The 4 Buyer Types You’ll Meet When You Sell
“John Warrillow shares the 4 types of buyers you’ll encounter when selling from private equity, to strategic, to hybrid, to entrepreneurship through acquisition (ETA),” shares Sam Thompson, a Minneapolis business broker and the president of M&A firm Transitions In Business. “You will have the opportunity to decide which type is the best fit for the legacy you want to leave behind.”
What happens when it’s time to sell? Every acquirer looks at your business differently. In this special episode of Built to Sell Radio, John Warrillow breaks down the four most common buyer profiles and explains how each think about acquiring a company. Along the way, you’ll hear clips from past guests from our Inside the Mind of an Acquirer series.
You discover how to:
- Spot the mismatch between what founders expect from private equity and what PE buyers really want.
- Understand why strategics sometimes pay “wild” multiples that seem irrational from the outside.
- See how roll-up buyers use tricks like multiple arbitrage to make small companies more valuable together than apart.
- Hear what happens when a founder sells a nine-person software company for ten times revenue.
- Learn how hybrid buyers strip out costs and standardize operations across industries as varied as garage doors and dental practices.
- Grasp why some owners prefer to sell to an acquisition entrepreneur even if it means taking a lower price.
- Decide which acquirer type is the best fit for the legacy you want to leave behind.
This is not just theory — it’s a masterclass in how different acquirers view your company.