In 2002 Chuck Crumpton started Medpoint to help businesses bring medical devices and pharmaceuticals to market. The company quickly took off after Crumpton landed a prominent blue-chip client.  

It was a blessing and a curse.

At one point, the blue-chip customer made up 83% of Medpoint’s revenue. Determined to reduce his customer concentration, Crumpton implemented a clever strategy to minimize his dependency.

The strategy worked as Crumpton successfully reduced his reliance below 50%, allowing him to sell Medpoint in 2020 for around five times EBITDA.

Ep 364 Is Your Best Customer Hurting Your Company’s Value? With Medpoint Founder, Chuck Crumpton

In 2012, Jaclyn Johnson founded Create & Cultivate, a media company that educates and inspires women to succeed in business.

By 2018, Johnson had grown Create & Cultivate to eight employees when an acquirer offered her a staggering $40 million. Unfortunately, the deal was too good to be true. When the acquirer discovered her hands-on management style, they pulled out.

Learning from her mistakes, Johnson implemented a collection of strategies to ensure Create & Cultivate could thrive without her.

By the end of 2019, Johnson had grown to $14 million in revenue ($4 million EBITDA) when acquirers came knocking again. This time she was ready. Create & Cultivate was acquired by Corridor Capital in a deal valued at $22 million.

Ep 365 The Hidden Cost of Being a Hands on Boss With Create & Cultivate Founder, Jaclyn Johnson

In 2016 Channing Allen and his brother Courtland founded Indie Hackers, a blog and forum that encourages founders to transparently share their ideas and stories. 

After only eight months, the brothers had grown the business to $8,000 in revenue when they received an unexpected email from Patrick Collison (co-founder and CEO of Stripe), who was looking to acquire the company. 

Although tempted to keep building, Stripe’s offer was too good to refuse. The brothers agreed to be acquired by Stripe in March 2017.

Ep 366 The Inside Story of Stripe’s Acquisition of Indie Hackers with Co-Founder Channing Allen

In 2016 Trevr Smithlin and Dave Hanley founded AdvertiseCast, a marketplace connecting podcasters with advertisers. The company experienced tremendous growth, doubling revenue year-over-year until 2020. That’s when the uncertainty triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic caused Smithlin and Hanley to consider their strategic options.

In March 2021, Smithlin and Hanley signed an acquisition agreement from Libsyn for $30 million.

Ep 367 Libsyn’s Acquisition of AdvertiseCast: The Tell-All with Trevr Smithlin and Dave Hanley

In 2006 Kelby Zorgdrager started DevelopIntelligence, an outsourced training provider that helps programmers develop new skills and adapt to ever-changing technologies.

The business snowballed as Zorgdrager onboarded most Fortune 500 giants in his space. However, Zorgdrager had a problem. The company was too dependent on him.

To ensure the business could succeed without him, Zorgdrager implemented a four-step system to replace himself as the rainmaker of his company.

The strategy worked. By 2020 Zorgdrager had grown the business to $12.1 million in revenue, which piqued the interest of some acquirers. A year later, Zorgdrager signed an acquisition offer from Pluralsight in a deal valued at $48.9 million.

Ep 368 How This Service Business Sold for Over 4-Times Revenue with Kelby Zorgdrager

In 2009 Simon Penson founded Zazzle Media, one of the first content marketing agencies in the U.K. Although the company was successful, Penson had difficulties winning large customer contracts due to the size of his agency.

To enhance his credibility, in 2015 he decided to merge Zazzle Media with Stickyeyes, which, at the time, formed the largest content marketing agency in the U.K. 

Penson’s decision proved to be savvy.

Ep 370 Scaling Your Business through Strategic Partnerships with Simon Penson

In 2016, Marc Lafleur started truLOCAL, a subscription business allowing people to buy locally-raised meats online. 

To ignite sales, Lafleur and his co-founder pitched the company on the popular Canadian TV show Dragon’s Den (similar to Shark Tank). The presentation was a hit as they received an investment of $100,000 from Dragon’s, Michele Romanow and Joe Mimran for 10% of the business. 

As a result of their new partners and the free marketing that came from the show, revenues soared. 

By 2020 truLOCAL had reached sales of eight figures when Lafleur began receiving interest from acquirers. A few months later, the company was acquired by EMERGE in a deal valued at $16.8 million.

Ep 371 From Dragon's Den Investment to $16.8 Million Acquisition – The Story of truLOCAL

In 2011, Perry Rosenbloom started the web development company, Brighter Vision. After a few years of jumping from project to project, Rosenbloom had a breakthrough. Instead of doing web design for everyone, he decided to focus on creating websites exclusively for therapists.

His decision to niche down worked as revenue soared.

By 2020, Rosenbloom had thousands of customers and millions in sales, which was when Evercommerce made an offer to acquire Brighter Vision for $17.5 million.

Ep 372 Brighter Vision’s Niche Strategy Leads to $17.5 Million Acquisition with Perry Rosenbloom

In 2012, Spencer Thompson founded Sokanu, a career assessment platform aimed at replacing the outdated assessments that existed at the time. Sokanu’s “Career Explorer” quickly became one of North America's most prominent assessment tools and was adopted by the U.S. Government and top colleges around the world. 

The assessments were a huge hit with job seekers, yet Thompson struggled to generate sales. Rather than fix his revenue model, Thompson looked for an acquirer who would value his enormous user base. Soon after, Sokanu received a lucrative acquisition offer from Penn Foster, an online educational institute.

Ep 373 Revolutionizing the Way We Plan Our Careers: Discover the Impact of Sokanu

In 2016, Derek Morin founded Tabarnapp to create after-market sales applications for Shopify website owners. The company was an instant hit generating more than 1,000 paid customers in its first few months after launching on the Shopify platform. 

In 2020, Morin acquired one of his partners' stake in Tabarnapp, valuing the company at $400,000. Two years later, Morin sold Tabarnapp for a much higher price, implying a tenfold increase in the company's value.

Ep 374 How Tabarnapp Grew Its Value Ten-Fold in 24 Months with Derek Morin

Sam Parr founded the Hustle, a media company that delivers business and tech news to millennials in an engaging and relatable way, in 2015. The business was an instant hit with readers, generating millions of page views in only a few months.

By 2020 Sam Parr had grown the Hustle to $15 million in revenue, attracting the attention of tech giant HubSpot. A few months later, the tech conglomerate acquired the Hustle in a lucrative eight-figure deal.

Ep 375 Inside HubSpot's Surprising Acquisition of the Hustle with Founder, Sam Parr

In 2003, Ron Holt founded Two Maids & a Mop, a residential cleaning business. Thanks to an innovative employee bonus plan, Holt was able to grow his business to 12 company-owned locations. 

That’s when a random encounter with Fred DeLuca, the founder of Subway, changed Holt’s life forever. Deluca gave Holt the inspiration and a roadmap for franchising his business which Holt used to grow Two Maids & a Mop from 12 to 91 locations across the United States and $40 million in revenue.

In 2021, eager to pursue the next chapter in his life, Holt began exploring selling Two Maids & a Mop. A short time after, JM Family Enterprises acquired the business in a lucrative deal valued at well over ten times EBITDA.

Ep 376 How to Get Your Employees to Act Like Owners with the Founder of Two Maids & a Mop, Ron Holt

Rachel Elsts Downey is the founder of Share Your Genius, a podcast production company that has been helping businesses increase their brand visibility since 2017. Over the years, Share Your Genius has grown into a successful business, generating $500,000 in revenue by 2021.

That’s when Downey was approached by one of her clients with an offer to acquire her business. The client wanted to hire Downey and saw the acquisition of Share Your Genius as the best way to recruit her. After some deliberation, Downey accepted the offer and agreed to be "acquihired". This deal valued Share Your Genius in the mid-six figures and provided Downey with cash for her business, a secure salary, bonuses, and some equity in the acquiring company.

Ep 377 From Startup to Acquihire: One Founder's Journey with Rachel Elsts Downey

In 2015, Brad Lorge founded Premonition, a technology company that offers logistics software to streamline a company’s delivery operations. Rather than the traditional approach of financing their start-up through rounds of dilutive funding, Lorge asked his customers to pre-pay, allowing the founding team to retain 80% of the equity in their business. 

By March 2022, Premonition had grown to $3 million in Annual Contract Value (ACV) which is when it was acquired by Shippit for $20.5 million -- an implied valuation of just under 7 times ACV.

Ep 378 How to Keep More Equity by Getting Customers to Fund Your Growth with Brad Lorge

In 2013 Mac Lackey licensed the FC Barcelona name to offer soccer camps and immersion trips to young athletes in the United States. 

Lackey grew the business to over $10 million in revenue before accepting a lucrative buyout offer that included various desirable benefits for sports fans.

Ep 379 Market Value vs. Personal Value with Mac Lackey

Kyle Scott launched Crossing Broad, a Philadelphia sports blog, in 2009. His irreverent and edgy writing style gained a significant following among Philly sports fans, resulting in thousands of daily readers. However, it wasn't until the 2018 Supreme Court ruling lifted the ban on sports betting in the US that the business flourished.

To capitalize on the ruling, Scott merged Crossing Broad with Warwick Gaming into CBWG, which owned and operated several popular sports and gambling websites. The company instantly became the largest independently owned US sports betting affiliate marketing network, generating $5 million in annual revenue. 

In 2020, Ten months after joining forces, XLMedia acquired CBWG for $12 million in cash, $8 million worth of XLMedia shares, and the potential for another $9.5 million tied to a three-year earn-out.

Ep 380 The Power of Mergers: How Crossing Broad's Union with Warwick Gaming Led to a Lucrative Exit

In 2011, Tammer Kamel launched Quandl, a company that provided investors with data designed to give them a competitive trading edge. For example, Quandl offered subscriptions that let investors access private jet flight information for public companies as a predictor for M&A activity. 

By 2018, Quandl had grown to 75 employees. Kamel saw industry giants entering the space, but knowing the time and capital investment it would take to build a competitive offering, he believed they would prefer to acquire Quandl.

Kamel began shopping the business around, and shortly after, Nasdaq acquired Quandl for a life-changing sum.

Ep 381 Inside Nasdaq’s Acquisition of Quandl: Lessons on Timing and Negotiation for Entrepreneurs

Built to Sell Radio is a weekly podcast for business owners.  Each week, we ask a recently cashed out entrepreneur why they decided to sell, what they did right and what mistakes they made through the process of exiting their business.  Built to Sell Radio is the ultimate insider's guide to approaching the most important financial transaction of your life.  

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