Thomas Smale is the Founder and CEO of FE International. He is a serial business entrepreneur and M&A expert, having built the industry leading firm in the $1-100M global technology sector.

Smale is an authority source on e-commerce, and in fact established the very category of M&A advisory for online businesses.

Smale began building and selling online companies in his early 20s as an interest. When he proved to have a natural talent for increasing the value of these businesses, this became his full-time career.

Over the last decade, Smale has grown FE International into an award-winning global M&A advisor of SaaS, e-commerce, and content businesses, completing acquisitions for thousands of founders, owners, and acquirers and advising on over $500MM in lifetime acquisitions.

In this episode you will learn:

* What are Aggregators.

* What to expect when you hire an M & A firm.

* Why bother with a broker?

* Who is buying?

* Difference between selling timescale aggregator vs broker

* Brokers - start with due diligence/audit process

* Buyer due diligence

* Types of buyers

* The characteristics of desirable buyers