Ghassan Halazon, CEO of Emerge Commerce, explains why you should listen when competitors pitch a merger. Use their offer to learn how others value your business, but pay attention to whether you actually align on culture and philosophy before any numbers matter.
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Most CEOs are nervous about talking to the competition, but sometimes it makes sense. In this clip from Startup CEO Show, Ghassan Halazon, co-founder and CEO of Emerge Commerce, talks about how he navigated the potential conflict and ended up doing a really great transaction with a competitor. Lots of lessons here.
You merged with competitor and like that happens sometimes where these conversations show up and like Some of my clients tell me like competitors reach out and they want to talk and hey, should I talk to them? Like they're, they have hesitation. So what was that experience like? And do you have any recommendations for folks? I realize it's a sample size of one, but you know, yeah. Any recommendations having gone through it for, for folks getting reached out to, do you mean, or, or like meaning someone's listening or watching their competitors reached out to them? How do they approach that? Yeah, what did you learn going all the way through and marrying your competitor?
Well, I never understood folks that shy away from learning what others have to offer, right?
I agree with that.
You know, so someone calls you and says, hey, I have this, you know, wild idea. I think we'll do great together and let's go to the moon and the stars. I think the immediate answer should be like, listen, sure, maybe it's not what we're looking for at the moment, but I'm happy to hear what you have in mind, right? Get that initial offer just to understand, number one, wouldn't it be interesting to, to for free understand what people are willing to value you at and what are they willing to offer you? That's great. Now some people say, well, I don't wanna be sharing, you know, all my competitive edge and tricks and the whole shebang. And you really don't have to. So you can say, hey, you know, present me an offer. I'll have to chat with my, you know, my board and management team and so forth. And I'll, I'll get back to you. And, you know, if you negotiate in good faith and find this common ground, then it's tit for tat, assuming the size is equal, right? If someone's a billion-dollar company and the other one's a $10 million company, then you have to make a decision. Are you willing to give a bit? Because they're not going to buy you if you don't share. So don't feel like— it's kind of like that saying too. It's like, what are we— like, like the idea is saying, who cares about your idea? Same thing, like competitors, unless you have something super proprietary, don't think, you know, they're living and breathing and thinking of this. They're probably looking at 10 to 20 different things to buy. Like, no one's dreaming of your little P&L and a couple of things on your margin. Like unless you have something super special to hold back on, which in which case, yeah, that makes sense. Don't feel like everyone's out to get you all the time. Like no one cares, to be honest, you know? And even I, when I look at, I mean, we were on the other side of this, we were looking at tens of different companies. We had tens of LOIs out. Like last thing on my mind was I'm gonna steal their ideas if we don't do this deal. I mean, hey, I learned a thing or two,, but that's fair game. So I would say like always be open to understanding, you know, what that looks like. But in terms of like mindset, I think only, only the founder or only the CEO who's being approached knows in their heart of hearts if they, you know, if they are willing to continue on the same journey, if there's alignment philosophically, culturally, body language is important. There's a lot that goes into whether these are the right people for you. That's a totally different question on whether it's the right time for you to sell.
Sure. No, I agree with that.
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