The Wise Exit
Todd Sullivan
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Top 10 The Wise Exit Episodes
Goodpods has curated a list of the 10 best The Wise Exit episodes, ranked by the number of listens and likes each episode have garnered from our listeners. If you are listening to The Wise Exit for the first time, there's no better place to start than with one of these standout episodes. If you are a fan of the show, vote for your favorite The Wise Exit episode by adding your comments to the episode page.
Selling Garden Fresh Salsa to Campbell's Soup, and Trying To Buy It Back | John Latella
The Wise Exit
03/22/23 • 39 min
E27: On today's episode of the Cashing Out podcast we have a good friend and entrepreneur, John Latella. John is the former owner and CEO of the family-owned iconic food brand Garden Fresh Gourmet, which John and his partners sold to The Campbell Soup Company in 2015 for $231 million.
John and Todd talk about how he acquired Basha Hummus and El Matador Tortilla Co. to help grow his business to more than $100 Million in sales. We touch on how the Garden Fresh team managed through multiple inbound offers and M&A interest to eventually land on what they thought to be their ideal acquirer, The Campbell Soup Co. And finally, we discuss what drove John and some new business partners to try to buy the business back just a few years later.
Today, John is an active angel investor and founder of Legacy Fantasy Sports, a fantasy sports platform that allows users to insert their favorite professional players from the past into live professional sports events.
Episode Highlights:
5:48 - Managing inbound interest (M&A) from six different potential acquirers over the years
8:55 - What finally let John to sell Garden Fresh to The Campbell Soup Company
15:50 - The details of the Garden Fresh sale, and what happened next
22:57 - John (and team) have the opportunity to buy Garden Fresh Gourmet back from Campbell's
30:20 - John's first phone call after the sale to Campbell's
31:46 - The joy of bonusing the original employees of Garden Fresh after the transaction
32:54 - John's final Mergers & Acquisition (M&A) advice to his fellow founders and entrepreneurs
Where To Find John Latella:
Where To Find Todd Sullivan:
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/toddfsullivan/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/Todd_Sullivan
Episode 27 References:
College Athlete Turned Entrepreneur - Growing & Exiting All Star Driving School | Brent Wall
The Wise Exit
03/01/23 • 42 min
E24: On Episode 24 of the Cashing Out Podcast we have a great guest, fellow college athlete and former owner of All Star Driver Education, Brent Wall. In 2007, Brent bought All-Star Driver Education from his father because they had very different views on how to grow the business. And Brent was tired of working for the family business without having true ownership. Once Brent took the reins, he grew this small family business into a 13 state operation with accompanying software, a platform which he ultimately sold in 2019 to a Private Equity firm.
In our conversation, Brent shares his family dynamics that led to him buying the business. How picking the wrong potential buyer for his business set his exit process back several months. And finally, how Brent determined how much money he needed to sell his company for to comfortably enter the next phase of his entrepreneurial career as a crypto and blockchain investor.
A few episode highlights:
4:35 - Playing in the Men's NCAA Basketball Tournament against #1 seed North Carolina (think Vince Carter & Antawn Jamison)
6:14 - The complexities of growing the family business
24:52 - The peaks and valleys of the Mergers & Acquisitions process... and having to go through the process twice!
29:35 - The value of M&A expertise in Brent's journey
39:14 - Brent's next entrepreneurial journey, creating a Crypto Hedge Fund, Silver Harbor Capital
I hope you enjoy my conversation with Brent Wall.
10/24/23 • 35 min
EPISODE 58: THIS WEEK'S GUEST - JEAN ANNE BOOTH
In this episode, Jean Anne talks about:
- Having multiple strategic investors on your cap table
- Being prepared for your buyer to change the terms of your exit days before signing
- Knowing what you should say no to when raising capital or selling your company
GUEST BIO:
Jean Anne Booth is a serial entrepreneur with a number of successful exits, including selling Luminary Micro to Texas Instruments in 2009 and Intrinsity to Apple in the early 2000's. Her background spans from P&L business unit management to marketing; product definition; systems, software, and applications engineering; silicon development engineering; and operations and product engineering.
Jean Anne has over 30 years of experience in high tech ventures and has raised over $100 million in venture capital for her companies. Now on her fourth tech startup, Jean Anne is building UnaliWear, a wearable “OnStar for people” watch to provide discreet support for falls, medication reminders, and to guard against wandering.
I hope you enjoy my conversation with Jean Anne Booth.
WHERE TO FIND JEAN ANNE BOOTH:
EPISODE REFERENCES AND READING MATERIAL:
Texas Instruments Acquires Luminary Micro, Expands MCU Lineup
Apple buys chipmaker Intrinsity
Mythic.ai
09/19/23 • 54 min
E53: THIS WEEK'S GUEST - MATT BLUMBERG
In this episode, Matt talks about how:
- Creating better personal relationships with acquirers can de-risk M&A transactions
- To bounce back from a failed M&A transaction
- Building a company with a work/life balance in mind can lead to a great outcome
GUEST BIO:
Matt Blumberg, a former management consultant, a venture capitalist and early employee who helped MovieFone move into the Internet age and get acquired by AOL.
With his well-rounded training, Matt’s biggest professional success came by co-founding Return Path, a company that provides email intelligence solutions for marketers. Matt and his team grew the company to 500 employees and a hundred million in revenue. Along his 20 year journey, Matt was approached four times to sell the business, and after four failed attempts for various reasons he finally completed a sale to Validity, a consumer data company, in 2019.
Today, Matt is the co-founder and CEO of Bolster, a talent marketplace to match highly experienced executives with fractional and project based roles to help startups scale.
WHERE TO FIND MATT BLUMBERG:
LinkedIn
X (Twitter)
EPISODE REFERENCES AND READING MATERIAL:
Validity Acquires Return Path, the leader in email deliverability
The Daily Bolster Podcast, with Matt Blumberg
Startup CEO (by Matt Blumberg)
Startup CXO (by Matt Blumberg)
Startup Boards (by Matt Blumberg)
Someone Just Offered To Buy Your Company: Now What? (blog)
10/12/22 • 38 min
E7: Brandon started in investment banking at Goldman Sachs and then jumped to private equity to learn the tricks of the trade. After graduating from Harvard Business School, Brandon not only started a company, but he also worked in strategy and in M&A roles in multiple industries. Ultimately, Brandon discovered his life changing opportunity as an independent sponsor by purchasing and rolling up dental practices in the Midwest.
Five years later, after building up a significant business, Brandon and his partner were approached by a much larger organization to be acquired.
For many independent sponsors, buying a business takes incredible skill, patience and persistence. Success does not happen overnight, and it takes real sacrifice. Brandon's story is one of systematic and tireless pursuit of improving his personal business skillset while diligently searching for his big opportunity.
We hope you enjoy our conversation with Brandon Halcott.
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This episode is brought to you by Exitwise: https://www.exitwise.com
Exitwise helps business owners create the exits they deserve by assembling the best teams of industry specific, M&A experts, who will help maximize the sale of each business.
How Does It Work:
1. Schedule A Call: Schedule a call with one of our M&A Advisors and we'll walk you through the entire process of selling your business, from market valuations to M&A expert fees and from due diligence to the signing of your purchase agreement. We're here to answer any questions you may have.
On this call, we'll want to learn about the history of the business, your financial performance, your management team and listen to your thoughts and requirements for selling the business so we can make sure to find the best M&A experts to help maximize your exit.
2. Review Top Experts: Once we've had a chance to process all your business information, we'll share with you, our top choices for investment bankers, M&A attorneys, and tax accountants to help maximize the sale of your business.
We’ll present each M&A expert’s transaction history, estimated valuation range for your business and their fee structures. Then we’ll talk through the pros and cons of each choice to help you prioritize and make the best decisions.
3. Negotiate & Hire: Finally, when we've narrowed it down to your top choices, we'll negotiate your engagement letter with each M&A expert to make sure fees and terms are fair for everyone. We know what to look for and we know how to keep everyone incentivized for your optimal outcome.
Once your M&A experts have been selected and you’re ready to move forward, we’ll collect signatures and get everyone to work.
Selling Without an iBanker | Shane Bliemaster
The Wise Exit
09/28/22 • 43 min
E5: Shane Bliemaster has the interesting perspective of working for three companies that were acquired, the last of which was his own.
He went through his first M&A transaction as an employee of Peanut Labs, which was acquired by e-Rewards in 2010. Then he was part of the founding team of MoviePass, which was acquired in 2017. And finally, his last exit was as the founder of Marketing Supply Company, which he sold to Phenomenon in 2021.
Now because of Shane's previous experience with M&A, he decided to sell this last business without hiring an investment banker. In today's conversation, we'll explore how he made that decision, any advice he has for our fellow founders that might be in a similar position, and in hindsight, did he make the right call?
We hope you enjoy our conversation with Shane Bliemaster.
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This episode is brought to you by Exitwise: https://www.exitwise.com
Exitwise helps business owners create the exits they deserve by assembling the best teams of industry specific, M&A experts, who will help maximize the sale of each business.
How Does It Work:
1. Schedule A Call: Schedule a call with one of our M&A Advisors and we'll walk you through the entire process of selling your business, from market valuations to M&A expert fees and from due diligence to the signing of your purchase agreement. We're here to answer any questions you may have.
On this call, we'll want to learn about the history of the business, your financial performance, your management team and listen to your thoughts and requirements for selling the business so we can make sure to find the best M&A experts to help maximize your exit.
2. Review Top Experts: Once we've had a chance to process all your business information, we'll share with you, our top choices for investment bankers, M&A attorneys, and tax accountants to help maximize the sale of your business.
We’ll present each M&A expert’s transaction history, estimated valuation range for your business and their fee structures. Then we’ll talk through the pros and cons of each choice to help you prioritize and make the best decisions.
3. Negotiate & Hire: Finally, when we've narrowed it down to your top choices, we'll negotiate your engagement letter with each M&A expert to make sure fees and terms are fair for everyone. We know what to look for and we know how to keep everyone incentivized for your optimal outcome.
Once your M&A experts have been selected and you’re ready to move forward, we’ll collect signatures and get everyone to work.
09/21/22 • 30 min
E4: Josh has been the founder and CEO of five tech companies, which sold for a combined value of over 200 million. He's an internationally recognized expert on innovation and the author of four books on the subject. Josh is an accomplished venture capitalist as founding partner of both Detroit Venture Partners and his latest firm, Mudita Venture Partners.
In today's episode, Josh goes deep into his entrepreneurial journey at ePrize - a desperate search for investment, mid-stream offers, a recapitalization of the business, a well thought succession plan, and an incredible exit. Josh also highlights his experiences with both highly qualified & specialized bankers, as well as one banker that cost him several million dollars in his first exit.
We hope you enjoy our conversation with Josh Linkner.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
This episode is brought to you by Exitwise: https://www.exitwise.com
Exitwise helps business owners create the exits they deserve by assembling the best teams of industry specific, M&A experts, who will help maximize the sale of each business.
How Does It Work:
1. Schedule A Call: Schedule a call with one of our M&A Advisors and we'll walk you through the entire process of selling your business, from market valuations to M&A expert fees and from due diligence to the signing of your purchase agreement. We're here to answer any questions you may have.
On this call, we'll want to learn about the history of the business, your financial performance, your management team and listen to your thoughts and requirements for selling the business so we can make sure to find the best M&A experts to help maximize your exit.
2. Review Top Experts: Once we've had a chance to process all your business information, we'll share with you, our top choices for investment bankers, M&A attorneys, and tax accountants to help maximize the sale of your business.
We’ll present each M&A expert’s transaction history, estimated valuation range for your business and their fee structures. Then we’ll talk through the pros and cons of each choice to help you prioritize and make the best decisions.
3. Negotiate & Hire: Finally, when we've narrowed it down to your top choices, we'll negotiate your engagement letter with each M&A expert to make sure fees and terms are fair for everyone. We know what to look for and we know how to keep everyone incentivized for your optimal outcome.
Once your M&A experts have been selected and you’re ready to move forward, we’ll collect signatures and get everyone to work.
Sold to Strategic Partner | Itai Ben-Gal
The Wise Exit
09/07/22 • 39 min
E2: Today, Itai Ben-Gal joins the podcast to talk about how he took his passion for home audio and video to build, scale, and eventually sell iRule to a strategic investor. You'll learn how he raised capital through a variety of channels - angel funding, venture capital and strategic investors, navigated a complicated sale, and how he and his business partner managed a very complex earn-out. He even talks through how he used his iRule exit to "accidentally" start his next company, Nerdy Bunny.
Itai has some of the best personal and professional advice we’ve ever heard for our fellow founders going through and M&A process - we hope you enjoy the conversation with Itai.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
This episode is brought to you by Exitwise: https://www.exitwise.com
Exitwise helps business owners create the exits they deserve by assembling the best teams of industry specific, M&A experts, who will help maximize the sale of each business.
How Does It Work:
1. Schedule A Call: Schedule a call with one of our M&A Advisors and we'll walk you through the entire process of selling your business, from market valuations to M&A expert fees and from due diligence to the signing of your purchase agreement. We're here to answer any questions you may have.
On this call, we'll want to learn about the history of the business, your financial performance, your management team and listen to your thoughts and requirements for selling the business so we can make sure to find the best M&A experts to help maximize your exit.
2. Review Top Experts: Once we've had a chance to process all your business information, we'll share with you, our top choices for investment bankers, M&A attorneys, and tax accountants to help maximize the sale of your business.
We’ll present each M&A expert’s transaction history, estimated valuation range for your business and their fee structures. Then we’ll talk through the pros and cons of each choice to help you prioritize and make the best decisions.
3. Negotiate & Hire: Finally, when we've narrowed it down to your top choices, we'll negotiate your engagement letter with each M&A expert to make sure fees and terms are fair for everyone. We know what to look for and we know how to keep everyone incentivized for your optimal outcome.
Once your M&A experts have been selected and you’re ready to move forward, we’ll collect signatures and get everyone to work.
04/12/23 • 45 min
E30: Today, my guest is Rob Emery, a serial telecom and pet industry entrepreneur with two exits under his belt.
Early in his career, Rob started selling cell phones through his own retail outlets. After merging his retail locations with a franchise partner, Rob sold off his retail locations and founded ProtectCELL to focus on selling cell phone protection and replacement service plans through operational excellence and great business relationships. ProtectCELL became one of INC magazine's 500 fastest growing companies in the country.
Rob was looking for a financial partner to grow the business further, but ended up selling the majority of the business in 2012 and then selling the remaining equity two years later. Today, after investing in the pet industry as a hobby, Rob is now the owner and CEO of Encompass Pet Group, which distributes high quality pet foods and products, manages pet retail outlets and sells the hugely popular pet Comfort product, Snuggle Puppy.
In our discussion, Rob advises business owners to; 1) build your data room every day so you're ready to exit when a buyer comes calling, 2) conduct real due diligence on your buyer if you're going to roll equity, and 3) how installing operational excellence and infrastructure can allow a business owner to grow by buying other companies.
I hope you enjoy the conversation with Rob Emery.
Episode Highlights:
(5:02) From selling car stereos to opening a retail location - the beginnings of entrepreneurship
(8:02) How cell phone protection plans kick-started massive growth
(10:10) Managing exceptional growth
(13:02) Getting the M&A (Mergers & Acquisitions) house in order
(16:54) Two bites at the M&A (Mergers & Acquisitions) apple
(22:46) Retirement, and beginning the next step in an exceptional entrepreneurial journey
(25:27) The investment into SnugglePuppy
(31:38) The long term plan for Rob and the Encompass Pet Group
(36:20) The importance of having a proper Data Room in M&A (Mergers & Acquisitions)
(41:33) Fly first class forever...
(41:49) Changing the life of Rob's two niece's and one nephew
Where To Find Todd Sullivan:
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/toddfsullivan/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/Todd_Sullivan
Where To Find Rob Emery:
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robemery1/
Episode 30 References:
M&A Lessons From A 3x Entrepreneur | A.J. Lawrence
The Wise Exit
04/26/23 • 53 min
E32: Join Todd Sullivan as he interviews A.J. Lawrence, a self-proclaimed journeyman entrepreneur with multiple exits under his belt. A.J. sold his first web development business to an ad agency a few years out of college. He then moved into I.T. hardware and sold his Wi-Fi router business to his main hardware supplier. AJ capped it off in 2021 by building and selling a multi-million dollar digital ad agency which made the Inc. 500 twice.
Today, A.J. is a student of the entrepreneurial mindset. Given his success, he is intent on better understanding what makes founders succeed and fail. To this end, A.J. acquired the Beyond Eight Figures podcast to explore and share what makes entrepreneurs tick and how we can all improve our skill sets through the experiences of our fellow founders. In today's discussion, A.J. and I discuss how his companies were valued by strategic acquirers, his understanding of why terms are more important than price in an M&A transaction, and the value of family support when building and selling a business.
Episode Highlights:
- (3:32) AJ's beginning as a serial entrepreneur
- (8:26) The details behind AJ's first exit, and the strategic partnership that created it
- (13:49) "Your Price, Our Terms"
- (16:45) The Creation of business #2
- (18:52) From near failure to a seven-figure exit
- (25:29) The importance of defining your "why" in the early days of your startup
- (29:17) The creation of the JAR Group, and the emotional toll it took on AJ on his team
- (33:32) Losing his revenue whale at JAR, and the realities of the business left behind
- (35:04) A burned out CEO, and a fortunate negotiation that led to a significant earnout
- (42:11) Buying a podcast with BITCOIN
- (47:19) Final M&A perspectives from a 3x entrepreneur
- (51:12) The role that friends and family play in an entrepreneur's success
Where To Find Todd Sullivan (Host):
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/toddfsullivan/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/Todd_Sullivan
Where To Find A.J. Lawrence (Guest):
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ajlawrence3/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/ajlawrence
Episode 32 Required Reading:
- What Is Seller Discretionary Earnings ("SDE")?
- Beyond 8 Figures podcast | A.J. Lawrence
- Built To Sell | John Warrillow
- Buy Then Build | Walker Deibel
- 4 Ways to Calculate the Value of Your Business
- Startup Savant Podcast
- TRUIC: Guides To Start And Grow Your Small Business
Thanks so much for joining us this week. Want to subscribe to the CASHING OUT PODCAST? Have some feedback you’d like to share? Connect with us on iTunes and leave us a review!
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FAQ
How many episodes does The Wise Exit have?
The Wise Exit currently has 68 episodes available.
What topics does The Wise Exit cover?
The podcast is about Venture Capital, Entrepreneur, Entrepreneurship, Investing, Private Equity, Podcasts, Business and M&A.
What is the most popular episode on The Wise Exit?
The episode title 'Online Gaming, UFC, Esports, and VC - Winning The Early Stage Growth Game | Jonah Midanik' is the most popular.
What is the average episode length on The Wise Exit?
The average episode length on The Wise Exit is 43 minutes.
How often are episodes of The Wise Exit released?
Episodes of The Wise Exit are typically released every 7 days.
When was the first episode of The Wise Exit?
The first episode of The Wise Exit was released on Aug 31, 2022.
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