2:21 - Strategic acquisitions 3:24 - Revenue acquisitions 3:48 - Talent acquisitions 4:20 - "Startups are bought, not sold" 4:36 - Why Posterous sold 5:40 - Why JamLegend sold 8:55 - When should you consider M&A? - Early stage and have money? --> Focus on getting product market fit - Early? Still have runway? --> Work on M&A when you think you might die 11:48 - Ask the right questions to orient yourself - Atul Gawande's "Being Mortal" 12:04 - 1/ What is your understanding of the situation and its impact? 12:16 - 2/ What are your hopes and fears? 12:37 - 3/ What are the tradeoffs you're willing to make, and not willing to make? 13:10 - 4/ What is the course of action? 13:33 - Levelsetting with your team 14:27 - You want to sell, now how do you do it? 14:38 - Tip #1 - Cultivate Strategic Partnerships 14:55 - Tip #2 - Go through product, if you can, not corp dev 15:23 - Tip #3 - Extend runway: Get revenue & decrease burn 15:59 - Tip #4 - Have leadership interview first 16:39 - Tip #5 - Check references while you get more BATNAs 17:18 - What is the #1 thing that kills deals? - Don't treat corp dev like a fundraise process - Always have a BATNA in place

“Companies are not sold, they are bought”. I like that

Your HQ is really nice. So zen.

Love how you reference PG essays - it enhances your videos.

This is so underrated. Keep going Garry!

Great "dense" Q&A. Much appreciated.

Great content guys. Thanks for the candid interview.

Hey Garry, great video. I have a question for you - what resources (books etc.) do you recommend so that I can start "seeing opportunities" on the market for a potential product-market fit? I am just about to graduate with a Computer Science masters degree and will most likely get a job after I graduate. However, I would like to start my own startup at some point (preferably me being the only employee), with the specific purpose of later selling it, but I wouldn't mind working hard on the startup for 3-5 years. I honestly wouldn't care if it is a SaaS company or something else - I would most likely enjoy the process of navigating the business world, meaning coding + sales and negotiation and other stuff. I don't see the opportunity yet. In the meantime, I'll keep "sharpening my blade", meaning brushing up my coding skills. Thank you for all the value you are bringing!

Brilliant! Thank you for the four questions! It really made me think deep about my startup.

Please do more of this. Really great !

Thank you for the video. It was very insightful. Gave me hope during times like these

"Also think about potentially having more competing offers from other acquirers" --> Unless the LOI grants exclusive negotiations to your potential buyer, who will try to weaken your BATNAs. Thanks for the video, great content!

This is a fantastic talk, so valuable. Thanks guys

I really enjoyed this Gary. Well done.

Would love to see more vids on the real stories behind some acquisitions & aquihires!

Thanks so much for a great video! I'm creating a new startup at the moment. I want to be able to build products, prove concept, prove market, sell, and repeat! There's some really helpful advice in this video :)

This is great. There needs to be more content on acquisitions. It seems like acquisitions by private equity companies were excluded from the discussion.

High quality content within the entrepreneurial space, really really good. Subscriped for more. Thanks!

Hey man you are incredibly inspirational.

Thank you. Important topic.

Great video! First 30 seconds were real

Want to get your personal suggestions for my start-up how do I reach to you Love from India❤️

Startups are sold, if they have to sell at a lost or are sold to prevent them from going out of business. The startups that have x’s after them are bought.

I appreciate your content. Is there a possibility you make a video with Peter Thiel in the Future?

Your HQ is just beautiful!

Amazing video

Great video gents!

Quite interesting insights into how startup M&A work

Thanks!

Can you help with a sale of the company? If yes, how can I reach out to you / your team?

liked, commented and subscrided... awesome vid!

Hello Garry, interesting topics in the video! Wondering whether you have some experience working with Silicon Valley Bank to get fundings to support your startup? Thanks!

Can we see an acquisition pitch deck?

you're a higher quality gary than gary vanderchuck

Man I got Startup vocab flash cards now! lol

How big of an acquisition is a deal that's very small? Is very small like 3 million? Less than a million, or like 15 million?

do we get all money ourself ? if sold startup

But when a company is bought, who is paid? The funds or the person? (I mean if the person gets the money in his bank account)

Thanks Garry, this is great.

I have a business model I’d love to pitch to you guys! Would love to collaborate!

i cant really think of many indian startups that werent eventually bought.... i know so many peopl who just want to start a company for the ultimate purpose of an ultimate sale. which is sad

Give offline too

How much can I sell a company for? Is it a good idea to count yearly revenue times 10? It's a SaaS company I am wondering about.

What's the meaning of M&A??

Guys. Does everyone have to sell their company? Does anyone invest to hold on to and just enjoy revenue. Oh. I think you just mentioned it. Because some of us want to build and keep our companies forever. We're not building to sell.

I am never selling, it’s not about the money…making money is easy building a dynasty is a different ball game… great startup companies have been bough for no other purposes than to take them out of the game… Microsoft was great at it, think how much better technology we’d have today if not for a Microsoft destroying every new startup that was a threat. I had a competitor buy my company, only to destroy the software that was ahead of its time… unfortunately it was after the Dotcom boom, so funding sources were cut off. Google and FB are now doing the same thing, but now it’s to control the communication information platform… don’t underestimate the evil of some of these Oligarchs to control the narrative.

Awesome video, I would like to subscribe to your channel if I wasn't already.

Garry. Is there any Chinese female successful entrepreneurs you can interview?

Well I'm in a different position I cant seem to find anyone in! Alot of people want it to work! Alot of people mad they couldn't steal it from me! They only hate me, so once it is sold the problem goes away! Didn't realize how many people were involved and sad my family was bribed to facilitate the attacks! It is really funny honestly lol!

Tech reminds me so much of Hollywood - which is like a factory of getting Farmed & Fucked. How does someone protect themselves in tech?

Only millions? I am selling my company for nothing less than BILLIONS!!!!

Just lie about the product