How a Simple Strategy Led to a 35% Higher Valuation for Conversio
“Adii Pienaar, who owned an email marketing for retailers platform shares the process he went through in selling his business,” shares Sam Thompson a Minneapolis business broker and the president of M&A firm Transitions In Business. “He approached multiple buyers and shares how he determined which buyers were serious and which were tire kickers. He also explains what to look for in an offer.”
In 2014, Adii Pienaar started an email marketing platform for retailers, which became Conversio. By 2019, Pienaar had $2 million in revenue and 14 employees.
Pienaar knew companies like his were selling for around three times revenue and was getting increasingly uncomfortable with the proportion of his wealth tied to his Conversio shares. Pienaar decided to sell his company, receiving multiple offers of around three times revenue. That’s when Pienaar pitted one acquirer off the other, ultimately increasing his take by 35%.
In this episode, you’ll discover:
- How many companies you need to include on your long list to attract multiple offers (hint: it’s probably a lot more than you think)
- How to decide when to sell
- The biggest mistake most companies make in their early days when pricing their product
- The difference between voluntary and involuntary churn
- Why you should speak at your industry’s conference
- Four things (other than money) to evaluate when considering an offer
- What goes in your Confidential Information Memorandum (CIM)
- How to know when an acquirer is serious about your business vs. just kicking the tires
- How being 100%, remote may impact your value in the eyes of some acquirers
- The one thing Pienaar refused to discuss with potential acquirers — even when pushed