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.

Melissa Kwan and her co-founder built Spacio, a company that helped real estate agents win and manage leads that come from hosting open houses.

Kwan built the company to roughly 100,000 agents using Spacio when a chance encounter at an industry conference led to an acquisition offer from HomeSpotter.

Melissa Kwan and her co-founder built Spacio, a company that helped real estate agents win and manage leads that come from hosting open houses.

Kwan built the company to roughly 100,000 agents using Spacio when a chance encounter at an industry conference led to an acquisition offer from HomeSpotter.

In 2013, Kate Field started The Kombucha Shop offering home-brew kits that people can use to make kombucha.

By 2018, the kombucha craze was in full swing and Field was invited to pitch her business on Shark Tank. Field asked for $350,000 in return for 10% of her company which was generating around $1.2 million per year selling kombucha kits. Field got an offer for $200,000 in cash and another $150,000 line of credit in return for 10% of her company from Barbara Corcoran and Sara Blakely, the Spanx founder who was a guest Shark that day.

Despite her success on television, a series of surprising events led Field to walk away from the Shark’s offer and sell The Kombucha Shop the following year. This episode is a raw account of the highs and lows of the entrepreneurial journey.

David Darmanin co-founded Hotjar, a software company that helps website developers and owners understand how their users interact with the sites they build.
Darmanin and his partners bootstrapped Hotjar to around $40 million in Annual Recurring Revenue before selling it in 2021.

David Perry co-founded Gaikai, a video game company that enables popular games like World of Warcraft and Call of Duty to be played on just about any device.

Perry raised $50 million through three rounds of funding and sold Gaikai for $380 million to Sony.

Anthony Fracchia built Altruis Benefit Consulting to $2.5 million in revenue when he started to get unsolicited calls from potential buyers. He initiated conversations with an acquirer only to learn they planned to gut his staff and kill his brand.

Rafael Zimberoff built ShipRush, an application that helps businesses streamline their technology, to 12 full-time employees when he sold it to Descartes for $14 million, plus a $3 million earn-out.