The Atheist Bible Salesman Who Sold His Company for 5X Revenue
Trevor McKendrick had created the best-selling Spanish-language Bible app when he was approached about an acquisition. The offer was 3.5x revenue but Trevor got them to 5x with a combination of chutzpah and a knack for reading the fine print.
A Brand That’s Built to Sell
Julie Cole and her partners built Mabel’s Labels into a $10 million business before acquisition in early 2016. Cole and her partners were able to add hundreds of thousands of dollars to their sell price using this negotiation technique.
Part of what made Mabel’s Labels attractive to Avery was the brand Cole and her partners had created. To see how your brand will impact the value of your business, get your Value Builder Score and turn to the section in the report titled “Monopoly Control”.
How Much Are Your Employees Worth To An Acquirer?
Impact LABS had no hard assets and little intellectual property, so why would ContextLabs want to acquire them for millions?
The Acquisition of the Company Behind Chicago Bulls Sunglasses
If you own Chicago Bulls sunglasses—or sunglasses from just about any other NBA team—you owe your eyewear to Jason Bolt.
To Sell or Not to Sell?
Would you rather have one million dollars in the bank today or a chance to have ten million a decade from now? It’s a philosophical question that comes down to the time value of money and your tolerance for risk.
Bootstrapping a 2-Sided Market to a 7-Figure Exit
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.
The Strategic
A strategic acquisition is a different animal. The strategic acquirer will place a value based on how much more of their product they can sell, which is exactly what Business Objects did when they bought Next Action Technologies, for 8X revenue.
The $26 Million Dollar Man
Josh Delaney started FAB CBD, a CBD e-tailer, in 2017. Delaney’s Mom was his first customer, but his sales quickly went beyond family members. By 2020, through a combination of savvy marketing and good fortune, FAB CBD had risen to more than $10 million in annual sales. In early 2021, Delaney caught the attention of High Tide, a Calgary-based cannabis company that offered him $13 million in cash plus $8 million High Tide shares in return for 80% of FAB CBD (an implied valuation of $25.8 million).
The Outsider
Derek Sivers sold CD Baby for $22 million dollars and decided to do something interesting with the money.
4 Big Takeaways on Building the Value of Your Company
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.
How Amazon Became a Blessing and a Curse for Beast Gear
Ben Leonard is a fitness enthusiast who found himself in bed with a heart problem in his early 20’s (he’s fit and healthy now). His doctors told him to rest. Said not to go to the gym, he cleared out his bag and noticed some of the accessories he used had worn out prematurely.
The experience sparked an idea. Leonard decided to launch a brand of fitness accessories made to last longer and cost less than the alternatives. He named his fledging company Beast Gear. He borrowed around £1,000 from his father and ordered 250 skipping ropes with the Beast Gear logo emblazoned on them.
The One Question You Never Answer
In this episode of Built to Sell Radio you’re going to hear from Erik Huberman, who started Swag-of-the-month, a T-shirt business he quickly scaled from start-up to sale in 18 months.
Huberman considers the exit a success, but during negotiations there was one question the acquirer asked that Huberman wishes he had never answered.