Built to Sell Radio

On this week's Built to Sell Radio, John Warrillow talks to Tim Schumacher, co-founder of SaaS Group, about the mindset of an acquirer.

Tim shares Peter Thiel's "zero to one" versus "one to ten" concept and how knowing which one you are can shape your business.

n this episode of Built to Sell Radio, Jim Sebenius, the founder of the Negotiation Unit at Harvard Business School, shares his advanced negotiation strategies for selling a privately held business.

Jim's extensive experience includes his time at the Blackstone Group, where he negotiated on behalf of one of the world's largest alternative asset managers with more than $1 trillion under management. He is also a frequent speaker to YPO and a consultant for privately held companies, helping them navigate complex negotiations.

Jim's insights are backed by his in-depth research, including first-hand interviews with former U.S. Secretaries of State such as Henry Kissinger, Hillary Clinton, and Rex Tillerson. These interviews have provided him with unique perspectives on negotiation from some of the world's most experienced dealmakers, making his advice invaluable for anyone looking to sell their company for maximum value.

Matt Matros built Protein Bar from a single smoothie shop into a fast-growing chain. In 2012, private equity firm L Catterton came knocking with a deal valuing his company at $44 million. Matt decided to roll 40% of his equity, expecting it to grow even more.

This week on Built to Sell Radio, William Brown shares his remarkable journey from selling a $50 Word document offering trading advice to building a multi-million dollar online education business that attracted serious interest from acquirers. Based in Dubai, William's story is a testament to how a simple, bootstrapped start can evolve into a highly valuable and sellable business.

Corporate buyers are notoriously secretive and rarely reveal their inner workings. This is why our latest episode of Built to Sell Radio is so valuable: It provides a rare look into the secretive world of corporate M&A.

Our guest is Christopher Vollmond-Carstens, Chief M&A Officer at Ntiva, where they help businesses keep their technology running smoothly, from managing their computer systems to protecting them from cyber threats. Christopher has bought fifteen companies in the last few years, and this week we take a walk inside his mind to understand how he thinks about buying companies.

This episode, part of our Inside the Mind of an Acquirer series, offers unique insights into the corporate development division of a big company.

Most people hear about spectacular acquisitions made by strategic acquirers or giant private equity groups. But the reality is, you're likely to sell your company to a small business in your sector that nobody outside your industry has ever heard of.

In our latest episode of Built to Sell Radio, part of our Inside the Mind of an Acquirer series, we get inside the head of Kristi Herold. Kristi is the founder of Jam, a company based in Toronto that connects people through adult recreational sports leagues and corporate team-building events.

Kristi has successfully completed 11 acquisitions, making her a prime example of how small businesses buy other small companies.

Jeff Archibald founded Paper Leaf, a company specializing in developing websites, mobile apps and custom software. By offering a narrow scope of services to a variety of verticals, Paper Leaf built a reputation for handling challenging projects that generalist agencies couldn't. Jeff's commitment to simplicity and effective forecasting played a significant role in Paper Leaf's success. He used fixed payment contracts to ensure steady cash flow and offered a limited number of technologies, allowing his team to become experts. These practices stabilized the business and made it attractive for acquisition.

Nicole Osmer is the founder and president of Health+Commerce, a public relations and marketing agency for companies in medtech, biotech, and digital health. Nicole grew Health+Commerce from $1M to $10M in annual revenue over seven years.

Along the way, Nicole received an acquisition offer that seemed too good to be true. It turned out it was, and the deal fell apart. Nicole picked up the pieces, and in March 2024, Health+Commerce was acquired by Trinity Hunt-backed Supreme Group.

In this week's episode of Built to Sell Radio, John Warrillow interviews Michael Lynch, the creator of TinyPilot, a hardware device that allows users to remotely control their computers without installing any software.

Like most small companies, TinyPilot was a Main Street business with around $1 million in revenue and roughly $250,000 in profit, so Michael's story is a revealing snapshot of a typical exit for the majority of small businesses

In this week's episode of Built to Sell Radio, John Warrillow interviews Kiri Masters, founder of Bobsled Marketing. Kiri's marketing agency specialized in helping companies merchandise their products on sites like Amazon.com and Walmart.com.

Kiri successfully transformed a significant social media following into a valuable company.