Inorganic Podcast

our deals this week. One disclosed price. The same trade running through all of them — buyers acquiring capability quietly rather than building it.

Christian and Ayelet break down what each deal actually signals about where the software and agency markets are heading — plus stick around for the live after-show with Kevin Simonson, CEO of adMixt, on the Interluxe Group acquisition.

One deep dive. Three quick hits. One live after-show.

What we cover: Why Sprinklr restarted M&A after nearly five years and what choosing ViralMoment first says about the market, the "tale of two cities" in AI exits — top 1% startups clearing the preference stack vs. capability tuck-ins sold as assets, why Asana's $75M StackAI deal is the other side of that coin, and how two ad tech and agency deals (Peer39/Adloox and Interluxe/adMixt) reflect the same buy-not-build logic.

⏱️ TIMESTAMPS

0:00 — Welcome to Market and Deals Friday

0:30 — Quick market context: the data is backing up the thesis

2:50 — Why corporate M&A is surging while PE volume drops

4:11 — Deal #1: Sprinklr acquires ViralMoment — video-native social intelligence

5:00 — The gap it fills: social moved to video, listening tools are still text-based

5:50 — ViralMoment background: founded by Chelsea Hall, Carnegie Mellon, seed-stage

6:27 — Sprinklr's earnings context and why this was a buy-not-build asset deal

7:30 — The tale of two cities: top 1% AI startups vs. capability tuck-ins

8:30 — Sprinklr is hiring an M&A role right now (and Christian's soapbox on the title)

9:22 — Deal #2: Asana acquires StackAI for ~$75M — clearing the preference stack

10:00 — Why this is the "right tech, right team, right investor" version of the same trade

10:30 — The MIT startup angle and the agent execution layer Asana was buying

11:01 — Deal #3: Peer39 acquires Adloox from Scope3 — walled garden verification

11:50 — Why this matters against DoubleVerify and IAS

11:55 — Deal #4: Interluxe Group acquires adMixt — performance firepower for luxury

12:56 — The thread tying all four deals together: buy is beating build

13:27 — Tease: big announcement next week + after-show with Kevin Simonson of adMixt

Links:

Goldman report: https://www.goldmansachs.com/insights/articles/ma-volume-expected-to-surge-this-year-despite-economic-uncertainty

EY Parthenon report: https://www.ey.com/en_us/newsroom/2026/06/ey-parthenon-forecasts-resilient-8-percent-growth-in-us-dealmaking-in-2026-despite-geopolitical-and-economic-headwinds

Connect with Christian and Ayelet

Ayelet’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ayelet-shipley-b16330149/

Christian's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hassold/

Web: https://www.inorganicpodcast.co

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Most scaled independents looked at Grapevine.ai during the sale process and didn't get it. They couldn't process the economic model. They didn't know how to assess the technology. Justin Hayashi leaned in and won.

Recorded at Possible 2026 in the Unplugged Collective pavilion, Christian Hassold and Ayelet Shipley sat down with Justin Hayashi, CEO of NewEngen, one of the most tech-forward independents in the market to break down how he thinks about acquisitions, what makes NewEngen genuinely different from its peers, and what he's looking for next.

NewEngen started in 2016 as a tech company trying to dethrone Marin Software, among others. It evolved into the agency their clients always said they were and built a platform around content, creator marketing, and measurement that most of their competitors can't replicate.

What we cover: The origin story; from Zulily's IPO to trying to build a bidding algorithm to accidentally building an agency, how three acquisitions in the content and creator space shaped NewEngen's differentiated positioning, the Grapevine.ai deal thesis and why beating an aggressive forecast during diligence was the final proof of conviction, how NewEngen handles integration with a "do no harm" philosophy while keeping brands like Donut Studios intentionally separate, and the buy box for what comes next: social, content, measurement, and commerce.

⏱️ TIMESTAMPS

00:12: Cold open: does the YC target on agency backs keep you up at night?

1:08: Welcome and guest intro: Justin Hayashi, CEO of NewEngen, at Possible 2026

1:19: The backstory: from Zulily IPO and billion-dollar sale to Qurate, to founding NewEngen

2:25: The original thesis: dethrone Marin Software and Kenshoo — and why it didn't work

3:58: The pivot: from SaaS company (that clients kept calling an agency) to what NewEngen is today

4:28: Tech-enabled DNA: what survived the pivot and what defines NewEngen now

5:54: What scaled independents are getting wrong — and where NewEngen differentiates

6:45: Three acquisitions in the content and creator space: why content was always the bet

7:23: The Grapevine.ai deal: why most scaled independents walked away and NewEngen stepped up

8:04: Why Caroline's conviction and operator mindset won the first filter

9:00: 900 vetted, high-performing creators vs. seven million claims — the quality argument

10:29: Two lenses: founder CEO conviction vs. PE underwriting — how Justin navigated both

11:06: The aggressive forecast, the bottoms-up conviction, and what actually happened

11:30: Zuckerberg's earnings calls as diligence data: short-form video growth 20% → 30% YoY

12:43: What made Grapevine.ai hard for strategic buyers: long-tail revenue and small contracts

13:37: How Caroline's client migration story played out in real time during diligence

15:19: Donut Digital acquisition: "do no harm" integration and why they kept the brand

16:45: LT Partners vs. Acorn Influence vs. Donut Studios: three different integration approaches

17:57: The hardest integration lesson: get alignment on goalposts before you close

18:59: Buy box: social/content, measurement, commerce, B2C only, $3-12M revenue sweet spot

21:02: Closing take: NewEngen is the software-led agency ready to take on Silicon Valley

🎙️ Guest: Justin Hayashi, CEO, NewEngen | Recorded at Possible 2026

https://www.linkedin.com/in/justinhayashi/

Connect with Christian and Ayelet

Ayelet’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ayelet-shipley-b16330149/

Christian's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hassold/

Web: https://www.inorganicpodcast.co

🔔 Subscribe for weekly M&A and agency coverage on In/Organic

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iHeart to start a B2B podcast network — read the signal

7:50 — Podcast agencies are still priced like services businesses, not talent factories

8:50 — The valuation gap: no shared yardstick for IP and franchise value before it's commercialized

9:20 — MARC: building the FICO score for franchise value — Ayelet's startup to watch

9:52 — The data problem: YouTube gives real analytics, Apple and Spotify give nothing

10:51 — The tech layer underneath the smaller podcast agencies — why it matters for buyers

11:45 — AI tuck-in: Coupa acquires Tonkean — Israeli agentic intake and orchestration platform

12:18 — Israel continues to dominate enterprise AI tuck-ins

13:35 — Solstice raises $21M Series A — AI-native pharma marketing agency, content from months to 10 days

14:20 — InstaAgent: out of Alchemist + YC P26, agent swarm coordination for paid social

15:15 — Connecting the dots: Solstice and InstaAgent are the venture-stage version of the Silicon Valley targeting agencies thesis

16:15 — Advice for corp dev teams at Power Digital, PMG, Stanza: track early stage now

17:04 — What's next: episode 67 with Justin Hayashi of New Engine, and M&A Source conference panel

🔔 Subscribe so you don't miss the big announcement

Connect with Christian and Ayelet

Ayelet’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ayelet-shipley-b16330149/

Christian's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hassold/

Web: https://www.inorganicpodcast.co

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Podean just closed their fourth acquisition in nine months. Travis Johnson is hinting at a fifth. Mountain Gate's strategic roadmap had six puzzle pieces. Four are filled. Two more to go.

This is what a PE-backed independent agency rollup looks like when it's working.

Travis Johnson — CEO and co-founder of Podean, the largest independent global marketplace-focused agency — is back on In/Organic to walk through the full acquisition path: what each deal was designed to solve, how they've learned to lead with culture before due diligence, why they stopped taking cold calls and built a one-pager instead, and what's still missing from the platform.

At roughly 400 people and growing toward 500, managing $600-700M in retail media spend and driving approximately $5-6B in client sales — Podean may be the most acquisitive independent agency in the US right now. And they're not done.

What we cover: The rationale behind each of the four acquisitions — Commerce Canal, AdAdvance, AdMerge, and CartBloom — why Walmart is growing faster than Amazon and CartBloom fills that gap, the hard lesson of spending six months on a deal that fell apart on culture, how Mountain Gate runs the identification process while Podean runs the relationship, the one-pager filter that stops time-wasting calls before they start, and what the next acquisition is probably going to be.

⏱️ TIMESTAMPS

0:26 — Welcome back and a quick apology to the 2,180 YouTube subscribers

1:23 — Travis Johnson reintroduction: Podean, Mountain Gate backing, four deals in nine months

2:44 — Quick refresh: the four acquisitions — Commerce Canal, AdAdvance, AdMerge, CartBloom

3:37 — Podean's strategic thesis: end-to-end, global, social commerce, retail management

4:15 — Breaking down each acquisition: what did it add?

4:43 — Commerce Canal: retail operations depth, logistics, apparel vertical, New York office

5:55 — AdAdvance: media-only depth, Amazon relationships, Streamline tech platform

7:30 — AdMerge: two-thirds ex-Amazon team, global footprint now 21 countries, EmergeView and Emerge Engine

9:30 — CartBloom: ex-Amazon, ex-Walmart founders, specialist Walmart depth in the fastest-growing retail media platform

10:32 — Deal process breakdown: three proprietary, one banker-run (AdMerge)

11:20 — What's still missing: social commerce globally and AI-native tech

12:14 — TikTok Shop growing globally — Ireland, Europe, US numbers keep rising

12:43 — Tech consolidation: from 6 tech people to 30, building AI-native unified platform

14:08 — 400+ headcount, $600-700M retail media spend, $5-6B in client sales

15:35 — "Just drop Codex on the file system and tell it to fix everything"

16:13 — Advice for smaller agencies: don't get distracted, run a solid business first

17:00 — The hard lesson: six months on a deal that fell apart on culture fit

18:02 — Lead with culture first, numbers second — the pivot that changed their process

18:25 — What taking PE money actually means: "You're about to sprint faster than you've ever sprinted"

19:30 — Integration is hard: HR platforms, titles, tools, ways of working all different

20:04 — Mountain Gate's role: strategic roadmap session, identification, deal sourcing

20:38 — Six puzzle pieces. Four filled. Two more to go.

22:13 — The one-pager filter: how to triage inbound without wasting time

24:00 — Number five is coming. Give the exclusive to In/Organic, not AdAge.

🎙️ Guest: Travis Johnson, CEO & Co-Founder, Podean

https://www.linkedin.com/in/travis-johnson77/

Connect with Christian and Ayelet

Ayelet’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ayelet-shipley-b16330149/

Christian's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hassold/

Web: https://www.inorganicpodcast.co

🔔 Subscribe — we'll have acquisition #5 when it drops

💬 Drop your guesses on the next Podean deal in the comments

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Everyone wanted the commerce front end. Nobody wanted the data.

Joe Gadreau watched agency after agency walk away from the hardest — and most important — part of the commerce stack while he was at Salsify. So he went and built it himself.

Recorded live at Salsify's Digital Shelf Summit in Atlanta, Christian sat down with Joe Gadreau, founder and CEO of Lettuce Commerce, for a conversation about what it means to be an AI-native services company in 2024, why the "bill you forever" managed services model is dying, and how the convergence of software and services is reshaping what the next generation of consulting firms actually looks like.

What we cover: Why Joe left one of the first 20 seats at Salsify to start his own thing, the car and fuel analogy that explains why product content is the most overlooked piece of the commerce stack, how Lettuce Commerce is going after legacy SI firms head-on, Sequoia's thesis on the next trillion dollar company masquerading as a services firm, and what a bootstrapped founder thinks about capital, scale, and the right moment to consider outside investment.

⏱️ TIMESTAMPS

0:26 — Welcome and guest intro: Joe Gadreau, founder and CEO of Lettuce Commerce

0:44 — Joe's background: athlete tracking technology to employee #20 at Salsify

1:40 — Why Salsify was the right place to build a professional foundation

2:34 — The moment you know it's time to start your own thing

3:13 — The thesis: everyone builds the commerce front end, nobody fuels it with data

4:25 — "Let us help" — where the name Lettuce Commerce actually came from

5:16 — What Lettuce Commerce does: systems integrator meets strategic consultancy

6:30 — Helping clients pick the right technology, not just implement what they chose

7:43 — How Joe thinks about competing with Accenture Song and Amplify

8:00 — AI-native from day one: founded January 2024, the same era as ChatGPT

9:00 — Eating the lunch of legacy services firms built on perpetual managed services revenue

9:41 — The difference between hand-holding and genuine change management

11:22 — Repeat customers who want help with the next stage vs. dependency models

11:52 — The software-services convergence: what does it actually mean for a services business?

12:17 — Sequoia's bold statement: the next trillion dollar company will be a software company masquerading as a services firm

13:03 — Is Lettuce the orchestrator or part of a bigger journey?

13:26 — Bootstrapped and proud — and approaching the point where capital could accelerate ambition

14:34 — Controlling your own destiny while staying open to the right combination

14:57 — Christian's read: a product-led partnership is in Lettuce's not-too-distant future

🔔 Subscribe so you don't miss the big announcement

Connect with Guest, Joe Gaudreau

https://www.linkedin.com/in/joegaudreau/

Connect with Christian and Ayelet

Ayelet’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ayelet-shipley-b16330149/

Christian's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hassold/

Web: https://www.inorganicpodcast.co

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Most AI acquisitions add a layer. This one removed a layer — for everyone else.

Anthropic acquired Stainless, the developer tools company that built SDKs for OpenAI, Google, Cloudflare, Perplexity, and dozens of other AI and fintech platforms. Then they wound down all hosted Stainless products. The shared supplier is no longer neutral. The tollbooth just changed hands.

Christian and Ayelet break down what happened, why it matters for every agency and AI startup in the market, and what the KPMG Q1 2026 M&A data actually says about where deal activity is heading.

One deal. One market update. Fifteen minutes. (Plus some Riverside FM chaos.)

TIMESTAMPS

0:00 — Welcome back, noisy week, Publicis/LiveRamp hangover

0:45 — KPMG Q1 2026 M&A report: deal values up 88.3% to $446B, deal count down

2:30 — Strategic vs. PE deal activity: 864 strategic, 495 PE in Q1 2026

3:23 — Advertising sector: 145 deals in Q1 2026, flat to slightly up

4:00 — Why Christian is predicting a Q2 uptick in strategic activity

4:42 — The deals happening behind closed doors that don't show in the data

5:01 — Deal: Anthropic acquires Stainless — $300M+ for the SDK plumbing of the AI industry

5:45 — What Stainless actually does: API specs into ready-to-use SDKs across languages

6:10 — The competitive denial angle: Stainless built SDKs for OpenAI, Google, Cloudflare, Perplexity

6:30 — What "winding down hosted products" actually means for Stainless customers

7:44 — Deal terms: $300M+ reported, ~2x the December 2024 Series A valuation of $150M

8:00 — Anthropic's acquisition pattern: Wunderkind, Intercepted, Coefficient Bio, now Stainless

9:00 — The through line: small specialized teams making Claude better — except Stainless is different

9:16 — If you're a shared supplier to competing platforms, you are an acquisition target

10:03 — Why this matters for every agency and commerce business building on AI

10:30 — The MCP angle: Model Context Protocol and why connectivity is the next battleground

12:29 — Why Anthropic investing in Stainless is probably also an aggressive MCP build

13:46 — The AI exit multiple conversation: how the timeline is compressing

14:25 — Grapevine AI / New Engine: outsized early exit with real AI capability

15:05 — "Capture the flag" — why traditional grow-then-sell timelines no longer apply

15:21 — Wrap, Memorial Day wishes, and please someone recommend an alternative to Riverside

Link to the KPMG report: https://kpmg.com/us/en/articles/mergers-acquisitions-trends-tech-media-telecom.html

🔔 Live every Friday — subscribe so you don't miss the big announcement

💬 Drop your guesses on the mystery buyer in the comments

Connect with Christian and Ayelet

Ayelet’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ayelet-shipley-b16330149/

Christian's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hassold/

Web: https://www.inorganicpodcast.co

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Publicis dropped a bomb on Sunday. By Monday, LinkedIn was on fire. Christian, co-host of the In/organic Podcast pulled together two of the sharpest voices in commerce and media to break down what this deal actually means — beyond the press release.

Joining In/Organic for this special episode: Ari Paparo, 20-year ad tech veteran, host of the Marketecture podcast, and author of Yield: How Google Bought, Built and Bullied Its Way to Advertising Dominance — and Peter (PVSB) Bond, co-host of the CPG Guys podcast (closing in on episode 600) and Head of Industry and Client Engagement at Flywheel, the commerce acceleration division of Omnicom.

This is the one episode this week you can't skip.

What we cover: Is this really an agentic AI story or is that just the packaging? Why LiveRamp's client count is already down from 940 to 800 — and what happens next. Why Omnicom, WPP, and every other holdco is immediately accelerating their own identity builds. The three distinct assets inside LiveRamp and which one actually matters. Why Amazon Marketing Cloud is the elephant in the clean room conversation. What independent agencies and lower middle market ad tech players should actually do in response. And who the M&A targets are for anyone not named Publicis.

Timestamps

0:00 — Breaking news: Publicis announces plan to acquire LiveRamp

1:58 — Deal terms: $2.5B total EV, $2.16B net of cash, 2.8x revenue

2:45 — Guest intros: Ari Paparo (Marketecture) and Peter Bond (CPG Guys / Flywheel)

4:00 — The backstory: IPG acquired Acxiom in 2018 but deliberately excluded LiveRamp

5:30 — Is this an agentic AI story? Ari's honest take

7:30 — The agent execution problem: why data rails matter as much as intelligence

8:43 — The MCP angle: data as enabler vs. data as action

9:32 — Data supremacy and the holdco war — Peter's perspective

11:00 — LiveRamp client attrition: 940 → 800 and Horizon already looking to exit

11:35 — Auren Hoffman's forlorn X post and what's buried in it

12:28 — What does WPP, Omnicom, and every other holdco do now?

13:18 — Publicis's track record: Epsilon, Citrus Ad, Sapient — and whether Profiteur was worth it

14:55 — Breaking down LiveRamp's three assets: Ramp ID, clean room (Habu), and onboarding

16:30 — WPP acquired Infosum. Omnicom has Acxiom/Real ID. Who's missing what?

17:38 — Amazon Marketing Cloud owns 75% of retail media ad dollars — what does that leave LiveRamp?

19:33 — Benoit from Liquid Death: "Not having a clean room strategy in 2026 is malfeasance"

20:35 — What this means for independent agencies and lower middle market ad tech players

22:21 — LiveRamp as a natural monopoly — and why competitors now have a real window

23:35 — The Flywheel parallel: neutrality ends the moment you're inside a holdco

25:48 — M&A targets for the corps dev teams at PMG, Horizon, and the super-independents

27:16 — The Trade Desk's UID2: worth billions as a standalone, invisible inside the DSP

27:36 — The financial model of holdcos is fundamentally transforming — Peter's closing argument

29:12 — Ari's final shout-out: Optimal as the leading independent clean room target

🎙️ Guests: Ari Paparo (Marketecture) and Peter Bond (CPG Guys / Flywheel / Omnicom)

https://www.linkedin.com/in/aripaparo/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/pvsbond/

🔔 Subscribe for weekly M&A and ad tech coverage on In/Organic

www.inorganicpodcast.co

💬 Drop your takes on the Publicis/LiveRamp deal in the comments

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The Accenture agency acquisition is still in progress. Five AI tuck-ins closed this week across fintech, crypto, process mining, hardware, and spend management. And three deals that tell you everything about where the lower middle market is heading right now.

Christian and Ayelet are back for Deal Review Friday — and this one is packed.

Three deals. Five AI tuck-ins. One major tease still in progress. Running a little over 15 minutes. Worth it.

⏱️ TIMESTAMPS

0:00 — Welcome, May 15th 2026, and what's on the agenda

0:45 — Accenture update: deal still in progress, silence is golden

1:42 — AI tuck-in #1: Carta acquires Avantia — AI-native legal services + UK international play

3:47 — AI tuck-in #2: MoonPay acquires Dawn Labs — autonomous AI trading agents

5:38 — AI tuck-in #3: Celonis acquires Ikigai Labs — MIT spin-out, AI professor joins as chief scientist

7:30 — AI tuck-in #4: Nominal acquires Fid Labs — AI agents connecting to dev environments and physical hardware

8:20 — AI tuck-in #5: Coupa acquires Rossum — document ingestion layer completes source-to-pay stack

8:39 — Deal #1: Brands at Work acquires Chorus — two London independents bet on integrated model

9:45 — Why experiential has shifted from discretionary to core marketing strategy

11:53 — Two independents, no banker, no PE: why this deal is worth celebrating

13:05 — Deal #2: Smartly finalizes acquisition of INCRMNTAL — LOI to close in 7 weeks

13:30 — What INCRMNTAL actually does and why Smartly needed it

15:26 — Smartly manages $7B in media spend — and now has the measurement layer to match

16:00 — Props to the INCRMNTAL founders and Smartly's Head of Corp Dev

17:16 — Deal #3: OpAd Media acquires Broad Agency — two women-owned independents join forces

18:30 — How Carrie Kerpen brought the two teams together at dinner

19:30 — Ayelet was at the table when it happened

20:30 — Same theme as Brands at Work / Chorus: independents on their own terms

21:01 — Girl dinner confirmed. Christian not invited.

21:57 — Wrap + episode 60 reminder

🔔 Live every Friday — subscribe so you don't miss the big announcement

💬 Drop your guesses on the mystery buyer in the comments

Connect with Christian and Ayelet

Ayelet’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ayelet-shipley-b16330149/

Christian's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hassold/

Web: https://www.inorganicpodcast.co

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We've been saying one of the big strategics was going to move on a scaled independent agency. It's happening.

Christian and Ayelet are back for Deal Review Friday with breaking news on an imminent Accenture acquisition, two lower middle market deals that tell you exactly what the current M&A environment looks like, and what all of this means for the scaled independents that were planning to go to market in 2027 or 2028.

The dam is breaking. Here's what you need to know.

⏱️ TIMESTAMPS

0:00 — Cinco de Mayo, Salsify's Digital Shelf Summit, and puppies

1:53 — 🚨 Breaking news: Accenture is imminently closing a ~$500M US agency acquisition

2:27 — The backstory: E52's Clay analysis and Accenture's $3B AI deployment plan

3:15 — What we know, what we're not saying yet, and why this is step two of a multi-step plan

4:43 — Why this deal will push Tata and others to move faster

5:30 — The forcing function effect: scaled independents planning 2027-28 exits may move sooner

5:56 — Why bilateral deal making is rising and what Accenture's move does to auction dynamics

6:45 — Deal #1: Recharge acquires Skio — $105M cash, 3.3x ARR, direct competitor consolidation

8:08 — What this multiple tells you about SaaS M&A right now

8:35 — The COO announced the price on X — and why that's hilarious

9:17 — Shopify ecosystem turbulence and what it means for this deal

10:14 — Capital efficiency: Skio raised $4-8M and sold for $105M

11:05 — Deal #2: IREN acquires Mirantis — $625M all-stock, AI infrastructure play

11:30 — What Mirantis actually does and why NVIDIA is at the center of this

13:27 — The NVIDIA deal sequence: founding partner in March, $3.4B contract, $2.1B investment

14:30 — Why the timing of these events tells the real M&A story

15:44 — 27 years to a $625M exit — what the AI era does for legacy infrastructure companies

16:04 — Wrap: ep 60 with Brenda Jacobsen dropped, Salsify content coming

🔔 Live every Friday — subscribe so you don't miss the big announcement

💬 Drop your guesses on the mystery buyer in the comments

Connect with Christian and Ayelet

Ayelet’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ayelet-shipley-b16330149/

Christian's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hassold/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What does it really take to sell your business — and are you actually ready?

In this episode of the InOrganic Podcast, we sit down with Brenda Jacobsen, Managing Director at STS Capital Partners, a sell-side M&A advisory firm focused on helping founders and operators find the right strategic buyer — not just the highest bidder. What makes Brenda unique? She's not a banker by training. She's a former operator who built and sold three companies herself, including a regional network of medical clinics and a corporate mindfulness media company. She's been on your side of the table.

Brenda walks us through the full arc of what it means to navigate a business exit — from the first internal conversation with your co-founders, to closing day, and everything in between.

In this episode, we cover:

🧠 Why most partner misalignments happen before you ever talk to a banker

📋 The "Owner's Outcome Exercise" — a simple framework to get founders aligned on what success actually looks like

⏰ When to start having exit conversations (hint: it's earlier than you think)

📉 How to read the hidden clauses in your equity docs that could cost you control of your exit

💰 Current M&A valuation ranges for digital marketing agencies (3–6x EBITDA) and what moves the needle

🤖 Why you need to stop "BS-ing your AI story" — and what buyers actually want to see

🏥 A fascinating case study on data ownership in outsourced radiology and why it changed the deal conversation entirely

👻 How phantom equity can keep your key operators invested all the way through close

❤️ The emotional side of selling — and how the right sell-side advisor acts less like a banker and more like a witness

Whether you're planning to sell in 12 months or 12 years, this conversation is packed with practical, honest advice from someone who has lived both sides of the deal table.

Connect with Christian and Ayelet

Ayelet’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ayelet-shipley-b16330149/

Christian's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hassold/

Web: https://www.inorganicpodcast.co

🎙️ Guest: Brenda Jacobsen, Managing Director, STS Capital Partners

🌐 Learn more about STS Capital: www.stscapital.com

📌 Subscribe to the InOrganic Podcast for weekly conversations on M&A, growth, and building businesses worth buying.

#MergersAndAcquisitions #BusinessExit #Entrepreneurship #SellYourBusiness #PrivateEquity #MiddleMarket #MAStrategy #BusinessGrowth #Founders #InOrganicPodcast

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