In 2015, Lorenzo de Plano co-founded Solace Technologies, one of the first vape manufacturers in the United States. The goal of the business was to create a discreet vape pen that customers could use as an alternative to smoking cigarettes.

The business boomed to revenue of more than one million dollars a month, but a looming threat had de Plano eyeing an exit. So, when a $15 million offer came in, he bit.

In 2007, Laura Roeder started selling online courses on how to market through social media. Her courses gained popularity, resulting in Roeder growing an email list of around 70,000 people. Inspired to further serve her customers, she decided to create social media scheduling software.

It was one of the first social media planning tools that allowed you to schedule your social media content. Piggy backing off the list she had built from her online course business, the company hit $1 million in recurring revenue in only 11 months.

In 2009, Raman Sehgal started a small marketing company called ramarketing. In 2015, frustrated with the company’s progress, Sehgal decided to analyze his business.

That’s when he discovered something interesting.

Ramarketing’s most valuable customers (low-maintenance, sticky, high gross margin etc.) were in the pharmaceutical industry. Sehgal immediately pivoted the company to solely serve clients in the pharmaceutical supply chain. 

Focusing on big pharma worked. Ramarketing grew from $500,000 in revenue in 2015 to around $10 million by 2022, which is when Sehgal accepted an acquisition offer from NorthEdge Capital of more than 10X EBITDA.

In 2001, Haroon Mokhtarzada and his brothers started Webs.com, which allowed anyone to build a professional website. Eager to grow the company, they decided to raise money from a venture capital firm – a decision Mokhtarzada would later regret.

They ultimately grew Webs.com to over 50 million users and sold it in 2011 to Vistaprint for over 10 x revenue, totaling $117.5 million.

Hungry to start another company and learn from their mistakes in raising money for Webs.com, Haroon and his brothers began Truebill in 2015. The business was created to help people save money by managing their subscriptions from one platform.

Truebill snowballed, reaching $100 million in Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) in just seven years. In 2022, Truebill was acquired by Rocket Companies  – again, for over 10 x revenue, totaling $1.275 billion.

In 1988, Tony Falkenstein started Just Life Group, one of the first water-cooler companies in New Zealand.

In 2016, Falkenstein identified the need to diversify into new service offerings and opted to start acquiring companies. Since then, Falkenstein has acquired six businesses, aligning with their overall focus of enhancing lives through healthy living and healthy homes.

Just Life Group is a publicly-traded company with a current market cap of $46.799M as of June 9, 2022.

In 2015 Josh Davis and a friend, Darryl Ee, decided to start Speedee Transport, a trucking company specializing in shipping products that need to be refrigerated. 

Within three years of starting the business, they had grown from two to over forty-five employees, and an acquirer approached them. This kicked off an emotionally draining—and financially rewarding—journey to sell Speedee. In this episode, you’ll discover how to:

In 2017, John Whiting started Digital Kryptonite with the goal to provide business owners with more leads. Helping his clients mine LinkedIn, Whiting quickly grew his company from zero to seven figures within a year. The company was seeing massive growth month-over-month when suddenly Whiting received a message from his credit card processor that his account was being shut down. 

In 2019, Jonathan Shroyer, alongside his Co-Founder Scott McCabe, started Officium Labs with the goal to help clients turn contact centers into profit centers.

After two years of seeing incredible growth, Jonathan was approached by three investors to acquire Officium Labs. Shroyer ultimately ended up selling to Arise for around 20X EBITDA.

What every owner should take away from Elon Musk's decision to press pause.

Enjoy this special edition of Built To Sell Radio. 

Eddie Whittingham started a company called The Defense Works in 2016. His idea was to provide companies with information on how to avoid getting hacked. Whittingham created a series of animated video clips explaining cyber security best practices and offered his content on a subscription model to companies.

By 2020, Whittingham had bootstrapped his business to 8 full-time employees when he attracted an offer of 7 times revenue from Proofpoint, one of the largest players in the cyber security industry. Whittingham got Proofpoint up to 10 times revenue and agreed to the deal.

In 2016, James Ashford took what little was left after his business failed and invested £4,000 in developing proposal software for accountants which he named GoProposal. By 2020, GoProposal was a slick application with £1.5 million in revenue and hundreds of accountants using it. That’s when Ashford agreed to be acquired for a healthy 8-figure sum.

James Ashford had a burning drive to become an entrepreneur and start a successful business. After a failed attempt to grow a marketing agency, Ashford knew that to build the business he had always dreamed of, he needed to make some drastic changes.  

 In 2016, Ashford took what little was left after his business failed and invested £ 4,000 in developing proposal software for accountants which he named GoProposal. By 2020, GoProposal was a slick application with £1.5 million in revenue and hundreds of accountants using it. That’s when Ashford agreed to be acquired for a healthy 8-figure sum.

Paul Nielsen built HomeTech, a company focused on creating healthier homes by installing skylights for natural lighting and advanced systems for better air quality. The business was generating around $1.4 million in EBITDA when an industry competitor approached Nielsen about acquiring HomeTech.

This week, we’re featuring four recent guests and highlighting transferrable lessons they shared about exiting their company.

After graduating from business school, James Benham interned at one of the large accounting firms. Benham quickly realized corporate life was not for him. Instead, Benham started a business and lived on less money than he made as an intern for ten years.

In 2019, Ben Tossell was a frustrated entrepreneur, launching products nobody bought. His contacts showed little interest in his concepts but were curious about how he built his online offerings – especially because Tossell admitted he didn’t know how to code.

Anna Maste built Boondockers Welcome, a kind of Airbnb for RVers, to $100,000 in Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) when she received an offer of 3.9 times ARR. Maste was about to accept the offer when some soul searching led Maste to believe she could do much better. That kicked off a two-year journey of building the value of her business.

Imagine turning your expertise into an 8-figure exit. That’s exactly what Sue Bryce did. Bryce built a $1 million photography studio in an industry where owners are often limited to low six-figure businesses that are dependent on them.

Imagine turning your expertise into an 8-figure exit. That’s exactly what Sue Bryce did. Bryce built a $1 million photography studio in an industry where owners are often limited to low six-figure businesses that are dependent on them.

This week, we're back with the latest Intel edition of Built to Sell Radio.

We feature four recent guests and dissect what made their companies built to sell.

Calvin Johnson built Lykki, an office supply company, to more than $7 million in annual revenue.

Johnson had two divisions, one had office kitchen supplies (e.g., coffee), and the other sold office supplies. The kitchen supplies business was more attractive to acquirers than the office supplies side, so Johnson decided to separate the divisions and sell them separately.

Calvin Johnson built Lykki, an office supply company, to more than $7 million in annual revenue.

Johnson had two divisions, one had office kitchen supplies (e.g., coffee), and the other sold office supplies. The kitchen supplies business was more attractive to acquirers than the office supplies side, so Johnson decided to separate the divisions and sell them separately.

Robert Glazer started an affiliate marketing agency called Acceleration Partners in 2007. Glazer never took outside capital and grew Acceleration to almost $28 million in sales before he sold a majority interest to Mountaingate Capital in 2020.

Robert Glazer started an affiliate marketing agency called Acceleration Partners in 2007. Glazer never took outside capital and grew Acceleration to almost $28 million in sales before he sold a majority interest to Mountaingate Capital in 2020.

Sandy Hansen-Wolff was a newlywed when her husband of only a few months, Randy Hansen, was diagnosed with leukemia. The doctors told Randy that one in four patients in his position succumbed to the disease. The couple scrambled to deal with the diagnosis and what would happen to Randy's feed business, which was generating revenue of around $1 million, if he were to pass.

Randy died a few months later, leaving Sandy with little more than a handwritten list of his assets, including a heavily leveraged business.