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Built to Sell Radio

Built to Sell Radio is a weekly podcast for business owners. Each week, we ask a recently cashed out entrepreneur why they decided to sell, what they did right and what mistakes they made through the process of exiting their business. Built to Sell Radio is the ultimate insider's guide to approaching the most important financial transaction of your life.
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Now displaying: December, 2016
Dec 28, 2016

Rajiv Kumar and Brad Weinberg started ShapeUp, a software company designed around getting people to improve their health. Instead of going direct to consumers, they decided to license the platform to large Fortune 500 companies looking to reduce their insurance expenses by getting employees to improve their health. 

The partners sold 20% of the company for $300,000 in start-up capital and went on to raise five more rounds of capital at increasing valuations. They got the business up to $20 million in recurring revenue when they got a call from Richard Branson-backed Virgin Pulse. 

Kumar was able to gin up Virgin’s initial offer by 50% based on some savvy negotiation skills. In the episode, you’ll learn:

  • The definition of fixed cost leverage.
  • Why you should start with pitching your worst investor first.
  • What "escape velocity" means and how it impacts your company’s valuation.
  • How optionality gives you negotiating leverage.
  • When companies are bought vs. sold.
  • The difference between an evergreen fund and one with a liquidity horizon.
Dec 21, 2016

In 1992 Stephanie Breedlove started a payroll company to make it easier for parents to pay their nannies. It began small and she self-funded their growth, which averaged 20% per year.

By 2012 they had hit $9 million in annual sales when she got a call from Sheila Marcelo, the CEO of venture-backed Care.com. Marcelo wanted to buy Breedlove’s company and offered her almost $40 million—more than four times Breedlove’s revenue, an astronomical multiple that only serves to underscore Breedlove’s audacity when she turned it down.

Breedlove wanted more and ultimately settled on a price of $55 million for her $9 million business. In this episode, you’ll learn:

  • how to strategically walk away from an offer.
  • what to do when you reach a negotiation impasse.
  • three criteria every owner should consider when selling.
  • the pros and cons of accepting stock as compensation.
Dec 14, 2016

When you get an acquisition offer for your business, it is natural to focus on the offer price, but your employment contract can be a key element of your remuneration.

I know, you don’t want to be an employee but, when you sell, you’ll likely have to sign on for a transition period or earn-out where you will officially be an employee again. The terms of this employment contract are a key element of any deal.

Just ask Eric Sit.

Sit’s company was acquired by Detection Technologies in 2013. Six months later, Detection was acquired and Sit lived to regret the employment contract he had signed.

Dec 7, 2016

Barry Hinckley founded Bullhorn with his two partners Art Papas and Roger Colvin. The software company built an application recruiters used to manage candidates and clients. Bullhorn raised three rounds of financing and went on to sell for $135MM in 2012. Hinckley and his team raised money from family, friends, and venture capitalists and have the scars to prove it. In this interview you’ll learn:

  • what to do when a venture capitalist wants to fire the founders.
  • the difference between raising money in good and bad markets.
  • the tricks venture capitalists use to try and dilute your equity.
  • the tactic some venture capitalists use to wipe out the equity of investors of a family and friends round.
  • what re-trading is and how to stop it.
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