My Guest You are likely aware of how much AI has already changed how we live and how we work. You’re probably also aware – at least vaguely – of how much it will continue to change the way that we live and work over the coming months and years. The process of searching for,Continue reading “How A.I. is Transforming the Acquisition and Operations of Small Businesses”
Tag Archives: SaaS
Technical Debt: What it is, How Much of it You Can Live With, and How to Incorporate it into an Investment Thesis
My Guest Chris Smith is the Managing Partner of Spellbound Partners, a a company that helps acquirors with technical due diligence, fractional CTO services, and outsourced development services, among other things. Chris has over 25 years of experience building software platforms, and is an expert in cloud computing and software as a service (SaaS). HeContinue reading “Technical Debt: What it is, How Much of it You Can Live With, and How to Incorporate it into an Investment Thesis”
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”
Is the Search Fund Acquisition Rate Falling? With Jim Edmunds, Badge Stone & Kent Weaver
My Guests This week, I’m joined by three of the most experienced and respected investors within the search fund ecosystem to discuss a topic that is understandably of interest to the entire ETA community: That subject is why the acquisition rate among search funds has fallen over the past 10 years, and whether the rateContinue reading “Is the Search Fund Acquisition Rate Falling? With Jim Edmunds, Badge Stone & Kent Weaver”
Leverage: Doing More With Less
Listen to this Blog Post “Give me a lever long enough, and a place to stand, and I will move the earth.”– Archimedes “Leverage” is one of those concepts that tends to be interpreted as being more complex than it actually is. The simplest way to define leverage might be “the ability to do moreContinue reading “Leverage: Doing More With Less”
In Conversation with 3 Founders Who Sold Their Companies to Search Funds
My Guests Properly managing the relationship with the outgoing seller is likely to be among your most important tasks within your first 6 months as the new CEO. I say this because a non-functional (or worse, a toxic) relationship between the incoming and outgoing owners has the potential to damage a company more than customersContinue reading “In Conversation with 3 Founders Who Sold Their Companies to Search Funds”
From Combat to Classrooms: How Jim Vesterman Went from Special Forces to a 13.5x Return in 8 Years
My Guest My guest today is Jim Vesterman, currently a lecturer at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. Prior to joining the faculty at Wharton, Jim was the CEO of Raptor Technologies between 2012 to 2020, where he grew the company from serving 7,000 schools in the United States to serving over 40,000Continue reading “From Combat to Classrooms: How Jim Vesterman Went from Special Forces to a 13.5x Return in 8 Years”
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”
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”
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”