Dave Sobota

Everything Dave Sobota said on any show that made the record, most notable first. Each card names its show and opens the statement there.

20VC Assertion Supported

Private equity acquisition multiples are at all-time highs

“The multiples that PEs are paying are around all-time highs.”

Dave Sobota Apr 15, 2019 ▶ 7:08 20VC: So You Want To Be Acquired? Instacart VP of Corp Dev, Dave Sobota on His Biggest Lessons From 10 Years in Google's M&A Team Working on The Acquisitions of Motorola, Waze & Android

20VC Insight

Successful M&A deals never look expensive in hindsight

“I completely agree with Peter. If you do a good M&A deal, no one's ever looked back and said, how much do we pay? It's just smiles and congratulations.”

Dave Sobota Apr 15, 2019 ▶ 7:32 20VC: So You Want To Be Acquired? Instacart VP of Corp Dev, Dave Sobota on His Biggest Lessons From 10 Years in Google's M&A Team Working on The Acquisitions of Motorola, Waze & Android

20VC Assertion Supported

Google paid $1.1 billion for pre-revenue Waze and succeeded

“For example, if you look at a ways where we spent 1.1 billion dollars to buy them, that's been a tremendously successful deal for us. But at the time they had almost no revenue.”

Dave Sobota Apr 15, 2019 ▶ 7:52 20VC: So You Want To Be Acquired? Instacart VP of Corp Dev, Dave Sobota on His Biggest Lessons From 10 Years in Google's M&A Team Working on The Acquisitions of Motorola, Waze & Android

20VC Insight

Founders should sell if acquirers pay expected future value today

“The general rule of thumb is that if someone is going to pay you today what you think you're reasonably going to be worth well into the future, then sell now.”

Dave Sobota Apr 15, 2019 ▶ 8:47 20VC: So You Want To Be Acquired? Instacart VP of Corp Dev, Dave Sobota on His Biggest Lessons From 10 Years in Google's M&A Team Working on The Acquisitions of Motorola, Waze & Android

20VC Assertion Partly supported

YouTube faced a $1 billion copyright lawsuit when Google acquired it

“YouTube was facing a billion dollar copyright lawsuit. I mean, it had growing infrastructure costs, and it had very little revenue, all three of which Google was able to help out with quite a bit.”

Dave Sobota Apr 15, 2019 ▶ 9:44 20VC: So You Want To Be Acquired? Instacart VP of Corp Dev, Dave Sobota on His Biggest Lessons From 10 Years in Google's M&A Team Working on The Acquisitions of Motorola, Waze & Android

20VC Insight

Active internal sponsors are crucial for post-merger integration success

“The single most important element we found for a successful integration is that we have an engaged deal sponsor from the Google side stay intimately involved with the company after closing until it's fully integrated.”

Dave Sobota Apr 15, 2019 ▶ 20:16 20VC: So You Want To Be Acquired? Instacart VP of Corp Dev, Dave Sobota on His Biggest Lessons From 10 Years in Google's M&A Team Working on The Acquisitions of Motorola, Waze & Android

20VC Assertion Supported

Waze signed an LOI with another acquirer before Google bought them

“Waze had actually signed a letter of intent with another acquirer when we got involved. One of our main competitors was a Waze stockholder and wasn't too keen on us buying them.”

Dave Sobota Apr 15, 2019 ▶ 22:24 20VC: So You Want To Be Acquired? Instacart VP of Corp Dev, Dave Sobota on His Biggest Lessons From 10 Years in Google's M&A Team Working on The Acquisitions of Motorola, Waze & Android

20VC Assertion Supported

Acqui-hires are declining except for elite machine learning talent

“No, but they are less frequent, and prices are coming down, with, I'd say, one exception, which is rarefied machine learning talent can still fetch a premium price on the aqua hire market.”

Dave Sobota Apr 15, 2019 ▶ 24:13 20VC: So You Want To Be Acquired? Instacart VP of Corp Dev, Dave Sobota on His Biggest Lessons From 10 Years in Google's M&A Team Working on The Acquisitions of Motorola, Waze & Android

20VC Assertion Not checkable as stated

Tech M&A market remains healthy with no signs of slowing

“Yeah, overall, we're seeing a healthy M&A market with no real signs of it slowing down.”

Dave Sobota Apr 15, 2019 ▶ 5:37 20VC: So You Want To Be Acquired? Instacart VP of Corp Dev, Dave Sobota on His Biggest Lessons From 10 Years in Google's M&A Team Working on The Acquisitions of Motorola, Waze & Android

20VC Insight

Founders should disclose deal gotchas early in M&A diligence

“And then likewise, we encourage founders to let us know in advance of any potential gotchas early in the process. We're likely going to find out about them anyway. It's always better to address them upfront earlier rather than later as surprises.”

Dave Sobota Apr 15, 2019 ▶ 15:32 20VC: So You Want To Be Acquired? Instacart VP of Corp Dev, Dave Sobota on His Biggest Lessons From 10 Years in Google's M&A Team Working on The Acquisitions of Motorola, Waze & Android

20VC Assertion Not checkable as stated

Google almost always requires acquired founders to remain post-acquisition

“We almost always want the founders to stick around and work for Google after the closing.”

Dave Sobota Apr 15, 2019 ▶ 16:11 20VC: So You Want To Be Acquired? Instacart VP of Corp Dev, Dave Sobota on His Biggest Lessons From 10 Years in Google's M&A Team Working on The Acquisitions of Motorola, Waze & Android

20VC Assertion Not checkable as stated

Google M&A deals require approval from the CEO and executive sponsor

“Every M&A deal at Google needs to be approved ultimately by our CEO, and it needs an executive sponsor, and an executive sponsor is one of the CEO's direct reports that runs a product area at Google.”

Dave Sobota Apr 15, 2019 ▶ 18:13 20VC: So You Want To Be Acquired? Instacart VP of Corp Dev, Dave Sobota on His Biggest Lessons From 10 Years in Google's M&A Team Working on The Acquisitions of Motorola, Waze & Android

20VC Insight

Post-acquisition operating alignment matters more than closing the deal

“Although it's important to focus on getting the deal done, it's equally or even more important to jointly agree on how your company's going to operate within Google after closing. So in other words, the wedding itself is important, but more so is the marriage …”

Dave Sobota Apr 15, 2019 ▶ 23:28 20VC: So You Want To Be Acquired? Instacart VP of Corp Dev, Dave Sobota on His Biggest Lessons From 10 Years in Google's M&A Team Working on The Acquisitions of Motorola, Waze & Android

20VC Assertion Not checkable as stated

Google built a custom in-house CRM to track M&A targets

“Wrapping all of this is we have a very bespoke in-house CRM system that we created to track And monitor all of our dealings with companies in the ecosystem.”

Dave Sobota Apr 15, 2019 ▶ 13:36 20VC: So You Want To Be Acquired? Instacart VP of Corp Dev, Dave Sobota on His Biggest Lessons From 10 Years in Google's M&A Team Working on The Acquisitions of Motorola, Waze & Android

20VC Assertion Not checkable as stated

Google evaluates acquisition success every three to six months

“Typically, we do this every three to six months after the deal closes for a period of two to three years, and then if we're not meeting our goals, we dig in and find out why, and then, of course, try to correct as possible.”

Dave Sobota Apr 15, 2019 ▶ 21:34 20VC: So You Want To Be Acquired? Instacart VP of Corp Dev, Dave Sobota on His Biggest Lessons From 10 Years in Google's M&A Team Working on The Acquisitions of Motorola, Waze & Android

One line per show, most statements first. The link opens Dave's full record on that show: the calibration, argument clarity, speaking style and every statement made there.

Show	Role there	Eps	Statements	Record
20VCLEDGER	VP of Corporate Development, Instacart	1	15	80% 4/5	full record on 20VC →