Built to Sell Radio

Ep 565 He 10X'd His Money in 3 Years With a Painting Franchise

Zac Smith was a mechanical engineer who wanted more flexibility and upside than a corporate career could offer. He bought an existing CertaPro Painters franchise in North

Ep 564 7x on Paper. Break Even in Cash. Adam Spector on Staying in the Game After a Sale.

Adam Spector co-founded LiftIgniter in 2014, which used machine learning to personalize websites the way YouTube does. Growth stalled, and with no way to prove the compan

Ep 563 Heath Adams Said No to the Biggest Offer of His Life, Then Doubled It

Heath Adams bootstrapped TCM into a company with two revenue lines: hacking into companies' systems to expose vulnerabilities, and selling courses and certifications that

Ep 562 Selling 20 Companies at 4x ARR, With Stuart Faught

Broadly speaking, there are two ways to build a company. Some entrepreneurs swing for the fences, spending decades building one big business. Others play for singles, bui

Ep 561 The $40M Earnout That Never Got Paid, and the One That Did - Rob Walling and Garren Hilow

Garren Hilow bootstrapped Abveris, an antibody discovery business doing $12 million in revenue, and sold it in 2021 for $150 million up front with another $40 million ava

Ep 560 Dane Pan Gave Up 4x to Get 100% Cash: Selling a $1.3M Amazon Brand

Dane Pan and his wife built Monet Brands to $1.3 million in revenue with two employees, selling a $24.99 skincare tool that cost them $6.10.  When they took the company

Ep 559 The Good, Bad and Ugly of a $2.1M Searcher Deal | Built to Sell Radio

One of the fastest growing groups of acquirers is the self funded searcher. A searcher is not a competitor nor a private equity group. A searcher is usually one person, o

Ep 558 $6M Wedding Marketplace Courted The Knot for 4 Years with Janessa White

In 2016, Janessa White and her business partner started Simply Eloped, a marketplace that planned elopements and small weddings for couples in 35 cities across the United

Ep 557 4 Types of Buyers Circling Your Business, and the One Now Doing 28% of Deals

There are four types of financial buyers who might make an offer on your business, and more often than any other type, the one approaching you is an independent sponsor.

Ep 556 How Decamillionaires Think About Money. The 3 Digit Rule, Mistakes That Cause Founders to Walk Away From Life-Changing Offers, and Why the Best Thing About Selling Has Nothing to Do With What You Can Buy.

One day, you're going to sell your business, and when you do, you'll experience a step function increase in your net worth. Navigating that moment is something Adam Katz

Ep 555 How to Avoid an Earn Out and Get Your Employees to Sell Like You, Featuring the World's Leading Positioning Expert, April Dunford

If you own a company, chances are you're its best salesperson. Put you in a room with a prospect and you rarely lose. But listen to your employees try to tell the same st

Ep 554 $325M Exit After Coke Walked Away From Suja Juice | Built to Sell Radio

Jeff Church co-founded Suja Juice in 2012 with $300,000 and a green juice that had a four-day shelf life. Within three years, the company hit $70 million in revenue, and

Ep 553 Why 17.5% of Owners Are Burnt Out and Want to Sell

More owners than ever say they are simply tired. A look at 10,255 PREScore™ assessments over six years found that 17.5% pointed to burnout, not retirement, as the number

Ep 552: What to Know Before Selling to an ETA Buyer | Built to Sell Radio

What do you need to know before selling your business to an ETA buyer? Most owners have received the email. It usually starts with something flattering: "I love what yo

Ep 551 Cameron Passmore Sold Half an $8 Billion Firm—Then Acquired 5 More Businesses

Knowing what kind of seller you are turns out to be one of the most important things you can figure out before you ever take a meeting with a potential acquirer. There ar

Ep 550 The One Phrase That Can Ruin a $10 Million Business Sale

"When I sell the company, then I'll be happy." Psychotherapist Jo Swann says that one phrase is the most reliable predictor of a miserable exit. She would know. She made

Ep 549 How a $105 Million Business Sale Revealed the Second Most Important Number in an LOI

Every founder fixates on the multiple. Tim Hellebrand will tell you the (second) most important number on a letter of intent is the one almost nobody understands until it

Ep 548 The Threat and Curse of AI

A lot of owners are losing sleep over AI right now. They watch search traffic erode, they see competitors automating, and they wonder if the business they spent twenty ye

Ep 547 How to Get Your Partners to Buy You Out

When Sean Kernan wanted out of the financial advisor support business he co-founded in Dallas, he didn't shop it to outside acquirers, and he didn't wait for his five par

Ep 546 $14M Raised, A Car-Changing Exit

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 b