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July 22, 2015 |
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Listen now to hear the lessons Bo Burlingham has learned after interviewing hundreds of entrepreneurs regarding their business exit.
In this episode of Built to Sell Radio, you’ll hear the lessons Bo Burlingham has learned from interviewing hundreds of entrepreneurs about their experience exiting their business. Some good, some bad. You probably know Bo because he is the editor-at-large of Inc. Magazine. If you are an entrepreneur, you’ve no doubt seen his most famous book, Small Giants: Companies That Choose To Be Great Instead of Big, which to me, is one of the best books ever written on entrepreneurship. His latest book Finish Big is about how to exit your business on top. Bo is a friend and an amazing writer and interviewer.
Bo Burlingham is the author of Small Giants: Companies That Choose To Be Great Instead of Big (Portfolio, 2006) and an editor-at-large of Inc. magazine. Bo joined Inc. in January 1983 as a senior editor and became executive editor six months later, a position he held for the next seven years or so. In 1990, he resigned and became editor-at-large for a number of reasons, including his desire to go back to writing. He subsequently wrote two books with Jack Stack, the co-founder and CEO of Springfield Remanufacturing Corp. and the pioneer of open-book management. One of the books, The Great Game of Business (Doubleday/Currency, 1992), has sold more than 300,000 copies. The other, A Stake in the Outcome (Doubleday/Currency, 2002). Before joining Inc., Bo freelanced for various publications, including Esquire, Harper’s, Boston Magazine, and Mother Jones.
How One Key Hire Helped Dimple Up Their Value By 500% in 2.5 Years
Teetering on the brink of liquidation, a key hire at Dimple led to a dramatic turnaround that resulted in a $13.4M exit.
From 10 Employees to 10X Revenue
Alex Bates’s company used Artificial Intelligence (AI) to predict the future, but even he couldn’t have anticipated a 10X payday when he sold his company
How to Make Your Email List Worth 7-Figures
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.
Hacking Your Way to a $22 Million Exit
In 2015 Nick Santora founded Curricula, a cyber security awareness training program that helps companies defend themselves against hackers. Santora created fun, cartoon training videos in contrast to the dull content that existed at the time.
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.
Selling Your Business vs. Getting Acquired
In 2012, Ryan Coon started Rentalutions, a platform to help landlords manage and communicate with their tenants more effectively.
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.
Inside the Mind of an Acquirer
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 Mountain Gate Capital in 2020.
How To Package Your Expertise Into A Subscription
Marc-Andre Seguin launched JazzGuitarLessons.net in 2009 to share his knowledge as a guitar teacher.
How Matchmaking By Microsoft Led To One Of 2018’s Biggest Technology Deals
Mergers can be painful. But when Mitchell Feldman was approached by Microsoft about merging with another company, the result was a match not even HPE could resist.
3 Ways to Untangle Yourself from Your Business
Debbie King was running on a treadmill so familiar to service company owners. Her company, Association Analytics, helped associations make sense of their member data, and she was wasting time on proposals that often did not get accepted. Then, when King did win a project, she was creating a custom solution for every job that required her to hire senior-level staff and personally get involved in client work. The model put a cap on her business, and when she reached 20 employees, she decided it was time to get out.
How iD Tech Went From the Verge of Extinction to a $200 Million Acquisition in 12 Months
Back in 1998, siblings Pete and Alexa Ingram-Cauchi started iD Tech to offer summer camps for kids who wanted to learn about computers.
The business grew each year and by 2019, was generating $70 million in annual sales hosting camps from Stanford to MIT and beyond.
How This Service Business Got Almost 20 X EBITDA
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.
Getting Acquired Doesn't Have to Be a Blood Sport
Our show is all about maximizing your take from the sale of your business. We’re about helping the seller outmaneuver the buyer to maximize the seller’s take from an exit. We think it’s a noble cause, but every once in a while, a guest reminds us that selling a business doesn’t have to be so confrontational.
