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February 10, 2016 |
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Ian Schoen built Two Tree International up to $4 million in revenue before he sold it in a multimillion dollar exit in 2015. Schoen was able to attract a number of buyers because he had created an operating manual employees could follow.
The Inside Story of Petco’s Acquisition of Shark Tank-Featured PupBox
Like many young couples, Ben & Ariel Zvaifler got a puppy and found themselves trying to figure out how to train it. They wondered what toys were safe and what kind of food to give to their brand-new puppy.
The couple figured they weren’t alone and decided to launch PupBox, a subscription box for new puppy owners that offered owners training guides, treats, and toys for puppies appropriate for their age and stage of development.
Looking Smaller to Make Your Company Bigger
In 2008, Gavin Hammar started Sendible, a platform that allows companies to manage all their social media accounts from one place.
The company grew steadily until 2016, when Hammar hit a sales plateau. Challenged to combat a high churn rate, Hammar took several unique steps to humanize his business.
Becoming a more approachable brand worked. Sales increased by 30% year-over-year and by 2021, Sendible had 47 employees when they were approached by ASG with an acquisition offer Hammar couldn’t refuse.
How To Handle A Low-Ball Offer
You’re excited to get an offer for your company, but it’s not what you had hoped for. You’re tempted to react with righteous indignation – but is that really the best way to maximize an acquisition offer?
The True Value Of Sticky Customers
CJ Whelan and his co-founder evolved a typically “free service” into something that customers were more than willing to pay for – and remain loyal.
Jeremy Nagel started his entrepreneurial career teaching clients how to get the most out of Zoho, a popular CRM platform. Nagel began cultivating a small following on YouTube by sharing his advice for Zoho enthusiasts.
Given his status in their ecosystem, Zoho approached Nagel about creating an SMS plug-in for their application to allow users to text their clients while using Zoho. Nagel developed the application while keeping his day job. Despite only dedicating one or two days a week to its growth, the feature quickly became one of the top five applications in the Zoho marketplace.
How This Service Business Sold for Around 4-Times Revenue
In 2006 Kelby Zorgdrager started DevelopIntelligence, an outsourced training provider that helps programmers develop new skills and adapt to ever-changing technologies.
The business snowballed as Zorgdrager onboarded most Fortune 500 giants in his space. However, Zorgdrager had a problem. The company was too dependent on him.
To ensure the business could succeed without him, Zorgdrager implemented a four-step system to replace himself as the rainmaker of his company.
The Inside Story Behind Sage’s 8 Figure Acquisition of a 12 Employee Company
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.
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.
One Bold Move That Can Make Your Company More Valuable
Henry Hyder-Smith and Steve Denner started UK-based Adestra in 2004. Adestra is a digital marketing software that helps big companies handle email campaigns, among other things.
The company grew nicely. By 2016, it had around $9 million in revenue and a client list that featured some of the U.K.’s best companies. Hyder-Smith and Denner decided it was time to go beyond their borders and enter the U.S. and Asian markets. To fund the effort, they raised $7.2 million from the Business Growth Fund (BGF), one of the U.K.’s largest private equity groups. BGF’s investment valued Adestra at around $35 million — a little shy of four times revenue.
In 2017, John Whiting started Digital Kryptonite with the goal of providing 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 saw massive growth month-over-month when suddenly Whiting received a message from his credit card processor that his account was being shut down.
Although 98% of Whiting’s customers were happy, 2% were not, which led to a greater dispute rate than Stripe allowed. This ultimately led to Whiting being placed on the Match List, which inhibited his ability to process payments. Suddenly, the seven-figure business Whiting had built was in jeopardy.
With little faith left, John received an email from a friend asking to buy his company. In his own words, it was a “lifeboat,” and Whiting jumped on with both feet.
The Founder of the “Female Viagra” Sells Her Business for $1 Billion
Cindy Whitehead started Sprout Pharmaceuticals and created the drug ADDYI, which has become known as the “female Viagra”.
