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How Founders Should Approach M&A
Ft. Lars Albright - 3x exited founder & Unusual Ventures GP
Amardeep Parmar
October 09, 2023
Each week, we interview real experts about topics you need to know about.
Today we have Lars Albright, a 3x exited founder and a General Partner at Unusual Ventures. They are an early-stage fund and Lars leads investments in fintech, vertical SaaS, and application software
We’re covering How Founders Should Approach M&A.
Next 3 weeks:
Adam Nathan (Founder of Almanac) - How To Use The Modern Work Method In A Remote World
Wei Lien Dang (General Partner at Unusual Ventures) - How To Scale An Open Source Startup - And Should You?
Tania Luna (Co-Founder and Co-CEO of LifeLabs Learning) - How To Scale By Sharing Your Power
How Founders Should Approach M&A
Here are some of the key takeaways from the episode if you’re in a rush!
Find the champions
Deals get done because you’ve cultivated the your strongest advocates of a deal not because you’ve found all your naysayers.
Traditional thinking leads many founders to try to get every single stakeholder on board with an acquisition. Yet in Lars experience, they are potentially wasting their time.
There’s always going to be disagreement yet if you focus on those who want the same thing you want, you’re more likely to build the momentum to close an acquisition.
What’s the point for the buyer?
What can you do as part of a larger organization?
You’re not being acquired so your company can act in the exact same way as it does today. For an acquirer, the value is in how they can use their resources to make your creation grow faster and become more profitable.
When selling your company, make the decision easier for them by pointing out how your current forecasts would change as part of their organization.
Protect your time
I want to have this conversation with you but I want to make sure we’re both serious. So let’s map out what that looks like.
It will feel sweet to call yourself an exited founder but be careful not to destroy your company by wasting resources on a buyer who isn’t serious.
Set the tone right from the start about what the acquisition process will look like and if the buyer wants your company, they’ll stick to it.
Slow and steady
Take a step back. What are your goals? What are your company’s goals?
Many founders build their startups to solve a problem they are passionate about. Selling your company often means letting go of that mission and you’ve got to look within yourself to understand whether that’s the right choice.
As a leader of your company, you also have to think about whether you’re making the right choice for everyone else involved. Is selling now the best option or could you sell for even more in the future?
Want to appear on the podcast?
Our bar is high because we want our audience to get their advice from the best.
Meet one of these criteria?
For venture-backed businesses, we want valuations of $100m+.
For LinkedIn/X creators, we want 100k+ followers.
For VCs, we want partners with $1bn AUM.
For bootstrapped founders, we want $1m MRR.
If you want us to get someone else on, tell us and we’ll try our best!