one-way doors

My guest today is Josh Hurwitz.

Josh comes from a background in legal training into M&A. I always enjoy hearing how folks from non-finance background approaches M&A and Josh did not disappoint.

We covered a lot of ground:

• Why having the skill set as a lawyer helps you in M&A
• What it means to build trust with a founder
• What the main difference between VC and Corp Dev is
• Where Corp Dev can add unique value to a deal
• How Josh thinks about leveraging his board when working in M&A

Please Enjoy!

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If you're in M&A consider heading over to joinallocators.com and apply. We're a community of 200+ M&A professionals who meet (virtually) every month to discuss best practices, learnings, and expand our network.

My guest today is Yash Tulsani.

Yash shares his unique experience from UiPath. There, he kicked off the Corporate Development team and stayed through (and worked on) the IPO process. 

We covered a lot of ground, incl.:

• What mental model Yash used to source companies.
• How building the integration muscle leads to more success over time.
• How he builds conviction before pulling the trigger and how that leads to high hit rate.
• Why Corp Dev is a great way to move into Entrepreneurship.
• How he uses writing to clarify his thoughts and how it’s connected to his angel investing.

Please Enjoy!

If you're in M&A consider heading over to joinallocators.com and apply. We're a community of 200+ M&A professionals who meet (virtually) every month to discuss best practices, learnings, and expand our network.

My guest today is Ryan Klinefelter.

Ryan is one of those veterans of the industry with so much to share and a pleasure to catch up with.

We had a wide ranging discussion covering topics such as:

• How he ended up in Corp Dev and spent 12 years in it after windy road.
• How to think about the AdTech industry, incl. size, dynamics and why it shifts between bundling and unbundling
• How Ryan sources companies.
• Why the people is the most important thing in every deal and how Ryan goes about retention strategy (and why P&L based earnouts can hinder integration!).

We also dive into some real case studies where Ryan walks us through what set them up for success.

Please enjoy!

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If you're in M&A consider heading over to joinallocators.com and apply. We're a community of 200+ M&A professionals who meet (virtually) every month to discuss best practices, learnings, and expand our network.

My guest today is Andrew Morbitzer.

Andrew is a truly seasoned Corp Dev Professional with 7 years under his belt at Intuit, then 9 years at GoDaddy as a VP and most recently he spend 2 years at Typeform as Head of Corp Dev.

I really enjoyed our conversion today as Andrew has such a broad experience on what makes for a effective team, how to think through strategy (and the frameworks to use), negotiations strategies, and so much more!

Please enjoy!

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If you're in M&A consider heading over to joinallocators.com and apply. We're a community of 200+ M&A professionals who meet (virtually) every month to discuss best practices, learnings, and expand our network.

My guest today is Alexander Fries. 

Alexander is a director of Corporate Development at Progress Software. Before joining Progress Software, Alexander worked at Ingram Micro covering both Corporate Development and Strategy. 

I was very excited about today's episode as there are a few companies out there on my list to study and Progress Software is on it. To study Progress Software is to study disciplined decision making and compounding M&A strategy. They've managed to consistently grow their revenue through M&A and today we get a chance to hear Alex describe in detail how they operate. 
 
More about Progress Software: 

• Corporate Development webpage
• Corporate Development Investor Day Presentation
• Investor day recording, featuring Corporate Development

Please enjoy!

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If you're in M&A consider heading over to joinallocators.com and apply. We're a community of 200+ M&A professionals who meet (virtually) every month to discuss best practices, learnings, and expand our network. 

My guest today is Jay LeBoeuf.

Jay is the Head Of Business & Corporate Development at Descript. At Descript Jay is not only responsible for Corporate Development but also Business Development, Sales and B2B GTM, Customer Success, Community, and Customer Education.

Today we're exploring Jay's non-linear career into Corporate Development, the importance of relationships, and discuss Descript's acquisition of SquadCast.

Please enjoy!

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If you're in M&A consider heading over to joinallocators.com and apply. We're a community of 200+ M&A professionals who meet (virtually) every month to discuss best practises, learnings, and expand our network. 

My guests today are Mia Wang and Corey Mahan. 

Mia is a Director of Corporate Development and Strategy at Cloudflare. She started her career at Goldman Sachs in their cyber security team. She then joined J.P. Morgan as an investment banker in their Financial Institutions Group and spent time in VC before joining Cloudflare's M&A and Strategy team. 

Corey spent more than a decade in IT security, e.g., as a Director of Security at Vimeo before funding the cloud and SaaS security company Vectrix.io in 2020. Vectrix.io was acquired by Cloudflare in 2022, where Corey now is a Director of Product Development.

Today we're getting a rare inside view into the M&A process. We walk through the entire process from first contact to closing from both perspectives. Mia shares their approach and discussion from the buyer side (Cloudflare) while Corey shares his perspective as a founder going through the process.

Please enjoy!

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If you're in M&A consider heading over to joinallocators.com and apply. We're a community of 200+ M&A professionals who meet (virtually) every month to discuss best practises, learnings, and expand our network. 

My guest today is Daniel Brown. Daniel is the Head of Corporate Development at Webflow. Before that he spent a decade in and around the Corporate Development at companies like Symantec, Okta, and Plaid.

Daniel is also a startup advisor and investor for companies in the seed to Series B stage.

Please enjoy this conversation.

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If you're in M&A consider heading over to joinallocators.com and apply. We're a community of 200+ M&A professionals who meet (virtually) every month to discuss best practises, learnings, and expand our network. 

Introducing one-way doors. The show about M&A.

On this show, we'll explore how M&A professionals reach the decision to acquire a company. You'll hear from the M&A teams at companies like Clio, Webflow, Cloudflare, Xero, UiPath, and many others. 

Join us as we discuss the seldom brought to light strategies and tactics behind M&A, including negotiation tactics and valuation strategies.

See you there!
-Henrik