Intentional Growth

Matt Boettner is the CEO and President of All Safe Global, a compressed gas company. Matt came into the business in 2009 and bought it from his brother in 2013. Matt shares his story about approaching his brother about joining the company. He came into the company with the mutual understanding that he would buy the company.

Matt studied the art of the deal at brokerages he worked for and learned how to build a complex deal structure that benefits everybody. We discuss some of these lesser-known equity tools and how Matt used them to create his deal with his brother.

We also discuss the future of All Safe Global and what Matt gives advice for business owners considering finding equity partners.

There are tons of tools out there to create a deal structure. As a business owner, you need to know about those tools. Understand what options are available to you and create a deal structure that suits your situation.

GEXP Collaborative

Matt Boettner began his career in the tech industry. After his first company failed he embraced his talent for financials. He learned how to structure deals at a mid-market brokerage firm and became quite comfortable with complex deal structures. In 2009, Matt joined his brother at All Safe Global. He came into the business with the understanding he would buy his brother out. In 2013, that buy out went through.

Matt is an accomplished leader with experience in start-up, private and public company roles. He is an expert in general management and leading growth initiatives for mid-size operations. He has experience with leading acquisitions, IPOs, business valuations and public/private company debt and equity financing.

Stephanie Breedlove was the CEO of a payroll and tax accounting firm for households. The focus of their company was families that wanted to legally pay their nannies and caregivers of elderly family members and have a reliable system for it. This new market took off and the company grew to impressive numbers.

After 25 years, Care.com approached Stephanie about purchasing her business. She takes me on that emotional journey and gives some great insight on how the process worked. She is very open about the financials of the business. One of the most open guests I have ever interviewed.

Stephanie tells me how she and her husband saw a need for what was at the time a novel industry. This episode is a great look into the nuts and bolts of merger and acquisitions and what it really takes to do it right. It is also a great example of even if you do put in the work, there will still be snags and problems that come up along the way. Stephanie shares how she navigated those and why she’s glad she took the time to know what she needed from the sale for herself and the good of the company.

Stephanie is a rock star example of how to do a merger and acquisition right. Even if you are well versed in business, it still important to keep learning. Figure out what you want from your business and what you would want from a sale of that business and you will be better prepared for the process. Keep in mind, even if you do put the time in and do everything right, there are going to be hiccups along the way. That’s just reality.

GEXP Collaborative

Today’s episode is a change of pace. I recently did an interview with the Quiet Light Podcast and I wanted to share it here. The founder of the Quiet Light Brokerage, Mark Daoust speaks to me about my experience with selling our family business and what I learned from the process.

Specifically, we talk about strategic sales. I have learned a lot about building a good pitch for a buyer and I share that with Mark. If you aren’t familiar with my story and the path that led to Life After Business and GEXP Collaborative, this episode will answer a lot of your questions.

I really enjoyed my time on the Quiet Light Podcast. Mark and his team are really good at what they do. You can contact them through the Quiet Light Brokerage site which is down in the resources section. You can also reach me through LinkedIn and the resources I gave Mark during our interview. Just check out the resources section below.

GEXP Collaborative

(In case you want to feature Quiet Light Brokerage and/or GEXP Collaborative)

Ryan, Brandon, and Jim met at a National Exit Planning Conference. We hit it off with a shared extreme passion to change the way business owners look at the growth and exit of their company(s).

We come from different backgrounds (Entrepreneur, M&A Attorney and Investment Advisor) but hold the same belief that the advice that business owners receive is fragmented and doesn’t align in a comprehensive plan.

We created the GEXP Collaborative to bring together an ecosystem of different skills and perspectives to ensure that each business owner that we work with achieves the successful growth and exit of their businesses.  From experience, we provide our business owner clients with recommendations based upon good judgment to achieve their objectives.

Late in 2006, Mark Daoust, received a call from a good friend and fellow entrepreneur who was considering selling his 8-year-old web hosting website. Just 10 months prior Mark had sold his own profitable website and was looking for a new direc

Colin Engstrom is my guest today. Colin is the former owner of a Bozeman, Montana commercial cleaning company. He bought the company off of Craigslist and took a disassembled business and grew it to forty-three employees.  He also made some crazy profits with the company.

Colin and I discuss how he grew the company and the goals he had at the beginning. He explains why he sold the company and what he learned from the process. Colin is genuinely curious about entrepreneurship and asks some great questions. He has learned some helpful lessons and he is still willing to learn more, this was a really fun interview.

If you know you want to sell, know your exit options, growth possibilities, financial targets., and how to maximize your company. Then hire the right people to make it happen.

GEXP Collaborative

Colin Engstrom is the previous owner of Elite Commercial Cleaners in Bozeman, Montana. He purchased the company in 2014 and sold it in 2018.  Colin studied finance at Bryant University and is continually learning more about entrepreneurship every day.

Alex McClafferty moved to the U.S. to join WP Curve in 2013. He poured his heart and soul into the company and grew the company to incredible heights. Slowly Alex and his business partner went their separate ways and GoDaddy came a-courting.

Alex describes what it was like to sit down with one of the biggest companies in the internet space. He also goes into how he approached such a big deal and when it was time for him to move on. Alex left a lot of money on the table when he left GoDaddy. He explains why he left and what he would say to other people in a similar situation.

GEXP Collaborative

Alex McClafferty coaches founders of SaaS & productized service companies. In 2013, he joined WP Curve when the company was doing $478 in monthly revenue. By 2015, the company built a remote team around the world and grew revenue to $1MM ARR.

In December 2016, GoDaddy acquired WP Curve.

With the help of a rockstar team at GoDaddy, the WP Curve team, rebuilt and then relaunched the product as WP Premium Support. Alex left GoDaddy in 2018 to pursue business coaching full-time.