The Philosophy of Building to Sell

Dan Faggella started Science of Skill, an e-commerce website selling self-defense videos and paraphernalia, in 2013. His goal was to sell the business as soon as possible, and he started soliciting offers just 14 months later.

The initial offers were low, but by 2017, he received his first seven-figure offer, which he decided to accept in order to fund a new venture. Faggella took a mercenary approach to company building. He knew before he even started his business that he wanted to sell it and he describes his philosophy of building to sell during my interview with him. You’ll learn:

• Three surprising places your name should never appear if you want to sell your business.
• The one thing you should rarely do if your goal is to improve your company’s value.
• The one thing you need to remove from your job description as an entrepreneur.
• How to incentivize your remote employees.
• How to get 90% of your sale price up front.
• How to find a business broker (and what to look for).
• How the S.B.A. could influence the sale of your business.

Faggella is unapologetic about building to sell because he had a higher purpose for the money. Have you ever thought about what you would do if you cashed out? We’ll help you design a plan for your life after the sale in Module 12 of The Value Builder System™—get started right now by completing the Value Builder questionnaire.

Check out our article on Want To Jack Up Your Company’s Value? Think Like Warren Buffett.

Check out our full M&A Glossary

About Our Guest

Dan Faggella is the CEO and founder of TechEmergence, the only market-research and company-discovery platform focused exclusively on artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning. Faggella sold his first business for six figures and his second business for seven figures. Both served as economic fuel for TechEmergence. Faggella believes that the most important ethical concerns of the coming 30 years will be the creation and expansion of sentience and intelligence in technology. As a result, he spends his time focusing exclusively on this issue.