The most stressful part of any acquisition process is negotiating the main deal documents. Some of this stress can be alleviated with a better understanding of what is happening and the motivations of all involved. Some of it is inescapable and just needs to be worked through. This is the…

Immediately after signing the LoI (term sheet), your startup will receive a request for a substantial list of documents and information that the company wants to see. So begins the due diligence process. This stage can often feel onerous, but it is important for founders to understand how necessary it…

There is a lot of internal choreography that must take place before a company can issue a term sheet. …

One of the unspoken rules in acquisitions is that both sides pretend that money is not the key motivating factor. While I will defer to the politeness of maintaining this approach, I can assure you that on the company side, most deals only make sense if they cost less than…

It is generally acknowledged that acquisitions run more smoothly when the startup founders have been through the process before. Hardly surprising, right? This is true for just about every process. Things are just easier when you know what to expect. This being the case, it is somewhat unfortunate that the…

This blog is the first in a series intended to bring transparency to the acquisition process for startups. When it comes to one company buying another, you have likely heard the term “Mergers and Acquisitions” (or “M&A”). A merger is when two entities are combined to form a new, joint…

When asked why he robbed banks, Willie Sutton famously responded, “Because that’s where the money is.” Similarly when creating a new product, we focused on enabling transparency, “Because that’s where the opportunity is.” At least, you’d think that’d be the case. Transparency as a concept appears to be widely accepted…

Ugh — I know. I know. The last thing this world needs is another blog from silicon valley where a startup identifies “culture” as a gating factor, but bear with me. …

There is an old grainy image that I love. Babe Ruth pointing to the bleachers right before hitting a home run in the 1932 world series. You’ve likely seen or at least heard of this. Why does this particular home run still stand out 85 years later? The simple reason…