Mark Deutschmann started Village Real Estate in 1996 and grew his residential real estate brokerage to 350 agents and $30 million in revenue – then, he heard some disturbing news. One of his agents and five former colleagues had been secretly planning to launch their own agency to compete with Deutschmann. Rather than steeling for a [...]
Glenn Grant started G2 Technology Group which was in the business of helping website developers host their sites with Amazon Web Services (AWS). By 2018, Grant had built his company to 30 employees and was planning to grow further by acquisition. That was around the same time he began fielding calls from Private Equity Groups (PEGs) [...]
Tommy Berretz co-founded Texas Aquatic Enterprise (TAE) in 2005 to maintain commercial swimming pools for condominium groups, apartment buildings and schools. The business grew to more than 200 employees on the back of Berretz’s sales skills. That's when he hired an accountant to value TAE. Berretz waited patiently as the accountant ran the numbers but was [...]
John MacInnes ran Print Audit, a printer and photocopier management software, for 20 years. In 2012, the company suffered a rude awakening when its biggest client – who made up more than two thirds of their revenue – dropped their monthly spend by 90%. MacInnes had to pivot… quickly. He evolved Print Audit to a subscription-based [...]
From a standing start, Dinesh Dhamija grew European online travel agency eBookers to more than one billion in sales in just five years. After two successful financing rounds, Dhamija still owned 40% of eBookers stock which represented virtually his entire net worth. Dhamija decided it was time to sell. He quickly got six acquirers interested, and [...]
Matt Slaine is an investor who grew up on Wall Street. In pursuit of his next move (and an intent to own), he decided to purchase a company, instead of starting one. What followed was a journey of identifying his perfect candidate (Progressive Business Media, a B2B media and communications company in the home furnishings and [...]
James Roman founded iVelocity, a digital marketing agency for healthcare professionals. With a goal of getting on the Inc. 500 list, he wanted to scale quickly – and he did. Between 2013 to 2016 the company grew 10 times and increased its gross revenue by 1000%. …But it was the stress of a big company that [...]
Darby founded customer software consultancy Matched Pattern in 2017 but had become exhausted by the hamster wheel of constantly chasing new business to keep his consultants busy. As a project-based consultancy, Darby’s exit options were limited so he decided to swap his equity in Matched Pattern for shares in Matched Pattern, a company with a desperate [...]
Kristin Delwo co-founded Stacks, a software used by librarians. Though the software was still early in its life, Delwo wanted to scale quickly and decided to look for a deep-pocketed acquirer. Delwo was too early in her lifecycle to attract an all cash offer so agreed to sell her business putting much of her consideration “at [...]
Would you consider selling your business to an employee? They’d probably fit the bill – good understanding of the business, passionate about your mission, and more likely to continue your legacy – but, they likely won’t have the cash to front such a large transaction either. When Lori Moen decided to step back from her business, [...]
