The Ledger
Every statement that passed quotation and attribution checks. Mix any filter with any other: certainty 1/5, debate potential 5/5, or both at once.
why aren't all 10 resolved? a statement only gets an assessment when the public record can support or contradict it. opinions and what-ifs never can, and 0 checkable ones are still open, waiting for their date. predictions held up or didn't; assertions are supported or contradicted. on every card: ▮▮▮▮▮ certainty · ▮▮▮▮▮ debate potential. speakers are clickable
Putting an explicit for-sale sign on a startup destroys value
“I think generally, unless you are in a situation where you absolutely need to sell, I think it's inadvisable to put a for sale sign in front of your company. I really think it's too much opportunity to destroy value. I think you can just leave too much value o…”
Fundraising and M&A force startups to codify their company strategy
“There's two big forcing functions for codifying company strategy, and I think one of those is financings and raising money, and then the other is M&A”
Funding rounds signal M&A availability or price startups out of acquisitions
“Funding rounds are interesting. It could either signal that someone, you know, could be open or interested in M&A, or it could mean they've gotten beyond what we could do a deal in, and maybe they're out of our range.”
Startups built specifically to sell early are obvious to acquirers
“Reaching out too early just defocuses the business, and can be a huge distraction, and businesses that have been built to sell early are really, really obvious to acquirers.”
Hootsuite only engages VCs regarding M&A with startup management consent
“We almost always try to work through the management team directly, or if we are interacting with VCs, we are typically trying to do so with the consent of management.”
Acquirers prefer trusted founder relationships over engineered corporate perfection
“I think you often see startups trying to engineer the perfect process, trying to make the company look as perfect as it can possibly be, and I think probably the thing I like founders to know the most is really that trust is everything. You know, we, it's more…”
Technology, talent, and traction are the three M&A value drivers
“Ours is called the three T's, and these are really the three sources of value in a transaction. Everything that we do here through the M&A process centers around these three T's, and they are technology, talent, and traction.”
Most Hootsuite acquisition targets were existing business partners first
“If you look at the transactions that we've done, disproportionately, they've been partners with Hootsuite before we've engaged.”
Hootsuite's M&A team holds substantive discussions with 300+ startups annually
“Over the course of a year, we will have substantive, and this is probably 30 minute, at least, discussions with over 300 companies over the course of a year, and so we're a relatively small acquisition team, and that's a lot of contact”