Buy Grow Sell

Jason Howard calls himself a 30-year overnight success. He built StudyLink across three different businesses, from a CD-ROM directory to the admissions software universities ran on, and never set out to sell it. At the end of 2023, he sold to Flywire, a NASDAQ-listed payments company, in a deal that closed in about six weeks. Simon Bedard and Jason talk through what made the business saleable with...

One hundred episodes. One consistent theme: the conversations business owners need to have about exit and rarely do. In this milestone episode, Simon Bedard steps back from the interview format to answer the seven questions that have come up most consistently across 100 episodes of conversations with founders, advisors, and acquirers. No guests. No framework. Just straight answers to the questions...

In this special episode of the Buy Grow Sell Podcast, Simon Bedard sits down with Warren Hogan, Managing Director of EQ Economics and Chief Economic Advisor at Judo Bank, to discuss Australian inflation, interest rates, the succession cliff, and what it means for business owners planning to exit. Connect with Warren Hogan LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/warren-hogan-835581116/ Website: https...

We are reflecting on an extraordinary year of the Buy Grow Sell podcast, where we delved into the triumphs and tribulations of nearly 100 business owners from across the globe. To wrap up this season, we rounded up the top insights from our guests that every business owner needs to know. Listen to our final episode of 2023 and leave with five integral tips to ensuring a successful business sale. S...

In episode 98 of the Buy Grow Sell Podcast, I sit down with Nick Fanto from Orbital Advisory and Joanna Oakey from Aspect Legal to discuss the complex challenges that arise when business partnerships go sour. Nick shares personal experiences and valuable insights into the importance of planning for unforeseen circumstances, such as illness or injury, which may impact the key revenue-generating ind...

From four frustrated moms crafting labels in a basement to a multi-million-dollar business model, Julie Cole and her co-founders navigated the challenges of co-founding a business while juggling parenthood and bootstrapping their startup. Eventually, Mabel’s Labels moved from a basement to a bigger basement to a 20,000 square foot facility before finally selling for $12M back in 2016. In this epis...

From growing her business to $1M then spending it all on a lawsuit, seeing her business fall apart on 9/11, having her father die six weeks later, and losing her house on the very same day as the funeral, Beate Chelette has faced her fair share of adversity. But she turned it around, rebuilding her business from scratch, and eventually selling it off to Bill Gates for 5x gross earnings. In this ep...

If you’re an entrepreneur eyeing the outsourcing realm, then you’re in for a treat. Learn how Nathan Hirsch’s journey shifted from dollars to value, from e-commerce to building an empire of virtual assistants, to exiting and finding contentment in the freedom he gained after growing the business to eight figures. His journey spans from street smarts to business brilliance, as Nathan shares his exp...

As one of Australia’s most successful businesspeople, Radek Sali blends over a decade in the service industry with a lifetime of health and wellness knowledge, and pairs it with a conscious business philosophy that puts people first. Under his helm, he transformed Swisse Wellness Group into one of the largest wellness brands in the country before negotiating a $1.7B acquisition deal with a Hong Ko...

Hampus Jakobsson co-founded the company at the age of 21 with his university friends and sold it eight years later for $150 million to Blackberry. Over coffee. While usually a 9-figure exit takes more than a year to complete, this acquisition took place in less than six weeks. Why? Because Hampus and his co-founders spent those eight years building the perfect product for the market, making it irr...

As a self-described scaler, Kurt Uhlir has helped start and run businesses from start-up to hundreds of millions of dollars in annual revenue, been a part of over 60 transactions, and built teams across almost every continent. He came onto the Buy Grow Sell Podcast to share some of his stories about scaling, how to recruit the right people to grow fast and effectively, what he looks for in strateg...

Sophie Howard, Founder of Aspiring Entrepreneurs, has started, scaled, and sold six and seven-figure online businesses. Sophie started online with an Amazon business in 2013, which she sold for over $1 million USD in 2015. As well as launching over 1,000 products, she has built educational programs teaching thousands of students how to sell online. She is now focusing her efforts on buying other o...

Imagine growth so fast, you needed to double your headcount every 120 days. How do you build a sustainable business this way? More importantly, how do you exit? In the latest episode of the Buy Grow Sell podcast, Sunny Vanderbeck, a successful entrepreneur and investor, walks us through the start, rapid growth, then exit of his business Data Return. Over three years, it grew a staggering 40% every...

Getting tips from a computer about how to act more human seems a little counterintuitive. But Shruti Kapoor’s software, Wingman, takes that role very seriously. The application allows salespeople to get real time feedback on mannerisms, and when to pick up on social cues. The trio of founders include Shruti Kapoor, who speaks about how they developed the product, approached seeking capital, and ho...

Jeffrey Deckman is a serial entrepreneur who bootstrapped 2 multi-million-dollar companies, several non-profits, and multiple political organisations. Despite his early dream of becoming a field operator in his dad’s industry, Jeffrey became a business owner and leader. However, after 15 years into his second business, Synet, he realised that it was time for him to exit. He shares his journey of l...

Tom Jackobs went from being 40 pounds overweight to being at the helm of a very successful fitness centre within a decade. His transformation from cushy corporate to SME was both mental and physical as he learned what to do – and what not to do – as a small business owner. After growing the business to $600k in annual revenue, Tom sold Body3 Personal Fitness to transform into the next stage of his...

The hardest job in business is being in middle management, according to this episode’s guest. With people above and below you, you’re stuck in a sandwich trying to create change. For Mark Janes, he realised he was spending his career building great businesses for other people when he decided he should do it for himself. As a company builder and highly successful entrepreneur, Mark has grown and ex...

To be successful in a business you must be passionate about the problem you’re solving. This advice comes from 3-time serial SaaS/DaaS entrepreneur, CEO, Board Director, and tech executive, Alexander Rink. His most recent exit was to the tune of 8-figures after coming on and pivoting 360pi from a consumer comparison platform (B2C) to a market intelligence platform for retailers (B2B). Along the wa...

There are four questions an entrepreneur needs to ask themselves. With more than 25 years of entrepreneurship and business management experience, Ian Silverberg boils down every business decision and every interaction with his clients to these four questions and considers them the throughlines between buying, growing, and selling a business. In this episode, you’ll walk away with a four-question f...

Ryan Niddel has the Midas Touch. He’s the leading authority on improving revenue of companies by improving EBITDA through increased operational efficiency, lean manufacturing principles, and more. In fact, in one 2.5 year period, he successfully tripled the revenue of more than 5 companies, adding an extra $950M in valuations. Ryan’s passion for growth is balanced by a natural curiosity and humili...

Interested in trends shaping the B2B tech space? Not sure whether you should invest in video or in an AI-based content creation tool? Curious to see how ChatGPT is going to overthrow your current workflows? Tune into this episode of the Buy Grow Sell podcast and learn from marketing technology expert, Josh Sweeney. As a digital disruptor, Josh Sweeney is a seasoned entrepreneur whose relentless dr...

Bryan Clayton went from mowing lawns to owning a lawnmowing business to owning a lawnmowing services app. He started mowing lawns in high school before turning it into a 150+ person company that turned over $10M a year in annual revenue. After selling it, and finding himself emotionally adrift, Bryan decided to beat the Ubers and the Marketplaces of the world and build an app for his industry befo...

Jonathan Jay has bought, grown, and sold businesses in publishing, digital marketing, adult education and coaching, and preschool education. His M.O.? Strategically acquire and then sell to strategic acquirers in turn. Some of his highlights include: Making 48 business acquisitions to create the 4th largest group in his sector in under three years Buying a digital marketing business for £1 and sel...

Gary Guseinov has spent his career successfully buying, growing, and selling businesses. As the founder of CyberDefender and the CEO of RealDefense where he acquires other cybersecurity companies, Gary has a proven playbook of making profitable business decisions. His experience on every side of the transaction process means he has a lot to share with entrepreneurs whether they’re building their f...

Most entrepreneurs dream of selling to a Fortune 500 Company. However, how many entrepreneurs build a business that a Fortune 500 Company would want to buy? Aaron Walker, at the ripe old age of 27, exited his pawn shop business to Cash America for 7 figures. After nine years of paying himself an $18,000 annual salary so he could pour the money back into the business, Aaron found himself on the oth...