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May 25, 2016 |
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Katherine Hague co-founder of ShopLocket was a prodigious fundraiser in the two years from idea to exit. Hague describes some of the landmines to avoid when raising outside capital and why she still has one regret about the sale to PCH.
Hague’s story had a happy ending, but it still serves as a cautionary tale. When I asked Hague what she would do differently next time, she said she would try to self-fund more of her growth. You can minimize your equity dilution as you grow if you have a positive cash flow cycle, something we’ll create together during an exercise called The Valuation Teeter Totter in Module 10 of The Value Builder System™. Complete Module 1 now by getting your Value Builder Score.
Katherine Hague is a serial entrepreneur, investor, and the founder of Female Funders, an online destination dedicated to inspiring and educating the next generation of female angel investors. She is the author of O’Reilly’s upcoming book, Funded: The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Raising Your First Round. Prior to leading Female Funders, Hague founded ShopLocket – acquired in 2014 by PCH. Hague was recently named one of the Women to Watch in Wearables and has been named one of Canada’s Top 100 Most Powerful Women. She has been quoted in the New York Times on fashion tech and was recently interviewed for the Oprah Winfrey Network. Find Hague online at katherinehague.com or @KatherineHague.
The Inside Story Of Elsevier’s $50.6 Million Acquisition Of 3D4Medical.com
Back in 2004, John Moore started 3D4Medical.com, a company that created three-dimensional models of the human body, photographed them and licensed the images to textbook publishers. When the Great Recession hit, Moore’s business took a turn, and he realized he needed to re-invent the company.
How to Get Your Employees to Care as Much as You
In 2009 Natalie Nagele and her husband, Chris, launched Postmark to help businesses deliver emails to their customers quickly.
A decade in, Nagele had grown the company to around 40 employees, which was when she began feeling burned out. The pull to explore new interests was the catalyst to accepting a life-changing acquisition offer from Active Campaign in 2022.
10 X Earnings By Future Proofing Your Buyer
David Trewern grew DT to $10 million in annual revenue before he sold it to STW Group for almost 10 times profit after tax, getting maximum value for his business because he started to look at the world through the eyes of his would-be acquirer.
How to Turn Beta Users into Customers Plus 3 Other Stories
This week, we’re featuring four recent guests and highlighting transferrable lessons they shared about exiting their company.
The Inside Story of Stripe’s Acquisition of Indie Hackers with Co-Founder Channing Allen
In 2016 Channing Allen and his brother Courtland founded Indie Hackers, a blog and forum that encourages founders to transparently share their ideas and stories.
After only eight months, the brothers had grown the business to $8,000 in revenue when they received an unexpected email from Patrick Collison (co-founder and CEO of Stripe), who was looking to acquire the company.
Although tempted to keep building, Stripe’s offer was too good to refuse. The brothers agreed to be acquired by Stripe in March 2017.
How Re-Modelling A Swimming Pool Business Led To A 7-Figure Exit
When Tommy Berretz had his successful swimming pool company valued, he had just one (big) problem: he didn’t like what he found out.
Yvonne Tocquigny built her advertising agency up over 35 years working with clients like Jeep and Dell. Then in 2015, she got a call asking if she would consider selling. The problem was that her agency had become part of who she was.
Special Edition - Built to Sell Intel
Over the last month, we’ve interviewed four fascinating guests on Built to Sell Radio.
John Warrillow shares the transferable lessons with you on Built to Sell Intel, a monthly live webinar hosted for our listeners.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz hosts this Q&A and asks for John’s take on four successful exits.
In 2013 South African entrepreneur Jason Bagley started Firing Squad, a lead generation company specializing in cold emails.
In 2020 Firing Squad signed an agreement to be acquired by Southern Web and was later rebranded to SiteCare.
The deal was something Bagley would later come to regret.
The ‘Sell Your Business Before It Starts’ Mindset
When is the best time to start thinking about an acquirer? For one company, they had it on their agenda since day one.
10 Things Most Celebrity Entrepreneurs Won't Tell You About Building a Business
Jim Estill is one of the most successful entrepreneurs you’ve probably never heard of.
In 1975, Estill started EMJ Data, a technology distribution company, from the trunk of his car and grew it to $350 million in sales before taking it public.
