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: profitability
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”
How to Raise Prices Without Losing Customers—with Casey Brown
My Guest If you have ever had to decide how to price a product or a service, or if you foresee yourself having to make such a decision one day, I implore you to listen to today’s episode, in no small part because of how many practical takeaways you’re likely to leave with. I’m joinedContinue reading “How to Raise Prices Without Losing Customers—with Casey Brown”
The Constellation Software Playbook for Acquiring and Growing Software Companies
My Guest Constellation Software is one of the world’s most admired, well-followed, and well-respected software acquirors. Since their founding in 1995, they have acquired over 500 individual software companies, and have grown to achieve $8.4B in revenue and a $77B market capitalization. They have achieved these staggering metrics through their exclusive focus on the lowerContinue reading “The Constellation Software Playbook for Acquiring and Growing Software Companies”
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””
Royce Yudkoff & Rick Ruback: Educators, Mentors, and Leaders Within the SMB Community
My Guests Royce Yudkoff & Rick Ruback are both professors at the Harvard Business School, and co-teach two wildly popular courses called The Financial Management of Smaller Firms and Entrepreneurship through Acquisition, both of which focus on how to acquire, finance and operate your own smaller firm. In 2017 they also co-published the widely readContinue reading “Royce Yudkoff & Rick Ruback: Educators, Mentors, and Leaders Within the SMB Community”