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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: Category: business
Dec 6, 2024

In this week’s episode of Built to Sell Radio, John Warrillow interviews Kaelon Egan, the founder of AccelaSchool, who successfully sold his company to PowerSchool—a giant in the K-12 education technology space. 

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. 

Nov 29, 2024

James Ashford built GoProposal with a clear goal: to sell. From designing the logo with potential acquirers in mind to rallying his team around the vision, James executed his plan with precision. The result? An eight-figure sale to Sage, a FTSE 100 company. But what happened after the deal? 

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. 

Nov 22, 2024

If you’re a business owner, chances are buyers are considering your industry for a roll-up. From veterinary clinics to auto body shops, pharmacies to advertising agencies—you name the industry, there’s probably a private equity firm looking to roll it up. 

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. 

Nov 15, 2024

What does it take to turn nightlife into big business? Med school dropout Shane Neman cracked the code on the nightclub industry, transforming its back office into a finely tuned, revenue-generating machine. From pioneering one of the first SMS platforms for small businesses to setting up his companies for top-dollar exits, Shane shares the technical strategies that turned his ideas into high-value assets. 

Nov 8, 2024

Few founders exemplify resilience like Mike Fata, co-founder of Manitoba Harvest. Growing up in a single-parent, low-income household, Fata dropped out of school in grade 10, struggled with health issues, and found himself weighing 300 pounds by age 18. A life-changing commitment to health led him to discover hemp as a nutritional powerhouse, sparking his path to founding Manitoba Harvest and building it into one of North America’s leading hemp food companies. 

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.

Nov 1, 2024

When Carrie Kelsch was encouraged to start a garage door business back in 2004, she had no experience in the industry.  

 

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. 

Oct 25, 2024

Pete Neubig started his entrepreneurial journey buying $35,000 houses with small down payments. After amassing 60 homes, he realized there was more money in managing properties for others.  

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.

Oct 18, 2024

In this episode of Built to Sell Radio, Jim Lindstrom discusses how he acquired BuzzWord, a company specializing in ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) reporting. Lindstrom explains how he built a killer culture by transforming contractors into full-time employees and incentivizing them with a two-part profit-sharing scheme focused on cash flow and EBITDA, setting the business up for future sale.

Oct 11, 2024

Luke Peters started off by reselling everyday appliances like bar fridges online. Eventually he built a brand and shifted to selling his products on big e-commerce retailers. Peters grew NewAir to $80 million in revenue before selling it for a lifechanging windfall in 2022. 

Oct 4, 2024

Matt Ebert’s path to founding Crash Champions didn’t start with a grand plan—it began with a car wreck. At 16, he found himself needing to fix his own car, sparking an unexpected passion that led to building one of the largest collision repair companies in the United States. 

Sep 27, 2024

Aaron Levenstadt built Pedestal Search into a business worth selling by mastering one thing: SEO. While clients tempted him to offer other services, Aaron knew the real value lay in doing one thing better than anyone else. In this episode of Built to Sell Radio, Aaron shares how focusing on one service helped him stand out in a crowded market and achieve a successful exit.

Sep 20, 2024

Jessica DeLuca co-founded Cult Beauty in 2008, creating one of the UK’s leading online beauty retailers. In this episode of Built to Sell Radio, Jessica reveals the path that led her to selling the business for £275 million to The Hut Group (THG)

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. 

Sep 13, 2024

Alex Bean sold his company, Divvy, for $2.5 billion. But after reaching this monumental milestone, why didn’t the sale bring him the happiness he expected? In this episode, Alex shares his journey and the lessons he learned about life after a business exit. 

Sep 6, 2024

On this week’s Built to Sell Radio, John Warrillow talks to Tim Schumacher, co-founder of SaaS Group, about the mindset of an acquirer. 

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

Aug 30, 2024

n this episode of Built to Sell Radio, Jim Sebenius, the founder of the Negotiation Unit at Harvard Business School, shares his advanced negotiation strategies for selling a privately held 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. 

Aug 23, 2024

Matt Matros built Protein Bar from a single smoothie shop into a fast-growing chain. In 2012, private equity firm L Catterton came knocking with a deal valuing his company at $44 million. Matt decided to roll 40% of his equity, expecting it to grow even more.

Aug 16, 2024

This week on Built to Sell Radio, William Brown shares his remarkable journey from selling a $50 Word document offering trading advice to building a multi-million dollar online education business that attracted serious interest from acquirers. Based in Dubai, William's story is a testament to how a simple, bootstrapped start can evolve into a highly valuable and sellable business. 

Aug 9, 2024

Corporate buyers are notoriously secretive and rarely reveal their inner workings. This is why our latest episode of Built to Sell Radio is so valuable: It provides a rare look into the secretive world of corporate M&A. 

 

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.

Aug 2, 2024

Most people hear about spectacular acquisitions made by strategic acquirers or giant private equity groups. But the reality is, you’re likely to sell your company to a small business in your sector that nobody outside your industry has ever heard of. 

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.  

Jul 26, 2024

Jeff Archibald founded Paper Leaf, a company specializing in developing websites, mobile apps and custom software. By offering a narrow scope of services to a variety of verticals, Paper Leaf built a reputation for handling challenging projects that generalist agencies couldn't. Jeff's commitment to simplicity and effective forecasting played a significant role in Paper Leaf's success. He used fixed payment contracts to ensure steady cash flow and offered a limited number of technologies, allowing his team to become experts. These practices stabilized the business and made it attractive for acquisition. 

Jul 19, 2024

Nicole Osmer is the founder and president of Health+Commerce, a public relations and marketing agency for companies in medtech, biotech, and digital health. Nicole grew Health+Commerce from $1M to $10M in annual revenue over seven years.  

 

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.

Jul 12, 2024

In this week’s episode of Built to Sell Radio, John Warrillow interviews Michael Lynch, the creator of TinyPilot, a hardware device that allows users to remotely control their computers without installing any software.  

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

Jul 5, 2024

In this week’s episode of Built to Sell Radio, John Warrillow interviews Kiri Masters, founder of Bobsled Marketing. Kiri’s marketing agency specialized in helping companies merchandise their products on sites like Amazon.com and Walmart.com. 

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

Jun 28, 2024

In this week’s Built to Sell Radio episode, John Warrillow interviews David Sinkinson, co-founder of AppArmor. David and his brother Chris created a mobile app that allows students to alert campus security by pressing a single button on their phones. Their journey from developing AppArmor to selling their company for $40 million is packed with insight. 

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. 

Jun 21, 2024

Have you considered the psychological toll of building your business?  

 

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.  

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