Scott Yewell

From full stack dev ➡️ CTO ➡️ B2B SaaS M&A at Discretion Capital. Helping you cash out 💰 and kick-start your next venture 🚀. Wrestling coach 🤼‍♂️

[Einar Vollset 🇳🇴🇺🇸 @einarvollset]

https://t.co/ABMPr3IL8U

[Discretion Capital @DiscretionCap]

We're at SaaStock! Swing by Booth C1 and grab a free copy of our new guide.

[Einar Vollset 🇳🇴🇺🇸 @einarvollset]

Team Discretion at SaaStock

[Josh Pigford @Shpigford]

Einar is one of the smartest people I know around M&A. Read anything he writes on the topic.

[Einar Vollset 🇳🇴🇺🇸 @einarvollset]

You really should hire a banker if you're handling inbound LOIs, but if you chose not to at least do yourself a favor and read this (exhaustive, and yes a bit exhausting) guide to SaaS M&A LOIs:

[Discretion Capital @DiscretionCap]

📚 CHAPTER 5: When to Sell

Most founders drift. Perpetually "maybe for sale."

This is the worst of both worlds.

Either be for sale, or don't be. But don't half-ass it.

Chapter 5 → https://t.co/d0ETuUb1Xa

[Discretion Capital @DiscretionCap]

🚨 The $9M Mistake

Two offers. Same company

🚨 Offer A: $45M
🚨 Offer B: $54M

Most founders pick B.

But after accounting for earnout probability, Offer A was worth $1.7M MORE.

Most founders never run this math.

Chapter 4 →https://t.co/d0ETuUb1Xa

[Discretion Capital @DiscretionCap]

📚 CHAPTER 2 IS LIVE: Who Buys B2B SaaS Companies ($2-20M ARR)?

70% of acquisitions are Private Equity. Not strategics.

The buyer you pick matters more than your metrics.

Read Chapter 2 → https://t.co/d0ETuUbzMI

[Discretion Capital @DiscretionCap]

📖 NEW: The Definitive Guide to M&A for B2B SaaS ($2-20M ARR) Everything we've learned helping founders exit. One chapter at a time. Free. First chapter drops Monday: Who Actually Buys B2B SaaS Companies?

[Einar Vollset 🇳🇴🇺🇸 @einarvollset]

https://t.co/dts6zgYXPN

[Discretion Capital @DiscretionCap]

Your VC, angel, and lawyer are giving you SaaS M&A advice based on a world that doesn't exist anymore. 15 years ago, PE firms didn't buy companies under $10M ARR. Today, they hunt $2M ARR companies. Founders routinely leave 100-300% on the table.
📖 New guide to fix this coming

[Scott Yewell @syewell]

@jefielding @adatta02 @KDimitratos Normal may be a stretch, but def not junior MBAs in suits. Let me know if you want to chat.

[Scott Yewell @syewell]

@RiffoTheAI @javayhu Does Riffo work on Intel Macs?

[Scott Yewell @syewell]

@RMB @hnshah Have an idea of what you want to build, tell chatGPT, have it explain what’s happening

[Scott Yewell @syewell]

@roybahat @einarvollset Mushroom house

[Scott Yewell @syewell]

@einarvollset Dude. Skippy super chunk is obviously the best peanut butter. All other options are incorrect.

[Scott Yewell @syewell]

@pascallaliberte @robwalling Would love to try it!

[Scott Yewell @syewell]

@robwalling @randfish @MicroConf A really refreshing perspective on startup funding, was great!

[Dan Andrews @TropicalMBA]

My guest on today's podcast (Greg Crabtree) calls ~3MIL in revenue the 'death zone' for companies. Really it can be a wide span, but call it $500K - $3,000,000 ballpark.

Before 3MIL, the founder can often oversee most key areas of the business.

But at this point there's an "entrepreneurial mitosis moment." As a founder you find yourself having to do two full-time roles.

1) Operations
2) Sales/Marketing

Problem: It's complicated/expensive to hire somebody that's incredibly competent at one or the other (better than you).

Leads to two main strategies:

1) The most common is to over-hire for capacity and try and sell your way out of it. The common mistake here is that founders often never return to a healthy profitability of face what he calls 'profit truth.'

2) Another approach is to overload the operation until you can bring in the adults, or commonly for businesses 4M+. This has obvious challenges.

Greg has spent the last decade of his career coming up with strategies for companies to successfully make a run through the 'death zone' or to draw back and re-tool, while remaining capitalized and profitable.

Both of his books: Simple Numbers and Simple Numbers 2.0 are fantastic. Highly recommended.

We spent an hour on today's show diving into the implications of the above. Hope you enjoy!