Mark MacLeodFounder, Limitless.ceo · The Startup CEO Coach | Helping ambitious CEOs & founders scale world-changing companies without sacrificing their health, happiness, purpose, or humanity

How to get your company bought

28 May 2025 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

0:40

In this brief segment, the speaker explains that at a certain growth stage companies are typically acquired rather than sold. While a buyer may purchase a company solely for its financials, most acquisitions at the growth/vision stage are driven by the acquiring company's desire for the target's growth potential, vision, team, and market opportunity. Consequently, a successful acquisition depends on having an internal champion within the acquiring firm—someone who knows the target, believes in its vision, and can advocate for the deal internally, positioning the acquisition as a faster path to the future the champion envisions.

Chapters

Companies are rarely sold. They're almost always bought, at least at the stage that we were at. So, you know, once you get to a certain size and someone might buy you for the financials, in which case you can sell that. But when you're really selling more around the growth and the vision and the team and the opportunity, those tend to be bought rather than sold, which means that someone inside of the acquiring company needs to know you, needs to believe in your vision and understand your vision and needs to basically advocate internally that this is where the world is going and that they need you because that will be a faster way to get there than trying to build it themselves.