Disclosure certainty 3/5 debate potential 1/5

Sweet CX seeks acquirer for sales and back-office functions

Valerie Peck · $800k Bootstrapped SaaS Spun Out of $3m Agency, how'd she do it? · Mar 12, 2022 · at 13:46

Valerie Peck, founder of Sweet CX, discusses potential acquisition and exit plans with Nathan Latka.

0:00 / 0:21exact quote · 21.1s
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“We're at the point where it would be really interesting to find a powerful engine, big sister brother company who can take on some of the sales functions and some of the back office functions. And let us do more in the thought leadership and development of new product ideas and execution of them.”

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More from Valerie Peck

Disclosure
SweetCX minority shareholders waived equity to boost founder payout in acquisition
“What we actually did, interestingly enough, is a couple of my shareholders said that they would waive their shares so that we could then pump those up a little bit. And the two founders who did most of the work, my CTO and myself, we get a little bit of a bump…”
Valerie Peck Apr 5, 2023 ▶ 8:38 Acquired! Why She Sold her Bootstrapped $800k ARR Company for $3m
Insight
Peck: Installment sales provide better cash flow than continued bootstrapping
“So having an investment like that over the period of time that you're saying is far more, the cash flow is far better when you're doing an alignment in a sale like this as compared to trying to make it yourself bootstrapping.”
Valerie Peck Apr 5, 2023 ▶ 12:30 Acquired! Why She Sold her Bootstrapped $800k ARR Company for $3m
Disclosure
QuestionPro demanded an asset deal for immediate year-one tax write-downs
“Because he wanted an asset deal, because he can write a hundred percent of the cost of the company down and immediately in year one.”
Valerie Peck Apr 5, 2023 ▶ 14:20 Acquired! Why She Sold her Bootstrapped $800k ARR Company for $3m
Insight
Peck: M&A asset purchases impose 50% capital gains cost on sellers
“Unfortunately, buyers are set up so that they want to do an asset purchase, and an asset purchase then results in a 50% capital gains cost for the sellers. So, interestingly enough, our tax code is not designed to be particularly conducive to M&A.”
Valerie Peck Apr 5, 2023 ▶ 7:17 Acquired! Why She Sold her Bootstrapped $800k ARR Company for $3m
Insight
Mixing consulting with software devalues SaaS EBITDA multiples
“You know, the software game, when you have consulting associated with professional services and software, it devalues the EBITDA instead of increasing it.”
Valerie Peck Mar 12, 2022 ▶ 6:06 $800k Bootstrapped SaaS Spun Out of $3m Agency, how'd she do it?
Disclosure
QuestionPro acquired SweetCX's intellectual property in October 2022
“Probably four months of up and back, with a couple of little halts in the middle we came to an agreement, and we sold the intellectual property of the consulting firm to Sweet CX, and then the team at Question Pro purchased Sweet CX. So that was back in Octobe…”
Valerie Peck Apr 5, 2023 ▶ 3:57 Acquired! Why She Sold her Bootstrapped $800k ARR Company for $3m
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