Faizan Bhatty

Co-founder @HaloCars (acq. @Lyft). @Google alum & Forbes 30 Under 30. Proud immigrant 🇵🇰 🇺🇸

[Faizan Bhatty @FaizanBhatty]

Here are the top 8 lessons I learned from selling my company to Lyft.

Context: I dropped out of Wharton to launch an ad-tech startup that was acquired by Lyft in 9 months.

It was the fastest company to get acquired in UPenn's history + became the fastest growing team at Lyft.

Key lessons below:

[Faizan Bhatty @FaizanBhatty]

@aerocromefi @aerodromefi @pikaso_me screenshot this

[Faizan Bhatty @FaizanBhatty]

@anothercohen Have you tried @EatBetterBrand? Not pizza dough but it's replacing bagel carbs with protein 🥯

[Faizan Bhatty @FaizanBhatty]

@kevindmonaghan Curious to hear how you've seen performance incentives do more damage than good?

[Faizan Bhatty @FaizanBhatty]

Here are the top 8 lessons I learned from selling my company to Lyft.

Context: I dropped out of Wharton to launch an ad-tech startup that was acquired by Lyft in 9 months.

It was the fastest company to get acquired in UPenn's history + became the fastest growing team at Lyft.

Key lessons below:

[Faizan Bhatty @FaizanBhatty]

@Vam_ScrubHacker So glad you found it helpful!

[Faizan Bhatty @FaizanBhatty]

Time is the most valuable card in an M&A negotiation stack — use it wisely

During our negotiations with Lyft, we over-indexed on the price v.s. the equity lockup period

In hindsight, we would have gladly accepted a lower sale price in exchange for a shorter lockup period

[Faizan Bhatty @FaizanBhatty]

M&As are always complex but make sure to set clear expectations *before* day 1

Our first 12 month post-acquisition were relatively inefficient because it wasn’t clear what was expected from us and what we were building

We eventually regained our momentum but it took time & patience

[Faizan Bhatty @FaizanBhatty]

Founder-led sales > hiring sales veterans

Even after our acquisition, ~80% of our sales came from 1:1 meals I had with clients

Every single trip was worth it: the ~10% of the time a deal didn’t close, I walked away with incredible product feedback & tangible insights

[Faizan Bhatty @FaizanBhatty]

Nothing is free, especially when things are going well

Our “free” interns were retroactively paid at the time of acquisition

Our “free” legal credits were all used up in just the intro M&A calls

Make decisions from day 1 assuming free = deferred payment

[Faizan Bhatty @FaizanBhatty]

Unlike large companies, startups have the unique luxury to break rules without facing much scrutiny

Rideshare ads were illegal in NYC when we started but that didn’t stop us from scaling (reward > risk)

Lyft’s acquisition of Halo was a de-risked entry into this regulated space

[Faizan Bhatty @FaizanBhatty]

Faster speed of execution is why we were able to out-compete larger & better resourced companies

Most people forget that large companies are inherently slow & inefficient

Our clients loved that we could execute a contract in 2 hrs instead of 2 weeks