The Ledger
Every statement that passed quotation and attribution checks. Mix any filter with any other: certainty 1/5, debate potential 5/5, or both at once.
why aren't all 13 resolved? a statement only gets an assessment when the public record can support or contradict it. opinions and what-ifs never can, and 0 checkable ones are still open, waiting for their date. predictions held up or didn't; assertions are supported or contradicted. on every card: ▮▮▮▮▮ certainty · ▮▮▮▮▮ debate potential. speakers are clickable
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.”
Eliminating a third-place competitor merely opens the door for new entrants
“And the second is getting rid of your third-place competitor. They were, like, our third-place competitor in this And specifically in the floral space opens the door for others in the market. And so all of a sudden we've seen three or four other little compani…”
BloomTrack's founders would have accepted just $20,000 for the acquisition
“Honestly, they would have taken 20,000 for the deal.”
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.”
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”
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”
Group webinars beat one-on-one onboarding when migrating low-ACV software acquisitions
“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…”
Future Curate acquisitions must include a team and a complementary product
“If we were to do another acquisition, we need to have these parts. Number one, we said, come with the team. We aren't just buying a product, right? Like, we now have to make sure it comes with the team. Be very product-driven company, so not, not just a revenu…”
Curate closed its micro-acquisition of a competitor in just three weeks
“Our legal said, yeah, we've never seen anybody close like in three weeks before it just takes a long time on this. And, you know, never tell a CEO, like, no one's ever done this before, because that's, like, a personal goal for you. And we did. We closed it in…”
Curate grew its catering vertical by 280% over the past year
“We've seen, you know, 280% growth in the catering segment over the last year.”
Curate fully deprecated the acquired competitor's platform in just four months
“We migrated them, we moved them from their platform onto ours, and we deprecated their platform in four months.”
Acquired competitor generated $120K in ARR but operated in the red
“They were in the red. They were making a 120,000, which is about a 10th of our size at the time.”
Competitor founder chose a flat $40K payout over a $60K earnout
“We ended up at 40,000. We actually gave them an option. We said, well, 60,000, and we'll do 20,000 up front, and then 40,000 if you if we have XYZ customers who stay on, or you could just do 40,000. And she's just like, I just want 40,000.”