There’s an old idea in M&A called the Rembrandt in the attic. A company owns something valuable, a brand, a patent, a customer list, a data set, and nobody inside the business sees it for what it is. The right acquirer walks in, looks at the same asset through a different lens, and recognizes a masterpiece.
Dori Yona spent six years and raised $14 million building what he thought was a price protection company for consumers. Earny tracked everything its users bought online and automatically clawed back refunds whenever the price dropped within the retailer’s protection window.
The model never quite worked. After two rounds of layoffs, a shutdown plan presented to the board, and a move out of the Santa Monica office, Dori pivoted to selling the one thing the company had in abundance: SKU-level purchase data on 3.5 million users.
That pivot found the acquirer. To a consumer packaged goods (CPG) giant trying to understand what shoppers were actually putting in their carts during COVID, the data was the prize. The consumer app was almost incidental.
In this week’s episode of Built to Sell Radio, you discover how to:
-
Look at your company through the eyes of a strategic acquirer instead of a customer.
-
Identify the asset inside your business that’s worth more to someone else than it is to you.
-
Recognize when a pivot product is actually a signal flare to future buyers.
-
Read the pref stack math that determines whether founders see a dollar when notes and safes are in the mix.
-
Tell the difference between a car-changing, house-changing, and life-changing exit before you sign.
-
Turn two competing offers from your own customers into real negotiating leverage.
Watch the full interview below.
Quote of the Week
There’s three types of events. There’s car changing, there’s house changing, and there’s life changing. It was a car changing event.
Deals
Onfolio Holdings Inc., a holding company that acquires and operates cash-generative online businesses across sectors, including digital marketing, e-commerce, and financial media, acquired four businesses with approximately $9.4 million in aggregate trailing revenue and approximately $4.1 million in aggregate trailing adjusted EBITDA. The transactions include approximately $10.5 million in upfront cash consideration and up to approximately $12.1 million in total potential consideration through seller financing and earnouts, implying an average acquisition multiple of roughly 1.3x revenue and approximately 3.0x adjusted EBITDA.
