Built to Sell Radio

That's why we created the After the Deal series on Built to Sell Radio. This series explores life after selling a business—delving into the personal, financial, and emotional transitions that come when work becomes a choice, not a requirement.  In this episode, we speak with Preston Holland, author of Private Jet Insider and an expert in private aviation. Preston shares why private jet travel isn'...

This week on Built to Sell Radio , John Warrillow interviews Blake Hutchison, CEO of Flippa, the world's largest marketplace for buying and selling digital businesses. With experience overseeing thousands of real transactions, Blake offers a unique window into the minds of today's acquirers. 

Ben Landers built Blue Corona, an 8-figure digital marketing agency focused on home service businesses, into a data-driven powerhouse. When it came time to sell, Ben achieved something extraordinary: a clean exit with no earn-outs, a rare feat in the service business world where earn-outs are practically the norm.

Adam Kerrigan started as the owner of a managed service provider (MSP) business, which he built and eventually sold. After his exit, he joined the acquiring company to lead its M&A group, where he completed 16 deals and helped build a private equity-backed organization.   In this episode of Built to Sell Radio , Adam pulls back the curtain on how acquirers often push for cashless deals, offering e...

As we gear up for 2025, I wanted to highlight the top strategies covered this past year on Built to Sell Radio . These insights are designed to help you increase the value of your business and position yourself for a successful exit.

Imagine personally guaranteeing millions in debt to fill a $28M order—only to have it yanked at the last minute. It nearly bankrupted founder Adi Gullia as well as Grace & Stella. Yet he overcame it all and sold at a 5.8x EBITDA multiple. 

In this week's episode of Built to Sell Radio, John Warrillow interviews Kaelon Egan, the founder of AccelaSchool , who successfully sold his company to PowerSchool—a giant in the K-12 education technology space.   For most founders, the ultimate dream is to sell to a strategic acquirer: a well-funded, industry leader with deep pockets. Egan shares exactly how he positioned his company to become a...

James Ashford built GoProposal with a clear goal: to sell. From designing the logo with potential acquirers in mind to rallying his team around the vision, James executed his plan with precision. The result? An eight-figure sale to Sage, a FTSE 100 company. But what happened after the deal?   In this week's  Built to Sell Radio , part of our  After the Deal  series, James opens up about life post-...

If you're a business owner, chances are buyers are considering your industry for a roll-up. From veterinary clinics to auto body shops, pharmacies to advertising agencies—you name the industry, there's probably a private equity firm looking to roll it up.  This week's episode is part of our Inside the Mind of an Acquirer series, where we dive into the strategies and motivations of different types...

What does it take to turn nightlife into big business? Med school dropout Shane Neman cracked the code on the nightclub industry, transforming its back office into a finely tuned, revenue-generating machine. From pioneering one of the first SMS platforms for small businesses to setting up his companies for top-dollar exits, Shane shares the technical strategies that turned his ideas into high-valu...

Few founders exemplify resilience like Mike Fata, co-founder of Manitoba Harvest. Growing up in a single-parent, low-income household, Fata dropped out of school in grade 10, struggled with health issues, and found himself weighing 300 pounds by age 18. A life-changing commitment to health led him to discover hemp as a nutritional powerhouse, sparking his path to founding Manitoba Harvest and buil...

When Carrie Kelsch was encouraged to start a garage door business back in 2004 , she had no experience in the industry.      By 2022 , her company, A Plus Garage Doors, was generat ing $35 million in revenue with 30% EBITDA margins. This week on Built to Sell Radio, host John Warrillow shares Carrie's journey—from her first steps in the home services industry to the personal tragedy that ultimatel...

Pete Neubig started his entrepreneurial journey buying $35,000 houses with small down payments. After amassing 60 homes, he realized there was more money in managing properties for others.    Pete shifted focus to building a property management company, handling maintenance and rent collection for over 1,000 homes, and eventually sold the business for $4.6 million or 1.75 times recurring revenue t...

In this episode of Built to Sell Radio, Jim Lindstrom discusses how he acquired BuzzWord , a company specializing in ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) reporting. Lindstrom explains how he built a killer culture by transforming contractors into full-time employees and incentivizing them with a two-part profit-sharing scheme focused on cash flow and EBITDA, setting the business up for futu...

Luke Peters started off by reselling everyday appliances like bar fridges online. Eventually he built a brand and shifted to selling his products on big e-commerce retailers. Peters grew NewAir to $80 million in revenue before selling it for a lifechanging windfall in 2022. 

Matt Ebert's path to founding Crash Champions didn't start with a grand plan—it began with a car wreck. At 16, he found himself needing to fix his own car, sparking an unexpected passion that led to building one of the largest collision repair companies in the United States. 

Aaron Levenstadt built Pedestal Search into a business worth selling by mastering one thing: SEO. While clients tempted him to offer other services, Aaron knew the real value lay in doing one thing better than anyone else. In this episode of Built to Sell Radio, Aaron shares how focusing on one service helped him stand out in a crowded market and achieve a successful exit.

Jessica DeLuca co-founded Cult Beauty in 2008, creating one of the UK's leading online beauty retailers. In this episode of Built to Sell Radio , Jessica reveals the path that led her to selling the business for £275 million to The Hut Group (THG) .  DeLuca's background in tech shaped the business, with her love for data and precision leading to a meticulously curated platform. Frustrated by the l...

Alex Bean sold his company, Divvy, for $2.5 billion. But after reaching this monumental milestone, why didn't the sale bring him the happiness he expected? In this episode, Alex shares his journey and the lessons he learned about life after a business exit. 

On this week's Built to Sell Radio , John Warrillow talks to Tim Schumacher, co-founder of SaaS Group, about the mindset of an acquirer.  Tim shares Peter Thiel's "zero to one" versus "one to ten" concept and how knowing which one you are can shape your business. 

n this episode of Built to Sell Radio , Jim Sebenius, the founder of the Negotiation Unit at Harvard Business School, shares his advanced negotiation strategies for selling a privately held business .      Jim's extensive experience includes his time at the Blackstone Group, where he negotiated on behalf of one of the world's largest alternative asset managers with more than $1 trillion under mana...

Matt Matros built Protein Bar from a single smoothie shop into a fast-growing chain. In 2012, private equity firm L Catterton came knocking with a deal valuing his company at $44 million. Matt decided to roll 40% of his equity, expecting it to grow even more.

This week on Built to Sell Radio , William Brown shares his remarkable journey from selling a $50 Word document offering trading advice to building a multi- million dollar online education business that attracted serious interest from acquirers. Based in Dubai, William's story is a testament to how a simple, bootstrapped start can evolve into a highly valuable and sellable business.  

Corporate buyers are notoriously secretive and rarely reveal their inner workings. This is why our latest episode of Built to Sell Radio is so valuable: It provides a rare look into the secretive world of corporate M&A.     Our guest is Christopher Vollmond-Carstens, Chief M&A Officer at Ntiva, where they help businesses keep their technology running smoothly, from managing their computer systems...

Most people hear about spectacular acquisitions made by strategic acquirers or giant private equity groups. But the reality is, you're likely to sell your company to a small business in your sector that nobody outside your industry has ever heard of.   In our latest episode of Built to Sell Radio, part of our Inside the Mind of an Acquirer series, we get inside the head of Kristi Herold. Kristi is...