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Thomas Smale

Founder & CEO, FE International · 1 appearance on the record.

computed by AI from the episodes · how this works → · full disclaimer →

founderexecutiveauthor@ThomasSmale ↗LinkedIn ↗feinternational.com ↗

Thomas Smale is the founder and CEO of FE International, an M&A advisory firm specializing in SaaS, e-commerce, and digital media businesses. He has overseen hundreds of acquisitions totaling over $1 billion in transaction value since establishing the firm in 2010.

18statements → 12claims → 0claims resolved → 4/5average certainty → 1.5/5average debate potential →

2 not yet assessed 8 not checkable as stated how the 12 claims stand · each chip opens the sources

12 assertions · 1 opinion · 3 insights · 2 disclosures · every statement was checked. The predictions and assertions are the 12 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 2 are resolved, 2 are not yet assessed, and 8 name no date, number or outcome precise enough to check. Everything else (opinions, insights, what ifs, disclosures) can never be settled by the record, so it carries no assessment.

The record, in short

What the tape says about how Thomas argues and how the claims held up. Everything they said, and everything said about them, is in the tabs below.

Their most notable supported claim

Assertion Supported
ThriveCart's Acquirer Publicly Announced the $35M Buyout as a Funding Round
“A thirty-five million dollar transaction the fund that acquired it, raised money, acquired Thrivecart as part of the deal, announced as a raise.”
Thomas Smale Jul 3, 2023 ▶ 18:28 Lessons From $1bn in Exits: Behind The Scenes of the ThriveCart Exit

How they sound: not measured why? →

We measure speaking style by listening to the audio itself, and a fair number needs at least 2,000 words from one person on tape we have measured. There is too little of Thomas Smale on measured tape to publish a rate. This says nothing about how they speak.

Everything Thomas Smale said on Top Founders that made the record, most notable first. Filter by type, assessment or year in the ledger →

Insight
SaaS businesses below $1M ARR sell on net profit, not revenue
“So that will definitely apply where a business is doing over a million ARR, but on smaller businesses we deal with, so our average deal size is around 250,000. For deals at that level, there just isn't the scale, so buyers don't tend to pay a multiple of reven…”
Thomas Smale Jun 3, 2016 ▶ 6:18 You Won't Believe How He's Sold 350 Businesses in 6 Years, EP 254: Thomas Smale
Assertion Not checkable as stated
ThriveCart Reached $1B GMV Selling Lifetime Deals Instead of Subscriptions
“The vast majority of their revenue is actually not SaaS. They had a SaaS product, but they sold it entirely one time. It was a lifetime license, and most people would think that's not a very good business, not a very good idea, but because they were monetizing…”
Thomas Smale Jul 3, 2023 ▶ 11:23 Lessons From $1bn in Exits: Behind The Scenes of the ThriveCart Exit
Assertion Supported
ThriveCart's Acquirer Publicly Announced the $35M Buyout as a Funding Round
“A thirty-five million dollar transaction the fund that acquired it, raised money, acquired Thrivecart as part of the deal, announced as a raise.”
Thomas Smale Jul 3, 2023 ▶ 18:28 Lessons From $1bn in Exits: Behind The Scenes of the ThriveCart Exit
Opinion
Public Market Tech Downturns Do Not Affect $35M to $100M Acquisitions
“Public markets, Yes, as a savvy founder, you should keep an eye on it, but it doesn't affect transactions at thirty five million dollars, or even a hundred million, to be completely honest.”
Thomas Smale Jul 3, 2023 ▶ 22:15 Lessons From $1bn in Exits: Behind The Scenes of the ThriveCart Exit
Assertion Not checkable as stated
ThriveCart Processed Over $1B in Annual GMV at Exit
“Thrivecart at time of exit actually had over a billion dollars a year in GMV.”
Thomas Smale Jul 3, 2023 ▶ 8:20 Lessons From $1bn in Exits: Behind The Scenes of the ThriveCart Exit
Assertion Not checkable as stated
ThriveCart's Buyer Tripled Revenue Just By Renegotiating Its Stripe Partnership
“My understanding is the buyer is about tripled revenue of the business by renegotiating a partnership agreement with Stripe.”
Thomas Smale Jul 3, 2023 ▶ 9:18 Lessons From $1bn in Exits: Behind The Scenes of the ThriveCart Exit
Assertion Not checkable as stated
ThriveCart's Founder Chose Rapport Over Better Terms Among 11 Bids
“Out of, I think we had 11 offers on this business. Kevin was the one that won, and it wasn't necessarily because his terms were the best, it's because Josh liked Kevin.”
Thomas Smale Jul 3, 2023 ▶ 15:47 Lessons From $1bn in Exits: Behind The Scenes of the ThriveCart Exit
Insight
Low owner involvement increases SaaS valuation multiples, says Smale
“So a owner working 40 hours a week, who's a very technical owner who does all the programming themselves. That business is going to be worth Less in terms of multiple than a business where the owner works five hours a week and they're not doing anything techni…”
Thomas Smale Jun 3, 2016 ▶ 4:43 You Won't Believe How He's Sold 350 Businesses in 6 Years, EP 254: Thomas Smale
Insight
Sub-$500K SaaS businesses average 7% to 12% monthly churn
“Yeah, we usually see between seven and 12 would be the average we see for something in the maybe like half a million or below asking price range.”
Thomas Smale Jun 3, 2016 ▶ 10:49 You Won't Believe How He's Sold 350 Businesses in 6 Years, EP 254: Thomas Smale
Assertion Supported
ThriveCart Exited for $35M With a Team of Only Four People
“So even at exit, he only had a team of four people. Very small team.”
Thomas Smale Jul 3, 2023 ▶ 3:07 Lessons From $1bn in Exits: Behind The Scenes of the ThriveCart Exit
Assertion Not checkable as stated
ThriveCart's Founder Paid Himself Over $1M Annually Before Selling
“He got to the stage. He was paying himself over a million dollars a year.”
Thomas Smale Jul 3, 2023 ▶ 5:15 Lessons From $1bn in Exits: Behind The Scenes of the ThriveCart Exit
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Stripe's 100th Largest Partner Processes Roughly $1B Annually
“To be a top hundred partner of Stripe, The number a hundred process is about a billion a year. So the perspective they're about a top, top 100 strike partner.”
Thomas Smale Jul 3, 2023 ▶ 8:26 Lessons From $1bn in Exits: Behind The Scenes of the ThriveCart Exit
Assertion Not checkable as stated
ThriveCart Settled for 70% Upfront Cash After Its Acquirer Offered 20%
“The seller wanted a hundred percent cash, buyer wanted 20%. We met somewhere in the middle at 70%.”
Thomas Smale Jul 3, 2023 ▶ 17:52 Lessons From $1bn in Exits: Behind The Scenes of the ThriveCart Exit
Disclosure
FE International closed over 350 deals, averaging 80 annually
“We've done just over 350 now coming up to 400 deals. So kind of number moves, moves quite consistently upwards. So we do in the last 12 months, we did about 80 deals. So we do about one and a half deals a week.”
Thomas Smale Jun 3, 2016 ▶ 2:26 You Won't Believe How He's Sold 350 Businesses in 6 Years, EP 254: Thomas Smale
Assertion Not publicly verifiable
PlanScope Sold for Around $100,000 via FE International
“It was a relatively small sale. It was around a 100,000 dollars.”
Thomas Smale Jun 3, 2016 ▶ 8:42 You Won't Believe How He's Sold 350 Businesses in 6 Years, EP 254: Thomas Smale
Assertion Not publicly verifiable
PlanScope Generated $3,000 Monthly Revenue at Time of Sale
“It was around 3000 dollars a month.”
Thomas Smale Jun 3, 2016 ▶ 9:17 You Won't Believe How He's Sold 350 Businesses in 6 Years, EP 254: Thomas Smale
Assertion Not checkable as stated
FE International generated around $1.5M in commissions in 2015
“I was around 1.5 million in commissions.”
Thomas Smale Jun 3, 2016 ▶ 12:31 You Won't Believe How He's Sold 350 Businesses in 6 Years, EP 254: Thomas Smale
Disclosure
FE International took a 15% commission on the $100,000 PlanScope sale
“Yeah, so we charge 15 cents. We take, well, around 15,000 off that.”
Thomas Smale Jun 3, 2016 ▶ 11:02 You Won't Believe How He's Sold 350 Businesses in 6 Years, EP 254: Thomas Smale

Appearances (1)

EpisodeDateSpeaking time
You Won't Believe How He's Sold 350 Businesses in 6 Years, EP 254: Thomas Smale Jun 3, 2016 8m

Played on the show (1)

Episodes where a recording of Thomas Smale was played rather than Thomas taking part, or where the tape carries an address with nobody putting questions to them. Listed because the words are on the record, kept out of every score on this page because they were not said on this show. We read this off the tape: who was spoken to, who was asked something, who answered whom.

EpisodeDateOn tapeWhat it is
Lessons From $1bn in Exits: Behind The Scenes of the ThriveCart Exit Jul 3, 2023 19m aired address
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