus Garage Doors, was generating $35 million in revenue with 30% EBITDA margins. This week on Built to Sell Radio, host John Warrillow shares Carrie's journey—from her first steps in the home services industry to the personal tragedy that ultimately pushed her to consider selling.

Pete shifted focus to building a property management company, handling maintenance and rent collection for over 1,000 homes, and eventually sold the business for $4.6 million or 1.75 times recurring revenue to an industry giant.

DeLuca's background in tech shaped the business, with her love for data and precision leading to a meticulously curated platform. Frustrated by the lack of unbiased information in the beauty industry, she built a database of expert advice, allowing customers to search products tailored to their needs—an approach that set Cult Beauty apart from the competition.

Tim shares Peter Thiel's "zero to one" versus "one to ten" concept and how knowing which one you are can shape your business.

Jim's extensive experience includes his time at the Blackstone Group, where he negotiated on behalf of one of the world's largest alternative asset managers with more than $1 trillion under management. He is also a frequent speaker to YPO and a consultant for privately held companies, helping them navigate complex negotiations.

Jim's insights are backed by his in-depth research, including first-hand interviews with former U.S. Secretaries of State such as Henry Kissinger, Hillary Clinton, and Rex Tillerson. These interviews have provided him with unique perspectives on negotiation from some of the world's most experienced dealmakers, making his advice invaluable for anyone looking to sell their company for maximum value.

Our guest is Christopher Vollmond-Carstens, Chief M&A Officer at Ntiva, where they help businesses keep their technology running smoothly, from managing their computer systems to protecting them from cyber threats. Christopher has bought fifteen companies in the last few years, and this week we take a walk inside his mind to understand how he thinks about buying companies.

This episode, part of our Inside the Mind of an Acquirer series, offers unique insights into the corporate development division of a big company.

In our latest episode of Built to Sell Radio, part of our Inside the Mind of an Acquirer series, we get inside the head of Kristi Herold. Kristi is the founder of Jam, a company based in Toronto that connects people through adult recreational sports leagues and corporate team-building events.

Kristi has successfully completed 11 acquisitions, making her a prime example of how small businesses buy other small companies.

Along the way, Nicole received an acquisition offer that seemed too good to be true. It turned out it was, and the deal fell apart. Nicole picked up the pieces, and in March 2024, Health+Commerce was acquired by Trinity Hunt-backed Supreme Group.

Like most small companies, TinyPilot was a Main Street business with around $1 million in revenue and roughly $250,000 in profit, so Michael's story is a revealing snapshot of a typical exit for the majority of small businesses

Kiri successfully transformed a significant social media following into a valuable company.

During the interview, you'll discover how answering a simple question posed by an acquirer almost cost the Sinkinson brothers $20 million. Learn how they navigated this near-disastrous moment and what steps they took to recover and close the deal successfully.

In this week's Built to Sell Radio episode, John Warrillow sits down with Bill Hudenko, a psychologist, Dartmouth professor, and serial entrepreneur, to discuss the psychological impact of building and exiting a business. Bill shares his personal journey through multiple exits and offers insights into the mental health challenges that come with selling your life's work.

As someone who has experienced these challenges firsthand, and as a professional with access to extensive data, Bill provides practical advice on how to avoid the common mental health pitfalls associated with selling your business.

Anne shares her remarkable journey, detailing the strategies she used to transition leadership, navigate fundraising efforts, and build a company with enduring value.

If you're wondering how to get your people to sell as well as you do, this is your master class.

Kevin's vision transformed the online advertising industry, making DoubleClick a dominant force in digital marketing before its $3.1 billion acquisition by Google.

Join us as Seth unpacks strategies to make your business more appealing to potential buyers and provides guidance for designing your successful exit.

What was surprising was that Semrush paid $5 million for Brian's one-employee company.

Although it was a financial windfall for John, his exit left him feeling empty inside. John drifted and ended up having a difficult time processing his newfound life, which led him to consider if other founders struggled with life post-exit. He began interviewing other entrepreneurs who had sold and is now putting the finishing touches on a book called Beyond the Exit, which will come out later this year.

Autoweb's journey to success reached its zenith with an IPO that valued the company at an astonishing $1.2 billion, with shares peaking at $50. However, the narrative took a dramatic turn as investor demand for a new CEO led to a steep decline, plummeting the share price to a mere 18 cents.

Through the turbulence, Payam Zamani's story unfolds as one of unwavering spirit and the relentless pursuit of a vision despite formidable challenges.

Tune in to hear how Payam navigated the highs and the heartbreaking lows of Autoweb's saga as he offers a treasure trove of lessons for capitalists.

In this episode of Built to Sell Radio, you'll hear from Carl Allen, a former guest and HP executive who was responsible for acquiring companies for the tech giant. These days, Carl teaches individual investors how to buy their first business. You'll get inside the minds of the individual investors Carl coaches to understand how they structure acquisition offers, and you'll discover the telltale signs that an individual investor is either going to honor or ruin your company's legacy.

Adam's book, The Private Equity Playbook, is a bestseller, and on this episode of Built to Sell Radio's "Inside the Mind of an Acquirer" series, Adam teaches a masterclass on how private equity works.

This week's episode of Built to Sell Radio is a no-holds-barred chat (yep, expect some strong language) about making it big in the green rush.

Despite having just 15 employees, they attracted an acquisition offer that valued Pentavere at $15 million

· Grow your email list.

· Compete with industry giants.

· Replace yourself inside your business.

· Implement a three part strategy for hiring high-potential employees.

· Get your customers to fund your growth.

· Use silence to help you get the upper hand when negotiating the sale of your business.

· Provoke a bidding war for your business.

· Use a surprising negotiating tactic to get an acquirer to increase their offer.

· Rebut a low-ball offer.

· Handle negotiation points that are non-starters for you.

Lee, a U.S. Air Force fighter pilot, authored the international bestseller, The Art of Clear Thinking. This Wall Street Journal bestseller, #2 in U.S. business books, has been translated into multiple languages.

As a flight commander in Afghanistan, Lee led over eighty combat missions, piloting two different jets on the same day in support of ground troops. Selected to fly the F-35, a cutting-edge, costly weapons system, he later became Chief of Training Systems at the world's largest training base, innovating pilot training technology and methods.

Lee's book translates combat lessons into daily life. Today he provides a mental toolbox for founders, guiding clear thought amid the emotional challenges of selling a business.

Chris used his many years of experience in international crises and high-stakes negotiations to develop a unique approach to negotiation and this week, he talks about how his approach applies to selling a business.

Prior to starting his training firm, The Black Swan Group, Chris was the lead international kidnapping negotiator for the FBI.

Chris served as the lead Crisis Negotiator for the New York City division of the FBI. He was a member of the New York City Joint Terrorist Task Force for 14 years. He was the case agent on the TWA Flight 800 catastrophe. He also negotiated the surrender of the first hostage taker to give up in the infamous Chase Manhattan Bank robbery.

During Chris's 24-year tenure with the Bureau, he was trained in the art of negotiation by not only the FBI, but also Scotland Yard and Harvard Law School. He is also a recipient of the Attorney General's Award for Excellence in Law Enforcement and the FBI Agents Association Award for Distinguished and Exemplary Service.

Chris has taught business negotiation in MBA programs at the University of Southern California Marshall School of Business, and at Georgetown University McDonough School of Business. He also taught business negotiation at Harvard University and guest lectured at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, the IMD Business School in Lausanne, Switzerland, and the Goethe Business School in Frankfurt, Germany.

His only problem? Figuring out what to do next.

In this special edition of Built to Sell Radio, we explore how to re-define your purpose and find happiness and fulfillment after you exit your business

The business got off to a successful start, and within five years, Dusek had four locations, which were collectively generating $3 million in EBITDA. Rather than sit still, Dusek decided she wanted to grow much larger and raised $16 million of capital made up of a combination of equity and mezzanine debt at a rate of 13%, which Dusek personally guaranteed.

The stress of having her entire net worth tied to her business eventually caught up to Dusek, and she decided to sell a majority stake of her business to a private equity group (KSL Capital). Dusek rolled 25% of her equity and stayed on as CEO. By the time she stepped down from her leadership role, Under Canvass was worth more than $100 million.

Rohrssen thought he could sell Prodigy for around 4-6 times revenue, but after paying off his investors, there wouldn't be much left over for the founders. That's when he decided to make a risky pivot to his business model. The change meant a short-term drop in Prodigy's revenue, while also making it more attractive to strategic acquirers. Ultimately Rohrssen and his co-founder sold the smaller version of his company for a staggering $110 million, or around 65 times revenue.

Cavell essentially managed two exits from his D-BAT Academy franchises, first selling 66% of the business at a value of $1.5 million and then unloading his remaining equity at a $10 million valuation.

Under Ahmed's leadership, the channels amassed over 2 million subscribers and generated a 7-figure profit, largely because of effective SEO. As the business saw a surge in paid monthly website subscribers, it garnered the interest of California-based hip-hop label, Create Music Group, which extended a lucrative 8-figure offer that Ahmed couldn't turn down.

The platform rapidly resonated with e-commerce entrepreneurs, accumulating $5 million in annual recurring revenue by 2021. The company's success drew the interest of prospective buyers, eventually culminating in an irresistible offer from 3PL Central, a premier provider of warehouse management software.

By 2022, the business had expanded to $30 million in net revenue, attracting attention from potential buyers including Capital One which acquired Velocity Black for a reported $297 million.

His aim was to bring PGA Tour quality club fitting to everyday golfers. As TXG began to flourish, Fraser realized he needed to expand his team and impart his unique skills to them. By devising an innovative hiring process and employing a creative teaching method, he was able to grow TXG to a team of 14 employees, a YouTube fan base of 150,000 subscribers, and revenue exceeding $2 million.

TXG attracted the attention of Club Champion, the United States' largest club fitting company with more than 100 locations.

In 2021, their success caught the eye of Brainlabs, who acquired Molzi, paying 75% of the purchase price upfront and committing the remaining 25% to an earn-out agreement.

While the company got off to a slow start, the pandemic accelerated the adoption of online healthcare. By the end of 2021, Lemonaid had agreed to be acquired by the DNA testing outfit 23andMe, for $400 million of cash and stock.

Now, Reardon serves as the CEO of Alpine Software Group (ASG), a branch of Alpine Investors. ASG's main objective is to acquire companies that specialize in vertical Software as a Service (SaaS) solutions.

Their collective reputation and expertise in the industry enabled the digital agency to flourish, eventually becoming one of the largest in the UK, with a workforce of 130 employees at its height. In 2022, Climb Online achieved a significant milestone as it was acquired by xDNA, a global digital agency group, for a value that amounted to 9.5 times its EBITDA. This acquisition marked the first successful business exit for a participant in The Apprentice.

Post-sale, Woods now serves as the SVP of Strategic Growth Opportunity at Valtech, a role dedicated to identifying potential acquisitions for the business. In the latest installment of Built to Sell Radio's Inside the Mind of an Acquirer series, we sit down with Woods.

Smith successfully bootstrapped the company to around $12 million in annual recurring revenue by 2016, attracting significant attention from potential acquirers. Among the interested parties, Fidelity National Financial emerged as the ideal fit, acquiring 67% of SkySlope in a deal valuing the company at over $80 million.

To distinguish themselves from other resellers, Faulkner devised an innovative product that set them apart from other Atlassian resellers.

By 2022, Blended Perspectives had achieved approximately $30 million in revenue. Recognizing an impending industry consolidation, Faulkner made the strategic decision to sell to Contegix, a competing Atlassian distributor, for a multiple far better than what a typical reseller usually fetches.

After a short stint reporting to Diller, Abramson left IAC and started TeePublic, an innovative online marketplace that serves as a platform for artists and designers to showcase and sell their distinctive designs on a wide range of products, including t-shirts and hoodies.

With Abramson at the helm, TeePublic grew to $41 million in revenue and $4.5 million in EBITDA before he decided to sell to RedBubble in a $41 million deal, $36 million of which was in cash.

Morton onboarded industry giants such as Netflix, Michelin Tires, GE, Bosch, and others reaching over $1 million in annual recurring revenue. Thanks to a rigorous onboarding process and exceptional customer service, Morton lost only two clients in 24 years.

In 2022, JDM Technology Group acquired AerieHub in a lucrative 100% cash upfront deal.

Codner grew Fresh Heritage quickly with Facebook ads and online reviews, but relying solely on paid customer acquisition almost bankrupted the company. Codner introduced a subscription program and turned one-time customers into automatic repeat purchasers, dramatically increasing the lifetime value of a customer.

As a result, Fresh Heritage's revenue skyrocketed to over $4 million. In 2022, BRANDED, a leading global operator of digital-first consumer brands, acquired Fresh Heritage from Codner.

Lazar sold A+ Gutter & Window Cleaning to a private buyer in 2023 for approximately 3.5 times EBITDA, without an earn-out.

By 2021 Meetfox had acquired a user base of 25,000. As Klepsch observed competitors being acquired by large software companies, she recognized the need to partner with a major player to compete effectively with Calendly. Consequently, she initiated a merger and acquisition process, reaching out to over a hundred companies, including the venture-backed, all-in-one marketing software Sendinblue. Eventually, Sendinblue made her an offer she couldn't refuse.

Reich bootstrapped TULA to around $10 million in annual revenue when he realized he needed to replace himself as CEO.

The company thrived under professional management, and by 2022, TULA had achieved revenue of over $100 million and received an acquisition offer from Procter & Gamble.

Thanks to Swag.com's innovative approach and memorable domain name, the company generated $30 million in revenue by 2020. However, when Parker began to explore acquisition offers, potential buyers viewed Swag.com as just a distribution company, which is typically valued in low single digits of EBITDA.

Fortunately, Parker met the founder of Custom Ink, who recognized that Swag.com was more than just a traditional promotional products business - it was a technology company.

In this special edition of Built to Sell Radio, we will explore five reasons why larger businesses acquire smaller ones and provide tips on how to make your company more attractive to potential strategic acquirers.

By 2018, Quandl had grown to 75 employees. Kamel saw industry giants entering the space, but knowing the time and capital investment it would take to build a competitive offering, he believed they would prefer to acquire Quandl.

Kamel began shopping the business around, and shortly after, Nasdaq acquired Quandl for a life-changing sum.

To capitalize on the ruling, Scott merged Crossing Broad with Warwick Gaming into CBWG, which owned and operated several popular sports and gambling websites. The company instantly became the largest independently owned US sports betting affiliate marketing network, generating $5 million in annual revenue.

In 2020, Ten months after joining forces, XLMedia acquired CBWG for $12 million in cash, $8 million worth of XLMedia shares, and the potential for another $9.5 million tied to a three-year earn-out.

Lackey grew the business to over $10 million in revenue before accepting a lucrative buyout offer that included various desirable benefits for sports fans.

By March 2022, Premonition had grown to $3 million in Annual Contract Value (ACV) which is when it was acquired by Shippit for $20.5 million -- an implied valuation of just under 7 times ACV.

That's when Downey was approached by one of her clients with an offer to acquire her business. The client wanted to hire Downey and saw the acquisition of Share Your Genius as the best way to recruit her. After some deliberation, Downey accepted the offer and agreed to be "acquihired". This deal valued Share Your Genius in the mid-six figures and provided Downey with cash for her business, a secure salary, bonuses, and some equity in the acquiring company.

That's when a random encounter with Fred DeLuca, the founder of Subway, changed Holt's life forever. Deluca gave Holt the inspiration and a roadmap for franchising his business which Holt used to grow Two Maids & a Mop from 12 to 91 locations across the United States and $40 million in revenue.

In 2021, eager to pursue the next chapter in his life, Holt began exploring selling Two Maids & a Mop. A short time after, JM Family Enterprises acquired the business in a lucrative deal valued at well over ten times EBITDA.

By 2020 Sam Parr had grown the Hustle to $15 million in revenue, attracting the attention of tech giant HubSpot. A few months later, the tech conglomerate acquired the Hustle in a lucrative eight-figure deal.

In 2020, Morin acquired one of his partners' stake in Tabarnapp, valuing the company at $400,000. Two years later, Morin sold Tabarnapp for a much higher price, implying a tenfold increase in the company's value.

The assessments were a huge hit with job seekers, yet Thompson struggled to generate sales. Rather than fix his revenue model, Thompson looked for an acquirer who would value his enormous user base. Soon after, Sokanu received a lucrative acquisition offer from Penn Foster, an online educational institute.

His decision to niche down worked as revenue soared.

By 2020, Rosenbloom had thousands of customers and millions in sales, which was when Evercommerce made an offer to acquire Brighter Vision for $17.5 million.

To ignite sales, Lafleur and his co-founder pitched the company on the popular Canadian TV show Dragon's Den (similar to Shark Tank). The presentation was a hit as they received an investment of $100,000 from Dragon's, Michele Romanow and Joe Mimran for 10% of the business.

As a result of their new partners and the free marketing that came from the show, revenues soared.

By 2020 truLOCAL had reached sales of eight figures when Lafleur began receiving interest from acquirers. A few months later, the company was acquired by EMERGE in a deal valued at $16.8 million.

To enhance his credibility, in 2015 he decided to merge Zazzle Media with Stickyeyes, which, at the time, formed the largest content marketing agency in the U.K.

Penson's decision proved to be savvy.

The business snowballed as Zorgdrager onboarded most Fortune 500 giants in his space. However, Zorgdrager had a problem. The company was too dependent on him.

To ensure the business could succeed without him, Zorgdrager implemented a four-step system to replace himself as the rainmaker of his company.

The strategy worked. By 2020 Zorgdrager had grown the business to $12.1 million in revenue, which piqued the interest of some acquirers. A year later, Zorgdrager signed an acquisition offer from Pluralsight in a deal valued at $48.9 million.

In March 2021, Smithlin and Hanley signed an acquisition agreement from Libsyn for $30 million.

After only eight months, the brothers had grown the business to $8,000 in revenue when they received an unexpected email from Patrick Collison (co-founder and CEO of Stripe), who was looking to acquire the company.

Although tempted to keep building, Stripe's offer was too good to refuse. The brothers agreed to be acquired by Stripe in March 2017.

By 2018, Johnson had grown Create & Cultivate to eight employees when an acquirer offered her a staggering $40 million. Unfortunately, the deal was too good to be true. When the acquirer discovered her hands-on management style, they pulled out.

Learning from her mistakes, Johnson implemented a collection of strategies to ensure Create & Cultivate could thrive without her.

By the end of 2019, Johnson had grown to $14 million in revenue ($4 million EBITDA) when acquirers came knocking again. This time she was ready. Create & Cultivate was acquired by Corridor Capital in a deal valued at $22 million.

It was a blessing and a curse.

At one point, the blue-chip customer made up 83% of Medpoint's revenue. Determined to reduce his customer concentration, Crumpton implemented a clever strategy to minimize his dependency.

The strategy worked as Crumpton successfully reduced his reliance below 50%, allowing him to sell Medpoint in 2020 for around five times EBITDA.

A decade in, Nagele had grown the company to around 40 employees, which was when she began feeling burned out. The pull to explore new interests was the catalyst to accepting a life-changing acquisition offer from Active Campaign in 2022.

Marchell acquired three practices for around ten times EBITDA. He then implemented a streamlined operational strategy that resulted in the sale of OBDVP less than two years later for almost three times the purchase price.

Companies happily embraced Santora's approach. By 2021 he had grown Curricula to just over $2 million in annual recurring revenue when he accepted an acquisition offer from the cyber security giant Huntress for $22 million.

The company grew steadily until 2016, when Hammar hit a sales plateau. Challenged to combat a high churn rate, Hammar took several unique steps to humanize his business.

Becoming a more approachable brand worked. Sales increased by 30% year-over-year and by 2021, Sendible had 47 employees when they were approached by ASG with an acquisition offer Hammar couldn't refuse.

Since then, Winch has acquired over 20 businesses, with a focus on logistics and infrastructure companies. In the latest installment of Built to Sell Radio's Inside the Mind of an Acquirer series, you'll learn how to:

• Understand how an investor structures an acquisition.
• Build your management team to avoid an earn-out.
• Dodge the most common blunder made during due diligence.
• Avoid turning off an acquirer during the selling process.
• Prepare your company to be acquired.

Grassin built a remote team in the Philippines to minimize his costs. Hiring inexpensive developers allowed Grassin to charge lower rates to agency owners, resulting in rapid growth.

The business had grown to over seven figures in revenue in 2020 when Grassin received an acquisition offer from one of his clients, Native Touch. The offer valued Candy Banners at around five times EBITDA, and the deal closed in 2021.

Winnet started by trying to sell his courses to job seekers, but when his efforts failed, he pivoted to selling to companies. Instead of a few hundred dollars a year from job seekers, selling to companies meant he was getting a few thousand dollars a year.

The switch from B2C to B2B worked, and in less than three years, Winnet grew his company to around £2 million in annual recurring revenue, which was when he was approached by Litmos, a learning management software provider. Winnet sold Learning Heroes to Litmos for approximately four times revenue.

In 2020 Firing Squad signed an agreement to be acquired by Southern Web and was later rebranded to SiteCare.

The deal was something Bagley would later come to regret.

After bootstrapping the business to 8-figures, Campbell decided it was time to raise money. While seeking a financial investor, Paddle approached him with an acquisition offer. Soon after, in 2022, Campbell sold ProfitWell to Paddle for over $200 million.

The business showed steady growth, but Coon wasn't satisfied.

Five years in, Coon rebranded the company to Avail and focused his marketing to target DIY landlords with under ten rental units to manage. The changes proved successful as Coon grew the business to around $7 million in revenue before selling to Realtor.com in 2020 for approximately five times revenue.

Desperate to free herself up from the minutia of running her company, Cook started to systematize her business with Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs). After a few missteps, Cook mastered the art of delegation.

Kulp reasoned that if he could show other people were shopping and interacting with a site, it would give new visitors confidence in the company.

Fomo allows businesses to show off real-time customer interactions (purchases, opt-ins, even pageviews) with a line of code the company installs on their site.

Kulp led Fomo to around $1 million in Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) before deciding to step down as CEO in 2020. Two years later, an acquirer approached Kulp about acquiring Fomo. Initially, he wasn't interested, but after some soul-searching, Kulp decided to sell Fomo to Relay Commerce in a lucrative exit.

In this special episode of Built to Sell Radio, John Warrillow reveals the downside of trying to time the market and shares four alternative ways to know when to sell.

The business was a multimedia marketing platform that helped small businesses market their products and services by rewarding loyal customers. The company took off, hitting just over $2 million in revenue in its first year.

Inspired to achieve financial freedom, Fatt began to explore selling his company. In 2022, he accepted an offer from Schianti Partners that would set his family up for life.

Given his status in their ecosystem, Zoho approached Nagel about creating an SMS plug-in for their application to allow users to text their clients while using Zoho. Nagel developed the application while keeping his day job. Despite only dedicating one or two days a week to its growth, the feature quickly became one of the top five applications in the Zoho marketplace.

Two years later, Nagel received a LinkedIn message from the head of corporate development at MessageMedia with a lucrative exit offer he could not refuse.

In 2009, Parang sold his first company, Jaxtr, for pennies on the dollar. He took the lessons he learned and joined Webs.com, where he helped Haroon Mokhtazarda sell his company for over $115 million.

Parang left Webs.com and joined GoDaddy as a leader in their acquisitions group, where they acquired dozens of companies during his tenure.

In the latest installment of Inside the Mind of An Acquirer, Parang shares how companies like GoDaddy acquire companies.