Ryan O'Neal, CEO of event software platform Curate, shares operational migration lessons from acquiring competitor BloomTrack.
0:00 / 0:13exact quote · 13.1s
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“Webinars are better than onboarding.
I literally went back to our post notes after the acquisition to prepare for this talk, and that was one thing.
They said, just do big webinars.
Like, don't go with each and every person and work through it.
These are small customers.”
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More from Ryan O'Neal
Insight
Outbuilding a direct rival is ultimately easier than acquiring them
“And then it's just easier just to build, be the better software, right? It's the last, it's just easier just to build better and build faster, especially when you're in a space that you're going one-to-one with a competitor.”
Ryan O'NealNov 12, 2022▶ 19:44How we acquired a competitor for $40,000 (and why we'll never do it again)
AssertionNot checkable as stated
Curate spent $40K to add $250K ARR and boost valuation by $2.5M
“I could have said how I spent 40,000 dollars to get 250,000 of ARR and increase my valuation by 2.5 million”
Ryan O'NealNov 12, 2022▶ 1:08How we acquired a competitor for $40,000 (and why we'll never do it again)
Insight
Micro-acquisitions should be structured strictly as asset sales to move fast
“At least at this small of a deal, like, make it clean. Don't put in these crazy equity buyouts and all this stuff. Just make it super clean if you want to move fast. Strictly assets sell.”
Ryan O'NealNov 12, 2022▶ 8:30How we acquired a competitor for $40,000 (and why we'll never do it again)
AssertionNot checkable as stated
Curate achieved nearly 200% NRR on its acquired competitor customer base
“We saw nearly 200% NRR on these.
We had one customer that went from 3000 to 30,000, right?
Like, two of our largest customers came from this, and so it was a really cool opportunity for us to be able to grow that customer base”
Ryan O'NealNov 12, 2022▶ 13:51How we acquired a competitor for $40,000 (and why we'll never do it again)
What-if
BloomTrack's founders would have accepted just $20,000 for the acquisition
“Honestly, they would have taken 20,000 for the deal.”
Ryan O'NealNov 12, 2022▶ 16:19How we acquired a competitor for $40,000 (and why we'll never do it again)
Disclosure
Despite the financial success, Curate will never acquire a direct competitor again
“Was it worth it? Yes. Would we do it again? No, right? Like, not in this particular situation. So a few things for a one-to-one competitor that really make it not something super attractive.”
Ryan O'NealNov 12, 2022▶ 16:57How we acquired a competitor for $40,000 (and why we'll never do it again)
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