The Exchanges

Q urgency within the sales process. So well done there. Um, okay. So fast forward, company's doing, doing well, um, Um, you decide to, to sell the business, and you listed on, um, Acquire. How did, how did that initial, um, you know, process go when you listed it? How did, you know, you meet the first buyer? Maybe take me, like, step one to, like, step three, if you will.

A Yeah, sure. So, uh, didn't really have any expectations when we, when we ended up listing on, on Acquire. Um, it was a really easy process from start to finish. So, you know, basically we, we pretty much had our ducks in a row on, you know, the story and, you know, how we were gonna, um, you know, gonna display ourselves on, on a choir in terms of building out a profile. And, you know, we know who our competitors were and what our strengths were and our differentiators and all that stuff. So that was pretty easy for us to put together, you know, connected stripe, Uh, acquire just made the whole, the whole listing process really easy. And then, you know, kind of transitioning to that next phase where you start meeting with buyers. Um, I mean, it wasn't more than 24 hours after I listed on acquire that I got probably five to 10 inquiries, uh, and received two unsolicited LOIs for at or above asking price and all cash. So, I mean, it was like, it literally, it worked like magic. Um, And we, yeah, I mean, we, we didn't want to like rush into, you know, the first thing that came our way. So we definitely like took our time, tried to stack meetings, you know, all, all around the same day or the same week to try to create some process momentum. Uh, and then we, we basically narrowed it down to two or three parties that we were really excited about. Uh, and we thought had the resources…

AI assessment note: “transitioning to that next phase where you start meeting with buyers”

Q This, this is like a, a, a badass company, man. Well done. I, I guess my next question is just like, what made you want to, you know, build this or what was like the light bulb moment? Cause I want that. Like where someone texted like a brand I'm interested in, I just text yes. And then I get a refresh of the product or something like that.

A Yeah. So I would say it's, it's really a few things. I mean, we saw this wave of text message marketing come to, you know, come to fruition where, you know, historically it was, you know, email marketing was kind of the digital medium that everyone used and everyone was using some form of paid ads, whether it was social media or Google or what have you. And text messaging kind of burst onto the scene as this more authentic, organic, um, You know, really just a medium that resonated a lot better with younger consumers because everybody's checking their phone. You know, if you checked your phone right now, you probably have 500 unread emails, but maybe like one or two unread text messages. And you're just more, you're more likely to open a text and want to, you know, want to read it because, you know, it's short form content. It's easy to relate to. And the inbox, the text message inbox is usually reserved for friends and family. So if you let a brand into your text message inbox, you know, you're, you're probably going to read it. Uh, so it's, it's just incredibly more effective than other mediums out there, whether it's email or social media. Um, and then, you know, that, that ease or that, that frictionless buying process, uh, is something that people have really gotten used to with, you know, things like Amazon, uh, or bolt. I know we saw, uh, unfortunately we saw fast come t…

AI assessment note: “we saw this wave of text message marketing come to, you know, come to fruition”

Q is just as good as a yes. Um, in terms of the, the buyer that you ended up going with, what, what did they do to stand out? Was it the, the, the, the offer? Was it the terms? Was it, you just got along with the individual? What made you have the group of buyers that were interested? Um, you know, it's like the buyer that you went with.

A Yeah. I mean, it's, it's kind of all of the above. It was definitely, you know, who they were. Like we trusted them as people and built a really deep sense of, of trust and respect day one. Uh, the offer and the terms were, were great. It was, you know, all in more than, than we were hoping for. Um, and really it was their vision to carry on buddy, to continue to build out the platform, um, and really move up market in terms of the customer base. So our goal was always to, You know, to reach out to, to enterprise brands and get the, you know, just throwing out names, but like the Macy's of the world to use, uh, to use Buddy. And although we weren't able to, to accomplish that when we were operating the company, they have a lot of really good, um, you know, blue chip or enterprise level contacts that, um, that they've already started to reach out to about, you know, using Buddy. Um, and at the beginning of the process, you know, I thought Buddy would be more of like attack on, To the software that they already had. And it ended up that they were so excited about what we were building that I think we will actually kind of transition into the core of their platform, and then they will build, you know, two or three other modules around that core infrastructure that we brought to the table.

AI assessment note: “I mean, it's, it's kind of all of the above.”

Q Tedious that you're able to, yeah, you can accelerate that. So that's awesome. And then, okay, so, so you find the buyer. Um, tell me about due diligence. Um, how did you handle that? Well, any headaches, um, any learnings, um, going through that process? I've heard everything from, it's, The craziest thing ever to, you know, quick and easy. Um, you know, how, how was that part for you?

A Yeah, I would say I was probably more difficult during due diligence than the buyer's team was. Uh, so they, they hired legal counsel to like do a legitimate due diligence process. Uh, and for the most part, I managed everything on our end. So again, my background, you know, having been an early stage investor previously, like been through this process many, many times, seen the movie play out. Many different ways and felt, you know, confident to take on their, their legal team myself. Um, they didn't ask for anything that was like outside of, of the norm or that wasn't market. Um, and we were able to negotiate some favorable terms around, you know, capping things like indemnification timeline amounts. Um, And you know, some of the, some of the minutia that gets lost in deals like that. Um, so I, I mean, it, it was pretty, I mean, I'd say it was pretty straightforward and seamless, uh, all in all.

AI assessment note: “I'd say it was pretty straightforward and seamless, all in all.”

Q that you want and so well done. Um, I guess my next question is, um, you know, ok, so you're at due diligence. You got through it without losing your mind. Again, nice job on that. Um, and then it's time to transfer the assets. Um, any hiccups there? Any, you know, just general, like, tips you give to other founders as they transfer assets to one company to another?

A Yeah. So I had never been involved with the actual asset transfer of things in the past. So this was like all new for me. Um, the way that we handled it was basically just outlining all the assets that were going to be transferred, you know, assign a date or a process to the way that we would transfer each of them and then just, you know, just execute on that plan. So, you know, in terms of tips for, for other people that are selling our company, I would just say, be very, Uh, be very communicative and transparent with the buyer, and just make sure that you have a plan in place to, um, you know, to execute the transfer of all the assets, and as long as you guys are in agreement on, You know, how it's going to get done and when it's going to get done. Uh, it's just a matter of you, you know, doing what you said you would. So for us, you know, the buyer, uh, took over most of our accounts. So the way our platform was set up, you know, we had a messaging provider. Um, we had integrations with e-commerce platforms. We had, uh, integrations with payments providers and all of these had accounts associated with them. So we basically just, You know, transferred ownership of the account from, from our company accounts to their new company accounts, um, and made sure that we were in lockstep with the buyer the entire way through. Um, and you know, we, because of the fact that we were ope…

AI assessment note: “in terms of tips for, for other people that are selling our company”

Q like, What do we do? Or something like that. Um, so it sounds like you were dealing with a sophisticated buyer, which also makes life, you know, a lot easier. Um, I guess, you know, my, my next question would be is, um, so you successfully sold Buddy. Um, sounds like everything's going good. What are you up to now? I gotta assume you're, you're working on something new or.

A Yeah. Yeah. So, so we sold Buddy wasn't, uh, wasn't a life-changing outcome, um, but it did provide some, uh, you know, some, some bridge, I guess, bridge money to, to go on to the next thing. Um, so my, you know, when, when I was investing, I was very focused on vertical SAS, you know, these core systems of record systems of action and what we built with Buddy, um, I would say it was more of a, more of a point solution, although it will be the, the core of the platform that the buyer's building and building around. Um, I'm, I'm actually a lot more comfortable in, you know, things like CRM, ERP, you know, these, these heavier, more enterprise platforms. Um, so I'm, I'm going to be building, you know, something that's, that's probably heavier than what Buddy was, um, a lot more, more enterprisey, uh, more system of record like, um, but I, I really like building in the blue collar space. So, uh, Well, you know, like I told you before, before, uh, you know, we started the, the podcast, um, you know, I, I started, started buddy kind of on the heels of listening to you and Nathan Latka, um, you know, kind of go through this whole process of talking to people who had started companies, uh, had them bought and, and the like, um, and I got connected with this SMB acquisition community of, of people buying, you know, HVAC companies, plumbing companies, Landscaping companies, um, all of …

AI assessment note: “I'm going to be building, you know, something that's, that's probably heavier”