<story><title>Lessons Learned after $5B of M&amp;A</title><url>https://tomtunguz.com/what-ive-learned-ma/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>fairity</author><text>Any advice on finding the right advisor firm for a sale in the high $xx million range?  We&amp;#x27;re a team of builders and have no experience in M&amp;amp;A, and little experience in finance&amp;#x2F;negotiation.&lt;p&gt;I’m worried that a broker will be incentivized to close  a deal at an undervalued price, similar to brokers in real estate.</text></item><item><author>tmcz26</author><text>We sold our 8-year-old startup last year, and boy do a lot of these bullet points ring true. We were very lucky that one of the founders was skilled at the M&amp;amp;A game, or we would have underpriced it dramatically.&lt;p&gt;If you’re thinking about selling, I’d recommend hiring an advisor firm. They charge a 2-8% fee, but they are worth it. You get better valuations and help with the tricky clauses.&lt;p&gt;The one about losing leverage after term sheet, it depends. Our acquirer was a public company, so they had to announce the signing to the market. It would look really bad if the acquisition didn’t go through (stock jumped when TS was announced), so I’d say we had even more leverage then.&lt;p&gt;Edit: typo</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>endymi0n</author><text>In all honesty, my concrete advice would be reaching out to other local founders privately and asked what worked for them and what didn&amp;#x27;t. Note there usually is a lot to these stories that aren&amp;#x27;t told in public for many reasons.&lt;p&gt;On top, one thing I regret is not having joined a network of founders and entrepreneurs earlier. These days, I would just ask them and get 2-3 spot-on recommendations with warm intros in a day. We hackers and builders usually scoff at these kind of &amp;quot;elite&amp;quot; networks until we realize building and selling a company is fundamentally a people business, where connections and trust are paramount. Reach out to me on LinkedIn for an intro to the organization I&amp;#x27;m in (it&amp;#x27;s global).&lt;p&gt;As for the original advice: +100 from my side. Especially if the whole founder round is not experienced, you really want to have a cold blooded veteran on your side. Someone who commands respect by founders, is hired by you guys and is incentivized by getting home a part of the deal. Not only do these brokers have the know-how, they usually have a vast network of interested parties to bring to the table at any time to get a bidding war started and are experienced in navigating the delicate timing of the funnel that is crucial for a success. The differences in outcome I&amp;#x27;ve personally witnessed with and without brokers are night and day, even though I have my own cultural issues with them.</text></comment>
<story><title>Lessons Learned after $5B of M&amp;A</title><url>https://tomtunguz.com/what-ive-learned-ma/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>fairity</author><text>Any advice on finding the right advisor firm for a sale in the high $xx million range?  We&amp;#x27;re a team of builders and have no experience in M&amp;amp;A, and little experience in finance&amp;#x2F;negotiation.&lt;p&gt;I’m worried that a broker will be incentivized to close  a deal at an undervalued price, similar to brokers in real estate.</text></item><item><author>tmcz26</author><text>We sold our 8-year-old startup last year, and boy do a lot of these bullet points ring true. We were very lucky that one of the founders was skilled at the M&amp;amp;A game, or we would have underpriced it dramatically.&lt;p&gt;If you’re thinking about selling, I’d recommend hiring an advisor firm. They charge a 2-8% fee, but they are worth it. You get better valuations and help with the tricky clauses.&lt;p&gt;The one about losing leverage after term sheet, it depends. Our acquirer was a public company, so they had to announce the signing to the market. It would look really bad if the acquisition didn’t go through (stock jumped when TS was announced), so I’d say we had even more leverage then.&lt;p&gt;Edit: typo</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>cascom</author><text>Interview several firms that have done deals in your space&amp;#x2F;vertical, and where this will be a meaningful transaction to the firm&amp;#x2F;md - and ask them for valuation guidance (e.g. what they think they think they can sell your company for) you’ll generally find they’ll be in a similar range (e.g. 4-5x ARR) that should set expectations for the sale process.&lt;p&gt;Deal structure can be worth ~20%+ of purchase price so don’t be myopic on focusing on price only. Trying to get the last dollar usually leads to broken deals and unhappy people on both sides, but you want to make sure that you’re getting a good market read on value for your business.&lt;p&gt;Make sure you trust the team&amp;#x2F;have chemistry, you’ll go through quite a bit together. Also make sure you have M&amp;amp;A counsel - don’t let your commercial counsel handle this (you wouldn’t let your internist perform open heart surgery on you…)</text></comment>