Built to Sell Radio

Rachel Elsts Downey is the founder of Share Your Genius, a podcast production company that has been helping businesses increase their brand visibility since 2017. Over the years, Share Your Genius has grown into a successful business, generating $500,000 in revenue by 2021. That's when Downey was approached by one of her clients with an offer to acquire her business. The client wanted to hire Down...

In 2003, Ron Holt founded Two Maids & a Mop, a residential cleaning business. Thanks to an innovative employee bonus plan, Holt was able to grow his business to 12 company-owned locations.  That's when a random encounter with Fred DeLuca, the founder of Subway, changed Holt's life forever. Deluca gave Holt the inspiration and a roadmap for franchising his business which Holt used to grow Two Maids...

Sam Parr founded the Hustle, a media company that delivers business and tech news to millennials in an engaging and relatable way, in 2015. The business was an instant hit with readers, generating millions of page views in only a few months. By 2020 Sam Parr had grown the Hustle to $15 million in revenue, attracting the attention of tech giant HubSpot. A few months later, the tech conglomerate acq...

In 2016, Derek Morin founded Tabarnapp to create after-market sales applications for Shopify website owners. The company was an instant hit generating more than 1,000 paid customers in its first few months after launching on the Shopify platform.  In 2020, Morin acquired one of his partners' stake in Tabarnapp, valuing the company at $400,000. Two years later, Morin sold Tabarnapp for a much highe...

In 2012, Spencer Thompson founded Sokanu, a career assessment platform aimed at replacing the outdated assessments that existed at the time. Sokanu's "Career Explorer" quickly became one of North America's most prominent assessment tools and was adopted by the U.S. Government and top colleges around the world.  The assessments were a huge hit with job seekers, yet Thompson struggled to generate sa...

In 2011, Perry Rosenbloom started the web development company, Brighter Vision. After a few years of jumping from project to project, Rosenbloom had a breakthrough. Instead of doing web design for everyone, he decided to focus on creating websites exclusively for therapists. His decision to niche down worked as revenue soared. By 2020, Rosenbloom had thousands of customers and millions in sales, w...

In 2016, Marc Lafleur started truLOCAL, a subscription business allowing people to buy locally-raised meats online.  To ignite sales, Lafleur and his co-founder pitched the company on the popular Canadian TV show Dragon's Den (similar to Shark Tank). The presentation was a hit as they received an investment of $100,000 from Dragon's, Michele Romanow and Joe Mimran for 10% of the business.  As a re...

In 2009 Simon Penson founded Zazzle Media, one of the first content marketing agencies in the U.K. Although the company was successful, Penson had difficulties winning large customer contracts due to the size of his agency. To enhance his credibility, in 2015 he decided to merge Zazzle Media with Stickyeyes, which, at the time, formed the largest content marketing agency in the U.K.  Penson's deci...

This week on Built to Sell Radio, we highlight the top strategies from the 10 most popular shows of 2022.

In 2006 Kelby Zorgdrager started DevelopIntelligence, an outsourced training provider that helps programmers develop new skills and adapt to ever-changing technologies. The business snowballed as Zorgdrager onboarded most Fortune 500 giants in his space. However, Zorgdrager had a problem. The company was too dependent on him. To ensure the business could succeed without him, Zorgdrager implemented...

In 2016 Trevr Smithlin and Dave Hanley founded AdvertiseCast, a marketplace connecting podcasters with advertisers. The company experienced tremendous growth, doubling revenue year-over-year until 2020. That's when the uncertainty triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic caused Smithlin and Hanley to consider their strategic options. In March 2021, Smithlin and Hanley signed an acquisition agreement fro...

In 2016 Channing Allen and his brother Courtland founded Indie Hackers, a blog and forum that encourages founders to transparently share their ideas and stories.  After only eight months, the brothers had grown the business to $8,000 in revenue when they received an unexpected email from Patrick Collison (co-founder and CEO of Stripe), who was looking to acquire the company.  Although tempted to k...

In 2012, Jaclyn Johnson founded Create & Cultivate, a media company that educates and inspires women to succeed in business. By 2018, Johnson had grown Create & Cultivate to eight employees when an acquirer offered her a staggering $40 million. Unfortunately, the deal was too good to be true. When the acquirer discovered her hands-on management style, they pulled out. Learning from her mistakes, J...

In 2002 Chuck Crumpton started Medpoint to help businesses bring medical devices and pharmaceuticals to market. The company quickly took off after Crumpton landed a prominent blue-chip client.   It was a blessing and a curse. At one point, the blue-chip customer made up 83% of Medpoint's revenue. Determined to reduce his customer concentration, Crumpton implemented a clever strategy to minimize hi...

In 2009 Natalie Nagele and her husband, Chris, launched Postmark to help businesses deliver emails to their customers quickly. A decade in, Nagele had grown the company to around 40 employees, which was when she began feeling burned out. The pull to explore new interests was the catalyst to accepting a life-changing acquisition offer from Active Campaign in 2022.

In 2020 veterinarian Dr. Joseph Marchell started Old Brown Dog Veterinary Partners (OBDVP) after identifying a unique opportunity to do a rollup of family-owned animal hospitals.  Marchell acquired three practices for around ten times EBITDA. He then implemented a streamlined operational strategy that resulted in the sale of OBDVP less than two years later for almost three times the purchase price...

In 2015 Nick Santora founded Curricula, a cyber security awareness training program that helps companies defend themselves against hackers. Santora created fun, cartoon training videos in contrast to the dull content that existed at the time. Companies happily embraced Santora's approach. By 2021 he had grown Curricula to just over $2 million in annual recurring revenue when he accepted an acquisi...

In 2008, Gavin Hammar started Sendible, a platform that allows companies to manage all their social media accounts from one place.  The company grew steadily until 2016, when Hammar hit a sales plateau. Challenged to combat a high churn rate, Hammar took several unique steps to humanize his business. Becoming a more approachable brand worked. Sales increased by 30% year-over-year and by 2021, Send...

U.K.-based Nathan Winch started his career as a private equity investor after selling his first company, Winch Pharma, in 2017. Since then, Winch has acquired over 20 businesses, with a focus on logistics and infrastructure companies. In the latest installment of Built to Sell Radio's  Inside the Mind of an Acquirer series, you'll learn how to:  Understand how an investor structures an acquisition...

In 2014 Tim Grassin founded Candy Banners, which designs ads that show up along the top, bottom, and sides of a website.   Grassin built a remote team in the Philippines to minimize his costs. Hiring inexpensive developers allowed Grassin to charge lower rates to agency owners, resulting in rapid growth.  The business had grown to over seven figures in revenue in 2020 when Grassin received an acqu...

In 2015 Mike Winnet started U.K.-based Learning Heroes after recognizing that most e-learning programs were long and boring. Winnet saw an opportunity to transform the industry by creating short, engaging, animated training courses.  Winnet started by trying to sell his courses to job seekers, but when his efforts failed, he pivoted to selling to companies. Instead of a few hundred dollars a year...

In 2013 South African entrepreneur Jason Bagley started Firing Squad, a lead generation company specializing in cold emails.  In 2020 Firing Squad signed an agreement to be acquired by Southern Web and was later rebranded to SiteCare. The deal was something Bagley would later come to regret.

In 2012, Patrick Campbell founded ProfitWell to help SaaS companies increase revenue and reduce churn by managing their data in a single place.  After bootstrapping the business to 8-figures, Campbell decided it was time to raise money. While seeking a financial investor, Paddle approached him with an acquisition offer. Soon after, in 2022, Campbell sold ProfitWell to Paddle for over $200 million.

Ed Buckley started Peerfit, which allows companies to offer fitness classes as part of their employee benefits package. The company grew to more than 150 employees before receiving an acquisition offer for almost $100 million from a major fitness brand widely reported to be Peloton. As part of the deal, Buckley retained some of the IP, which, in a strange twist, he was able to sell in another eigh...

In 2012, Ryan Coon started  Rentalutions , a platform to help landlords manage and communicate with their tenants more effectively.  The business showed steady growth, but Coon wasn't satisfied.  Five years in, Coon rebranded the company to Avail and focused his marketing to target DIY landlords with under ten rental units to manage. The changes proved successful as Coon grew the business to aroun...