August Deal Review with Andrew Gazdecki and Rainier Nanquil

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As we go through this, if you have any questions, feel free to put them in the chat. We'll be looking at this as we go through this presentation and we'd love to make this as interactive as possible. So feel, feel free to keep the questions coming. But without further ado, welcome to Part.com's August 2024 deal review. I'm going to go over a quick agenda and we'll, we'll dive in. We'll start with introductions. We'll talk about why you're here, what we're going to go over, really why to be excited. And then we're going to review some deals with you, some of our best SaaS opportunities on the marketplace. Today, me and Rene are going to go through those and tell you what we like about them, what we'd look at a little deeper if we were a potential buyer. And then at the end we're going to talk about how to get matched with the best. If you're a buyer looking to acquire a startup or if you're an entrepreneur looking to sell a startup and get acquired, we can help with either of those. Now, quickly going over our impact as a company. We've been in business about four years. We've helped over a thousand entrepreneurs get acquired, we've helped facilitate over 750 million in closed transactions and we have over half a million registered buyers on the platform today. Currently there's about 600 live listings on a marketplace. So again, if you're looking to acquire a different business, look at SaaS companies available for sale. We have a lot of those on the marketplace right now. And then we've served over a hundred plus different countries. So we are global. We've served pretty much every continent. And then in terms of introductions of me and Ranier, I'm going to pass it over to you. Raniere.

Yeah, what's up everyone? My name is Ranier. I'm the managing director here@acquire.com I have over a decade of experience in M and A capital markets and investment sales. Previous to my time here at Acquire, I was focusing on Amazon, fba, Shopify, E commerce, even content websites as well. Previous to that I was in the commercial real estate world in Southern California, selling shopping centers, drive through investment properties, all kinds of different retail properties across the country. So deal making has been in my blood. My goal is to help my clients get the best price, best terms and best outcome through their acquisition journey.

Awesome. And my name is Andrew Gazdecki. I am the founder and CEO of acquire.com previously I founded two different startups. One was called Business Apps. It was a do it yourself mobile app builder for small businesses. Then a company called Altcoin, both of which were acquired which led me to start acquire.com and then below that are some awards I'd won specifically for business apps. Now going over why you're here today. So we're going to go through a monthly showcase of our biggest and best SaaS opportunities. These are pre vetted, they're recommended by our advisors and we're going to be going over some expert analysis, key insights and then at the end of this we'll have time for questions and we'll be driving answers to those. So now further ado, let's get into it. Renee, ready?

Let's do it.

Okay, we're going to start off with this opportunity right here which is a fast, easy and affordable app builder for iOS and Android. They currently have 800 plus published apps, no coding required. Now as I, as I quickly go through this, what I'm going to start looking at to start is the multiple. So I like seeing this. It's in within ranges that we see a lot of deals transact at 4, 4 times profit, 2, 6 times revenue. The next thing I'm going to look at is going to be the time that this business has been operational so about two years in business, which is, which is pretty good for a SaaS company. And then Rene, I'm going to pass it over to you, what's what stands out to you about this listing?

Cool. Just like you mentioned, over two years old, I quickly look at that. If you look at the profit margin, if you scroll down or actually scroll back up. So if you look at the revenue versus profit, it should be above 50% so it's a strong indicator there. So those are the first couple of things that I look at is the profit margin. Typically buyers want to see at least 20 to 25%. If it's profitable, great. If it's above 20 to 25%, even better. This one has 50% so that's excellent. In the terms of what we see on our marketplace over two years old, very simple to understand, it's turning a website into a mobile app. So a lot of use case there. In terms of some of the low hanging fruit that I would imagine a buyer would look at, this is okay, well maybe churn is high because of the customer base of people that are having a new business and then they try to turn their website into a mobile app and who knows how long they typically last. So If I'm a buyer, I'm thinking about, okay, how can I add value here upon acquisition? So you start thinking about how's the organic traffic, how's the backlinks, how are they currently getting new customers, what are the pricing models? Have they changed the pricing anytime recently in the last couple of years? Is there any lifetime deals, how are the features and what are some of the current integrations? So those are the things that I think about when thinking about from a buyer's perspective. And then as a seller for this seller, you want to start thinking about, okay, what's the ideal buyer profile at this price point, this type of business? My opinion, it's someone that's looking to run a lifestyle business because this entrepreneur, this founder, they have multiple businesses, they've got other things going on. So it seems like they're only committing a few hours per week on this business maybe. So this is great for maybe a buyer looking for a lifestyle type of business or an entrepreneur looking to add this in their portfolio that's consisting of similar businesses that they can cross integrate between the two. So that's, that's my thoughts. Back to you, Andrew. What do you think?

Yeah, I like that. I think if I was going to recommend this business to a buyer, I would think deeply about how are you going to plan to grow this business. I own a similar business where we help small businesses get published on the iOS and the Android app stores. Some ideas here for someone that this looks interesting for. I would want to know what specific verticals they're strong in. For example, are they offering mobile food ordering? Are they offering reservations for hair salons or businesses that require that? Those can be big markets. There's millions of small businesses across the globe. So I'd recommend this to a buyer that understands those markets how to potentially attract more businesses to a company like this. And then I would definitely be looking at the churn as well, which is pointed out as a potential issue, but that's understandable. Small businesses typically will churn at 3 to sometimes 5% per month. So it can be high. It's the nature of the business. But what can you do to get that down? What can you do to potentially increase pricing for small businesses by adding more value? Or like you mentioned, Reneer, have they increased pricing in the past? Is their pricing competitive? So understanding those things I think would be huge. And how are they attracting customers now? Can that be optimized from what it is today? So all good stuff. You want to move on to the next one. Ranier and you can kick it off.

Cool. Let's do the next one.

All right. This one's all you.

Nice. So when I look at this one, I see it's SaaS based out of Ireland. Streamlining digital music software distribution with 85% gross margin on B2B services. Asking price, 650,000. 3.9x profit, 1.7x revenue. DTM revenue, $380,000. DTM profit, $166,000. So first thing that I look at is the profit margin on this. So over 40% profit margin. That's great. Again, anything that's profitable business gets a lot of attention, especially if it's 20%, 25% above. So 40% is excellent when you look at the age of the business. If you could scroll down a little bit, Andrew. So January 2021. Over three and a half years old. Most buyers typically like to see at least three years in business. That way they know historically if it's going up, down, sideways, they can get some sort of indication of how the business is doing. It's very difficult to anticipate what's happening next if a business only has a year in existence. And if you scroll back up, Andrew, one of my favorite things about this listing, if you scroll a little bit more up to the multiples 3.9x profit and 1.7x revenue, this tells me that this founder is motivated to sell in a timely manner. How do I know that? Because at Acquire, we're doing deals all day long. There's 600 listings on our platform as of today. So we know what deals are sitting on the market, what buyers are looking for, what deals are trading at, what deals are under offer at, what type of deal structures. So going back to this multiple at 3.9x of profit, that's right in line. And just to give you an indication of how many deals we've done year to date, I was just looking at the numbers just before this call. 330 deals that we've done at Acquire as our team year to date, and just last month, 36. So when we say we have our finger on the pulse when it comes to what's actually trading on the market and what deals need to be at in order to sell. This is one of those deals that are right there in striking range.

Yeah, that's good. I think the price right here definitely tells me that this is going to see a number of different offers. And the first thing I'd probably look at is why are they looking to sell? So scrolling to the bottom is listed I am currently able to take advantage of a tax break to sell my business. So I'm looking to sell at a reasonable valuation that is fair for both buyer and seller. So you're right, Renier. This is definitely prices sell. The founder is going to be motivated and this could be a great opportunity for someone that has experience in the digital marketing space. Maybe you're just looking to own a cash flowing business. What else? Looking at the customers, over a hundred thousand customers, I think that's pretty standout. Ish. I'd be wondering what is the price point of each customer? Is there a small customer? Is there a large customer? Are they able to convert more of the small over to the large? There could be a lot of opportunity there. I also like to see that this business is growing. So we see about a 50% annual growth rate. All in all, this looks like a really good acquisition. I do like as well. I can see here there's also a B2B component of the business and also B2C. This is where I would probably focus on for the most opportunity. My guess Here is the B2B side of the business probably has the most upside. You can get customers paying a highly monthly fee and then the B2C business probably has the bulk of the customers. Where they're priced a little bit lower, they're going to be easier to attract. But B2B is going to show lower churn. It's going to have more upside in my experience. But I like how it has both B2B and B2C. So there's opportunity on two different types of customers. All in all, good business. Raniere, would you add anything else to this one?

Overall good fundamentals on this one. I would just want to know what the split is of the B2B customers and B2C customers and then try to figure out how long those B2B customers have been a subscriber and try to figure out what the competitive landscape looks like and what the competitive moat of this business is compared to other competitors. And then also just the industry as a whole. Is it something that changes quite often with registry trademarks? Regulatory. So that's just something that I would add there.

Yeah, I like that. And then just looking at the average invoice too, we can see B2B is $1 per month to 1200 per month. So again, if we could attract more of these larger customers, that can be. You can scale this business, I think really, really fast. So if you speak to the owner of the business, they're going to have a Wealth of knowledge of how did you attract these initial B2B customers? How did you attract the initial B2C customers? Each of these are likely going to have a different marketing strategy and different sales strategy. So understanding that as much as you can to see where the most opportunity is, that's probably the first thing I would do. But I like this business. All right, you ready for the next one? Renew?

Yep, let's move on.

Okay. This next SaaS startup automatically generates alt text to boost SEO and improve accessibility. So the first thing I'm thinking off the top of my head is, gosh, you can build a startup that literally does anything. This is the simplest business I've ever seen, but it's extremely profitable, it has a high amount of customers. You can see by the revenue and the profit, so over a quarter million in yearly profit. And I love businesses like this because it's extremely simple, it's extremely profitable, which means that there's a lot of upside in the business already and it's probably very easy to manage. So. Oh, there we go. Team size, just me. So it's one person operating this business. Raniere. Gosh, what would you add to this one? This is a good business because again, it's solving a very simple problem, but doing it in a way that it's obviously a very good business and they're generating a lot of revenue and then also profit as well.

Yeah, I like this business. I'm representing this one and it just has all the good fundamentals there. It's solo person running it now. So it's perfect for someone that's looking to buy their way into entrepreneurship, maybe build their own portfolio of smaller businesses. The great thing about this price point and this TTM revenue is it's just under what private equity and some of the bigger players typically look for. The bigger players are looking for deals a million plus in TTM revenue. So this is great for that one entrepreneur or maybe a partnership of entrepreneurs looking to add value in a very simple to understand business. And if you have sales or marketing experience, that's the low hanging fruit, that's the value that you can add and quickly increase revenue and take this deal to the next level. If you scroll down on the reason for sale, the founder will tell you he's a solopreneur, solo operator with a tech background and skillset. The ideal buyer profile is someone with growth experience in sales and marketing and can take it to the next level. It's bootstrapped over 60% profit margin over two years in business. It has a defensible moat against AI and LLM. The founder can tell you all about their competitive advantage and how they protect against some of these updates and some of their competitors. But overall, just really good fundamentals here. Huge growth. I like the business. We just listed this on the market and it's getting tons of buyer interest so far.

Nice. Yeah, this, this is the type of business that will sell really, really quick on acquire.com because it solves a simple problem and it does it really, really well. It has just one person operating the business and it's really, really profitable with a 50 plus profit margin and then it's priced to sell as well. So this is probably going to attract multiple offers, I would assume. Rainier, what do you think on that? Do you think this is going to be a competitive process or.

I think it'll be pretty competitive. Just last week we launched this listing. We've already got tons of buyer seller meetings that have scheduled on the founders calendar. We just got our first offer last night. But you still have some room. If you're a buyer listening in, you still have some time to reach out to the founder or set up a meeting. If this is of interest to you, I would highly recommend reaching out as soon as possible. But you do have some time.

I like that. One other thing I would add too is this is a great opportunity for an individual that wants to take this farther than where it is today. That's called out and the reason for sale as well, which is good initial traction. Take the founder has taken this as far as he can individually go and if someone is willing to step in and really press on the sales and marketing, you can grow this even farther. And if you look right here, this company is currently growing 638% annually. So this is. Yeah, this is a great acquisition opportunity. All right. Renew. You want to move on to the next one?

Yep. Let's move on to the next one.

All right, you can kick this one off.

Cool. Here's another deal that I'm representing. It's a SaaS startup based in the US. User friendly video testimonial and survey building platform for high revenue generating businesses. You look at the asking price, 1.1 million multiple 4x profit, 2.7x of revenue. Again right within range of where deals are selling at on our platform all day long they're selling in the 4x range. If you look at the TTM revenue and TTM profit, 402,000 TTM revenue, 272,000 TTM profit. So that's over 50% plus in in profit margin. Excellent. Almost 75%. If you scroll down a little bit more. Here's my favorite part. Look at the date. Founded January 2014. It's very rare that you see listings or deals available over 10 years old. It's already rare to see something three plus years and it's, it's indicator that a lot of buyers look for 10 years. Just shows how much value that this type of business has proved over the years. Defended against competitors, defended against the landscape. So as a buyer one of the main questions is how, what is your, your defensible moat? What is your competitive advantage? How have you been in business for so long and why are you selling? And if you look at the reason for sale, if you keep scrolling down, this business is a side project for the founder. The founder has a web design development agency that they run full time. That's their main moneymaker. This has just been a side project that has been on maintenance mode and thus you could see it's flat, even decreasing in growth rate because it's been a side project. So this has a ton of low hanging fruit for a buyer. This could be a buyer profile again, someone that's looking for a lifestyle business, committing a few hours a week on the business or even better if you've got a portfolio of SaaS businesses or portfolio of businesses where, where you can use this type of testimonial video to cross sell and really synergize with the rest of your portfolio. And again, if you look at the price point, the TTM revenue, this is just under what typical private equity buyers and some of the bigger players in the marketplace look for. So if you're an independent entrepreneur, if you're a partnership, this is the right fit where you're not competing against these bigger players that can come in really stronger offers than the typical solopreneur. But overall this is a deal price to sell good fundamentals and I can answer any questions if anyone here in the audience has any questions. I'm representing this deal as well.

Nice. Yeah, this is another great SaaS company looking to get acquired. What I love about it is probably starting at the top of the market, Martech Industries I think really bring in a wide buyer group and then I was reading here existing team available to support and work with you in the future. So whoever requires this, you will have, I assume a team that can assist you. And I think like you were saying, Raniere, it's been in business 10 years. Gosh, so much has happened in tech from in the last Three years it's been AI, but before that a number of different changes in software and use cases for platforms like this. So being able to stay in business 10 years as a SaaS platform is a huge testament to just how valuable the product is and how they've been able to adjust the product and improve the product, which I assume from customer feedback to stay competitive in the market. I also like just the problem that it solves and the customers that it, it serves. For example, currently used by small, medium and billion dollar businesses around the world. So that's a really wide customer profile where it's either small businesses or potentially Fortune 500 companies. Potentially. So lot of opportunity whether you sell to small businesses or you have experience with enterprise sales. And over. Yeah, again this is, this is the biz, the type ofbusiness on acquire.com that we really see a lot of interest from buyers. So if you're looking to acquire a business like this, definitely get in touch with Reneer. And if you're an owner of a business like this, this is definitely where I think we stand out the most. Any anything else you would add to this, Renee?

Nope, that was pretty much it. Again, I'm just really impressed. Over 10 years in business, 70% plus profit margin, just, just dominating as a side project. I know what some of these founders do.

I know I, I was just about to say that and I guess if you know, if you're listening to this and you're thinking about learning more about this opportunity, I think there's probably a lot you can learn from the owner. What did they do correct over the past 10 years, what have they tried that didn't work? What have they tried that you know, worked really well over 10 years. You're definitely going to have a wealth of knowledge that you can also benefit from if you do decide to acquire this. All right, Raniere, last one. Are you ready?

Cool. Let's do it.

Okay, I'll kick this one off. This is a startup that I'm personally advising as well. This is an award winning SaaS productivity app with 6002605000 in TTM profit. You can see by the multiple, this is also price to sell at 4 times profit, 2.3 times revenue and just looking at the numbers, very similar to some of the last opportunities. So this is also right within the sweet spot for a lot of buyers. We're seeing 465000 TTM revenue, about a quarter quarter million in 200265 CTM profit. And this business, what I like about it it was originally backed by a group of investors. It went through one of the most prominent accelerators. If I named it, everyone would recognize it. And it's just a really good product. The one of the investors bought out the other investors and has also been running this as a side project. So really good product in a really large market that Appeals to mostly B2B customers and also B2B, excuse me, B2C customers as well. Also been in business for about eight years, so it has stood the test of time. So this is another business similar to the last one where it's been a side project. It hasn't received as much love as it probably could. If a new owner stepped in, breathe some life into the business focused on growth, looked over the marketing strategy, the customer acquisition strategy, maybe improved the product a little bit from Whereas now I think this could be a really interesting business. Renier, what would you add on this one?

Yeah, this is a great business as well. Again, eight years, that's a ton of time. That's a lifetime in our industry. I know typically we try to at least ask for three years. That's what a lot of buyers look for. At least three years, eight years. The last deal that we went over was 10 years. They just show how much value that they've had in the marketplace. And this reminds me of a deal that we recently sold. Again, side project. It's on maintenance mode. If you're a buyer, the main thing that you want to know is to check the tech stack, make sure it's up to date. If it's a side project, just get an idea of what it takes to maintain the business as is and just straight up ask the founder or the buyer, the current owner, right now. Ask them, okay, what would you do if you had all the time and energy and capital to focus on this business in order to grow the revenue back up and they'll tell you exactly what you need to do. It's just the only issue is this owner currently has all kinds of other things going on in their life. But if you can turn it around, see if it's marketing sales and just try to find what the low hanging fruit looks like in order to add value upon acquisition. But overall, this is one of those deals where it could be a buyer that's an independent operator, it could be a partnership, there's all kinds of different buyer profiles that this could appease to.

Yeah, I think that question you mentioned, Raniere, is such a good question because the owners, they've been managing this business for eight years. The one that we went over previously, 10 years. There's so much to learn in that. What's worked, what hasn't worked, what do they wish they tried but they didn't have enough capital for? What are customers always asking for but they never had time to develop? Why do customers love the product? Why do they not love the product? There's just. There's so much you can learn from just asking that simple question. If you add, you know, a couple million dollars, all the resources in the world, how would you improve the business? And, yeah, this is. This is a great opportunity. So if anyone has questions on this one, feel free to ask, and we'll get over to those. So at this point, Raniere, you want to move over to Q A?

Yeah, let's jump into the Q A.

Okay, cool. I'm gonna. I'm gonna read a question, and I'll. I'll pass it to you, and then I'll get the next one. That sound good?

Good. Yep.

All right. Okay. First one. Would I have to pay a higher purchase price if I wanted the founder to stay on for longer than the average transition period?

Would you have to pay a higher purchase price? Yeah.

For example. You got that one?

Yeah. I would just quickly say it's definitely a bargaining chip if you want the founder to stay on a little bit longer post acquisition. And just looking at the examples that we gave, if someone's been in the business eight years or 10 years, you definitely want to soak that up and keep the founder involved if you can, as much as possible. There's just some things that they know that even if you're a master in sales or marketing or whatever your strengths are, they're the master in that industry for eight years or 10 years, and you could offer a higher purchase price. But there's other things that can motivate the seller to stay on, such as maybe some retained equity, maybe higher cash up front, maybe helping with the transition, keeping some of their current team members or contractors in place. There's other bargaining chips that you can push and pull to negotiate the founder to stay on or even compensate them for consulting hours. Just maybe one or two hours every month or every couple months, just to pick their brain on what they know in the industry because they've been in it for so many years.

Yeah, I like that. I think the main point is really finding out what can be a win win for both you as the buyer and then also the. The seller, the founder of the business, for example, they may want to leave the business quickly so you're going to need to incentivize them to stay. Maybe they're interested in a higher purchase price and that could be an opportunity for you to extend the transition period. So really just asking what's important to you and then tailoring your offer around that, I think is, is the best way to go. But like Rene said, just, just ask like what's important, how can you make a win win structure? So they're motivated to stay to improve the business and you can both be successful with acquisition. All right, Renier, we're going to go with this next one. You ready?

Cool. Let's do it.

All right. If I've run SaaS businesses before, what are the risks of acquiring one in an industry I'm unfamiliar with? You care if I take this one?

Sure, go for it.

I think just stating the obvious, I mean, you're going to be inexperienced in that industry. So that's where, as we were saying before, learning from the original owner, the original founder can be so valuable. They can show you the ins and outs of the industry. They can tell you who's a competitor, they can tell you the must have features, the missing features, what their customers really care about. So the risk of acquiring one in an industry you're not familiar with, there's going to be similarities. Recurring revenues, recurring revenue churn is churn growing. A business is going to be similar, but every industry has different ways of acquiring customers. Every industry has different ways of providing value to different customers. For example, the first listing, which is a mobile app builder for small businesses. If you're not familiar with how to sell to small businesses or market to small businesses, it's going to be challenging because you're going to have to learn that sales motion, which is generally more of a transactional sale. It's going to be a little faster. The price point is going to be a little lower compared to, say, an enterprise sales cycle, where it's going to be longer and the contract is for years at a much higher price point. But you can learn those things. You can learn from the original owner. You can learn the ins and outs. So the biggest risk is just being unfamiliar with that industry and having to learn a little bit more. But is it impossible? No, not at all. Raniera, do you have any, any thoughts on this one?

Yeah, I would just add if, you know, talk to the founder, ask them, you know, what have you tried? What haven't you tried? Is there any times that a surprise has happened in the business or the industry that that came from left field if there's laws or regulations in a particular industry, you're going to want to know if there's privacy, type of risk or even counterparty risk with a big player in the market that can affect your business. Trying to find those things out early from the founder. And they'll tell you all kinds of different war stories of how the business got affected by some update or some law or some regulation. They'll tell you all those things to watch out for.

Yeah, I like that. Agreed. Okay, moving on. I'll take this one. Rainier. What question should I ask the founder of a mobile app and are there any advantages over traditional SaaS companies? Okay, so what's the difference between a mobile app and a traditional SaaS company? There's going to be quite a bit, but at the core the businesses are very similar. They generate revenue, you're going to have customers. What are the expenses? Is the company profitable? Why do customers churn? What do they love about the App or the SaaS company? But the main thing with a mobile app is you're going to be constrained to either the iPhone or the Android. So that's a big one. Is it on both platforms? Is there a platform that's more popular? How are customers finding the mobile app? Are they advertising it through regular search? Are they finding customers mainly through the iOS app store or through the Android App Store? So just having a general understanding of if you have a mobile app, how do you acquire customers? What do they value about the mobile app? What platform is it on? What are the differences between an iPhone app and an Android app? Who developed it? Is it cross platform? So there's a lot of questions like that compared to a SaaS company that you're going to want to ask. And then in terms of advantages over a traditional SaaS company, again, they're very similar. So I think it comes down to how good is the fundamentals of the business. How much revenue is it generating? How profitable is it? What is the cost to maintain the mobile app?

App?

Usually with mobile apps you're going to see a lower cost structure compared to traditional SaaS companies. Not all the time, but most of the time. So in terms of advantages with the mobile app, compared to a traditional SaaS company, you're going to have built in distribution. If it's only on one platform, you're going to have the opportunity to port that over to Android if it's not already on there or vice versa. So questions like that, that comes to mind. Raniere, would you add anything to this? Essentially what they're asking is what should we ask a mobile app founder compared to a SaaS founder and are there any advantages with a mobile app as opposed to a SaaS company?

Yeah, every different business vertical has their own Pros and cons. SaaS, business, mobile app, e commerce, store, content, website. Every single type of business vertical has some sort of counterparty risk that you have to take into account. Let's say if you have a content website and Google makes an update that could affect your business. If you've got a mobile app and Apple or Android, they make some sort of update and then that could affect your business. Just get a really firm understanding of what type of updates or changes have been made in the past so that you can try to get some sort of background on why they make these type of changes, how often they do these updates and changes. And first and foremost, as Andrew said, just make sure you gotta have a good protective moat and a competitive advantage as a strong business with good fundamentals in the future. First place because you could worry about counterparty risk all day long, but you can only control the business fundamentals and how it performs. So first get a good idea of that.

Yeah, I like that. All right, question number four. Renier, you're going to take this one. I think this one's right up your alley. Is it okay to ask the founder what offers have already come in and at what price and terms?

You can certainly ask. You can certainly ask. I think a better question to ask a founder is hey, can you tell me about the buyer activity and if it's competitive, if he's like, hey, I've got several offers, I've got several buyers that I've already met with, then a better question in my opinion is where do I need to be to win the deal? And they'll tell you, okay, here's what I'm looking for in price terms. Again, as Andrew said earlier, make it a win win situation and ask the founders straight up what is most important to you in an ideal offer and an ideal buyer. And then the best question I'd like to ask is where do I need to be to win the deal?

Yeah, I like what you said. Just, just ask, you know, you don't have to overcomplicate it. I think it's a two way street too. Let's say, you know, you're selling your business and you think a buyer would be a really good fit, you can just ask them to submit an offer and same with a buyer. If you're wondering if this is a really competitive process how do you win the deal? You don't want your offer to come in too low. Just ask. Say, okay, I really like this business. Do you have other offers coming in? You really want to acquire this business? What is it going to take? That's a great question because you want to be on the same page as, you know, the founder. And if you're the seller, doing the same with the buyer works great as well. So, yeah, just, just ask. That's my whole answer. All right, Renee, you can take this one. This is also right up in your alley. What financing is available to acquire businesses on Acquire dot?

What type of financing? Okay, that's a good one. We've got several different preferred lenders that we work with, from SBA lenders to other lenders in the space. But what we're really Good at@acquire.com is as a result of our specialization in doing so many deals, we know all different types of deal structures and how to get creative as needed to structure a seller finance deal. So typically, if a buyer tries to go through the SBA route, or maybe an outside lender or a lender in the space. Another good way to ask if the founder is open to seller financing. That's very popular in a lot of deals that we've sold more recently. And we can get as creative as needed. Make it a win win scenario for both buyer and seller.

I like that. Yeah, no, agreed. I mean, we help with SBA financing, third party financing, and then also creative deal structuring. So you can be on a win win acquisition with a, an owner, which could include seller financing. All right, last, last question. What's the best way to tell sellers you don't want to keep their employees? I'll take this one. Definitely tell them up front. I would not recommend doing this where you go under offer, you get down the line a while, and right before close you say, hey, I'm not going to keep any of your team and I'm going to do something you may not agree with. This is definitely best to talk about up front because you don't want to be on, on a different page than the original owner. I think this could be something that is materially important to most founders and most entrepreneurs. So if this is kind of where you stand, the, the earlier you can get in front of it, the better, in my opinion. Raniere, what would you add to this one?

Yeah, and if you're a buyer, you've already got a sales team, marketing team in place. Let the founder know that you're ready to plug and play. As soon as the acquisition goes down, of course there's going to be some sort of transition time and training time. So just account for that as well. If it takes a couple months to train up your existing team that you're going to plug in, relay that to the founder and be upfront, be as transparent as early as possible.

All right? Okay. Well, last, last notice to everybody. If you are a buyer, Definitely register on acquire.com you can enter your criteria to get deals like these delivered to your inbox. And if there's some that you'd like to see next time, definitely let us know as well. And if you are a founder and you want support from our team, you want M and a advisory, you want help getting acquired, get in touch with us at acquire.com you can visit us at acquire.com guidedbyacquire. We'd be happy to talk about valuation, where we think we could help you sell your business and help you get acquiring with that. Just want to thank everybody for joining this webinar. I hope it was helpful and hope to see you next time. And thanks Raniere for joining. I always love hearing your insights.

Thanks guys. Thanks everyone. Thanks, Andrew. Thanks, Roger.

See everybody.