The Exchanges

Q Nice. What was the name of the first company?

A The first company was called Paisy, uh, which Paisy was a, uh, well, it was developed by basically some college kids, uh, who graduated and were trying to figure out what to do with the platform that they created. Uh, they, they basically shut it down, and we took a look at it, and so it was a student-to-student marketplace, and as we were kind of talking with them, as we were, you know, thinking through the business models and things of that nature, Uh, we developed a pretty interesting business model with it and we decided to acquire it. Um, and now it's kind of morphed into campus roots. So, campus roots helps college students. Um, enhance the college experience and it's everything from a social media. Uh, component of student to student, uh, social media, uh, to groups to calendar to the marketplace and we've recently added jobs. Uh, for part-time jobs, internships, and first jobs out of college, and then deals. And so that's really looking to morph into a super app for college students.

AI assessment note: “The first company was called Paisy”

Q Awesome. Let's talk about the acquisition of Swear It, because I was kind of along for that journey with you, and it seemed like a fun one. Um, do you want to just start at the beginning? What interested you in Swear It? How did you come across the listing? What was your, let's maybe start from like the first month, and we can Go from there.

A Yeah, maybe we'll get to the fun somewhere's in there. Uh, it certainly was interesting. Um, you know, I, I came across it because it was blockchain. Uh, it was SAS. Um, you know, it had an interesting component with some, uh, legislation in the EU that created some stickiness, uh, to the platform. And so there was a number of things that. You know, I was liking that I had experience about. Uh, that I think we could add value to the platform. Plus, as I mentioned, since it was being built in blockchain, it would enable us to gain some experiences for some of the other things that we're looking to do as well. And, uh, so it, you know, we, we went fairly quick, I think, through the initial process to get to a letter of intent with them. Uh, what the same might have been, 30 days could have been 45, but relatively short order. Um, and then, you know, from there, we, we went into due diligence. I think. That's where the due diligence wasn't an issue, but one of the things with swear was that it was a company in Spain. And it's really easy to do things here in the US. Uh, it's not so easy to do things, uh, in other countries. Uh, and so there was a lot of procedural components that kind of dragged out the process. As we went through it, what also made it kind of challenging was, you know, you mentioned the language piece of it. You know, the, the people that swear. We're all from Sp…

AI assessment note: “I came across it because it was blockchain. Uh, it was SAS.”

Q work with founders on. Um, but this leads me, um, to one of my favorite questions. If you had to give Startups or founders are saying just, I don't know, three pieces of feedback or advice. They're looking to sell their business. What do you think that would be to help them get acquired? They're going to meet with buyers. Um, what's the top three items that come to mind?

A You know, I, I think, one, having the business ready to, to be sold, uh, is important. I, I've seen, you know, some, some ugly or noisy balance sheets that have just, you know, a bunch of stuff in it that, you know, you, you wouldn't really invest in, so I think just, you know, the, the, having a clean business to actually sell, uh, makes a lot of sense. Uh, one of the things that, you know, has been, I'll say a little bit more challenging actually with both acquisitions is, you know, these are small acquisitions. They're not coming with a big team. Frankly, they're not coming with a team at all. And so all of a sudden, when you do the transition, you now have technology. But all of that institutional knowledge and the development is kind of gone and Now, you know, you got your new people kind of coming in, they're trying to figure it all out. So, you know, the. The more, um. You know, the, the more information in the handoff and the transition of things, and that can go from code and design to, to contracts and everything else, um, you know, to just make what they've done to be portable to someone else, uh, I think is key. Um, and then, you know, what, what we've done with, with some of our deal, with our two deals is actually we've, we've left them with a piece of the equity. So, we, we, we require most. Uh, but, you know, we, we hopefully are giving them a taste at the end. …

AI assessment note: “having the business ready to, to be sold, uh, is important”

Q Nice. I guess another question would be if you were to acquire another company and it was based in Europe or something like that, Would you go through this whole process again, or would you opt for just us only companies?

A Um, yeah, actually, actually what I asked, uh, Rosa about was, um, I'm interested in, in an offshore, uh, company. So with, with us, with some of the things that we do, and we look at bolting on companies just into our existing infrastructure within 1840 and company, we have a unique Position to be able to bolt on companies and sell into the US where, you know, we were able to take what arguably is a lower margin business for selling in the local market for some of the companies to expand that into the US market, which can contribute to margins and do some positive things. So, you know, I think the experience was great. You almost need to go through it to just understand it and probably the comments that I made are just probably just need to resonate. It's going to take a little bit longer. It's a process. You always need to get a person that's there that you trust. Locally, and, you know, that's just from experience from talking with. I'll say other foreigners that have companies that are in other countries, because as as you being a foreigner. Um, you know, people will try to take advantage of you in those local markets. So just trying to understand that. But, um, you know, I've had a lot of success operating in other markets. As I mentioned, we're in the Philippines. Uh, you know, arguably with this, we're now in Spain and, you know, we'll look for other acquisitions outside…

AI assessment note: “we'll look for other acquisitions outside of the US”

Q I like it. Well, tell me about, um, I'd love to know about your experience on the Acquire platform. What was maybe, um, Your favorite part about it? And what was maybe your least favorite part about it?

A Well, you know, I don't know how long you all have actually been around. I know we, when I, when I started with you guys, I mean, it was Michael acquire and, you know, that was at least two and a half years ago, if not. You know, longer so, um, you know, honestly, uh. I really liked the platform. I tend to be a little bit addicted to it. Uh, which means that, you know, at least weekly, I'm out there taking a look at what's new. Who's who's out there, you know, what people are selling and offering. Um, even though I say I won't. Talk with or I won't do a deal for a while. Um, you know, I'm still talking with, you know, right now there's one company that I'm talking about. Uh, and it's interesting just to talk with other other founders talking about the business model, what they're doing, how they're looking at it. Uh, are they looking to just get out or are they looking to stay in and, you know, own a percentage of it? So, uh, you know, I. I tend to actually enjoy, uh, the marketplace that you've put together and kind of how it's developed over time.

AI assessment note: “I really liked the platform. I tend to be a little bit addicted to it.”

Q Nice. And then in terms of, um, your process for finding companies to acquire, what does that look like?

A Yeah, it's, it's really about, um, synergy in, in how we've been looking at it. Um, you know, we're one of the other companies that, uh, we're actually building is a private debt marketplace. And that private that marketplace is going to be built within blockchain. And I had some experience with SAS models. Uh, uh, you know, the, um, I, which is the company that we bought, uh, is a blockchain based, uh, framework and company. And so we're leveraging a lot of what we're doing in there, what we're building there to leverage into other companies that we kind of eclectically have. Um, we also have taken actually 1840 ventures and while. It was fairly generic as a venture studio and as we were thinking about it, we since morphed it to really target college students. In helping college students start companies, uh, and really trying to leverage the platform that we've created under Campus Roots.

AI assessment note: “really about, um, synergy in, in how we've been looking at it”