Listen to This Blog Post I would make the world’s worst Venture Capitalist. If you don’t believe me, keep reading. As I’ve transitioned from operator to investor over the past 5 years or so, I’ve attempted to develop (and have attempted to articulate below) a general philosophy to guide my decision making, given that almostContinue reading “Hard to Kill: A Four-Part Framework for Evaluating Small Business Acquisitions”
Tag Archives: customers
Rob Markey: Creator of the Net Promoter Score and Founder of Bain’s Global Customer Strategy Practice
My Guest Rob Markey is the creator of the widely-used Net Promoter Score (“NPS”) system. Rob also leads the NPS Loyalty Forum, a group of 35 senior executives from loyalty-leading companies around the world, such as The Vanguard Group, American Express, JetBlue, TD Bank, LEGO, Progressive Insurance, PwC and Intuit. He is also the co-authorContinue reading “Rob Markey: Creator of the Net Promoter Score and Founder of Bain’s Global Customer Strategy Practice”
Evaluating Customer Retention in Recurring Revenue Businesses: With Craig Zingerline
My Guest Craig Zingerline is a serial entrepreneur currently working as the CEO of Growth Minded, a company that helps startups and other technology companies scale their growth and retention strategies. Prior to Growth Minded, he founded Velocity Growth and scaled to 7-figures of ARR, was Chief Product Officer at Sandboxx, and the Head ofContinue reading “Evaluating Customer Retention in Recurring Revenue Businesses: With Craig Zingerline”
Rethinking Asset Intensity in Search Fund Acquisitions
Listen to this Blog Post The vast majority of Search Funds seek to acquire businesses that are both “asset-light” and “capital-light”. That is, companies that don’t have a large base of tangible assets that need to be added to, refurbished, or replaced to either maintain operations or pursue growth. All else being equal, this makesContinue reading “Rethinking Asset Intensity in Search Fund Acquisitions”
A Finance Survival Guide for SMB CEOs: Liquidity, Hiring, Budgeting, Capital Allocation & More
My Guest Nicholas Andrews is the Founder of Aspen Consulting Group, a company that performs finance, accounting, and operations consulting for a wide range of small and medium sized businesses. Aspen’s services include technical accounting, corporate finance, valuations, operations planning and M&A due diligence, among others. Prior to founding the Aspen Consulting group, Nick wasContinue reading “A Finance Survival Guide for SMB CEOs: Liquidity, Hiring, Budgeting, Capital Allocation & More”
How to Price, Structure, and Diligence Around Customer Concentration
Listen to this Blog Post When evaluating a small business to acquire, to suggest that some form of concentration is common is likely an understatement. Indeed, in most cases, concentration of some variety is a borderline inevitability. Though this often takes the form of customer concentration (the focus of this blog post), it can takeContinue reading “How to Price, Structure, and Diligence Around Customer Concentration”
You Don’t Have an Engineering Problem, You Have a Product Management Problem
My Guest Rich Mironov is one of North America’s preeminent Product Management thought leaders. He has spent 40 years in the software industry in numerous capacities, and currently acts as a Coach, Consultant, and Interim Executive for CEOs and Heads of Product across Canada and the United States, advising them on a diverse range ofContinue reading “You Don’t Have an Engineering Problem, You Have a Product Management Problem”
Answers to Recurring FAQs from Current and Prospective Searchers
Listen to this Blog Post Over the course of many years speaking with current and prospective searchers on a near-daily basis, I’ve come to appreciate that many searchers understandably tend to have very similar questions and areas of uncertainty. Indeed, in most instances, I had these very same questions and areas of uncertainty myself priorContinue reading “Answers to Recurring FAQs from Current and Prospective Searchers”
Profit Before Anything Else: With Mike Michalowicz, Author of “Profit First”
My Guest Today I’m joined by entrepreneur, investor, and best-selling author, Mike Michalowicz. Mike is the author of nine books, most notably Profit First, which boasts ~8,700 ratings on Amazon.com with an average rating of 4.8 stars. The book outlines a deceptively simple yet highly effective system to help businesses hit their target profit numbersContinue reading “Profit Before Anything Else: With Mike Michalowicz, Author of “Profit First””
The 2023 SaaS CEO Survey
Listen to this Blog Post The Data Set The year in which each target company was acquired is detailed in the chart to the right. As can be seen, we were able to achieve reasonably good diversity by vintage year, with 18 of the 41 transactions taking place in 2019 or earlier, and 23 ofContinue reading “The 2023 SaaS CEO Survey”