In this insightful episode of our podcast, Randy Woods shares the journey of building and eventually selling his company, “Non-Linear,” a player in the tech industry. Over the span of two decades, Randy diligently nurtured Non-Linear, aligning its growth with the evolving landscape of the internet. A key strategy he implemented involved fostering a culture of content creation within his team, allowing him to identify exceptional talent across all levels of the organization.
As Non-Linear reached its pinnacle, Randy recognized the opportune moment to sell the business, a decision influenced by incoming inquiries and a desire to safeguard the interests of his employees. Navigating the intricate process of selling a company, Randy sought guidance from investment bankers and shares tips for aspiring entrepreneurs contemplating a similar path.
Reflecting on the sale to Valtech, Randy elucidates the meticulous deal structure and emphasizes the importance of ensuring a favorable outcome for both the company and its employees. Transitioning into his role at Valtech as an M&A advisor, Randy sheds light on the criteria guiding their acquisition strategy, particularly emphasizing tech integration.
Concluding with sage advice for prospective sellers, Randy underscores the significance of professionalizing accounting practices, addressing legal obligations, and fostering alignment among stakeholders, including spouses, to mitigate non-business-related challenges. This episode offers invaluable insights for entrepreneurs navigating the complex landscape of business acquisitions and exits.
In this podcast episode, we discuss:
- Building a Successful Tech Company
- Navigating the Sales Process
- Advice for Sellers
You can connect with Randy Woods by LinkedIn: Randy Woods – Valtech | LinkedIn
Additional Resources:
- Access our archive of video interviews on YouTube
- Checkout our upcoming Conference – https://malaunchpad.com/
- Get in touch with show hosts Casey Minshew and Feras Moussa at – info@equitylaunchpad.com
- Looking to invest in M&A opportunities or partner with an advisor to acquire, scale or sell your business? Visit Equity Launchpad
Transcript
00:00 all right on today’s show we interviewed
00:02 Randy Woods and man has he done a bunch
00:05 of different things right we kind of
00:06 talked about what it looks like to start
00:07 in bootst a company from scratch what it
00:09 takes to basically take a different
00:11 company public while you’re doing that
00:13 company and last but not least we talked
00:14 about getting Acquired and how to be on
00:16 the acquisition side so Casey what were
00:17 some of your takeaways man this is a
00:19 this guy one great guy I love the
00:21 Canadians they always have these great
00:23 stories very personal very worldly um
00:26 but I’ll tell you you know part of the
00:27 things that got me into the m&a space 15
00:30 years ago was I interviewed a gentleman
01:32 that my dad knew and he I said hey how
01:35 did you become he’s about 60 I said how
01:37 did you get an m&a and he told me he
01:39 said what you need to do is go start a
01:41 company and sell it and he was like and
01:43 then you can add value to an m&a private
01:45 Equity Firm right and so that’s what I
01:47 did I set out that Venture and I was
01:49 able to do that in 2019 with energy
01:51 funders and go through what it all looks
01:53 like all the mistakes of it I mean and
01:55 that’s why we’re here so you made
01:57 mistakes oh a ton I still make mistakes
01:59 all the time but but it kind of takes us
01:01 to the summary of his his story which is
01:03 fantastic it’s soup the nuts now you’re
01:05 a strategic buyer yeah that’s what Randy
01:06 said you have the high you have higher
01:07 high eyes and you have lower lows and
01:09 it’s just kind of the grind of being an
01:10 entrepreneur and then you know being on
01:12 the acquisition side gives you a new
01:13 lens right you kind of know the things
01:15 you look for and I kind of really with
01:16 Randy one of my big takeaways was
01:18 actually the content side right it’s so
01:20 important and it’s something that I
01:21 think used to be like near and dear to
01:22 me and I feel like we kind of moved away
01:24 from it and now I’m kind of racking my
01:26 brain on okay like what does it look
01:27 like for me to replicate something like
01:29 that at disrupt right we you know we
02:31 have really strong leaders and how do we
02:33 start to leverage those people to go and
02:36 do something that kind of really attract
02:37 audiences right you got of build up each
02:39 of these different micro audiences and
02:40 you get a big all following and so and
02:42 getting in your employees diving into
02:43 your employees intelligence right
02:45 because even though they may not be
02:47 entrepreneurs they all have some type of
02:49 way they see it differently than we did
02:51 with your pool of people it’s a massive
02:54 amount of people that you can pull a lot
02:56 of great content and ideas from so yeah
02:58 I mean he he did it with his company and
02:00 they were all over the uni they were in
02:02 Canada some in the US and in Brazil yeah
02:05 and it was interesting to kind of you
02:07 know his take on just being aware of the
02:10 cyclical nature of Acquisitions right
02:12 and just knowing hey seen it multiple
02:15 times there’s a time to buy there’s a
02:16 time to sell right and just being
02:19 conscious that hey if we don’t sell this
02:20 cycle we’ll have to go sell in five six
02:23 seven 10 years from now and seeing that
02:25 multiple times and so deciding you know
02:26 what they’ve reached that inflection
02:27 point where maybe it is a good time to
02:29 sell and you know starting to work that
03:31 process so I mean I love talking to
03:32 Founders and hearing how did it go what
03:34 went well what didn’t go well so we have
03:35 all those nuggets in this episode having
03:37 the the the we with all to see the
03:38 Cycles to be thinking about the Cycles
03:41 because it’s true that was one of the
03:42 things he didn’t speak a lot about it
03:43 but if you listen into this just knowing
03:46 that he was aware of where they were at
03:49 that time to be able to make the
03:50 decision to exit this company so lots of
03:53 information this episode so we’ll get
03:55 right into
03:58 it on today today’s episode we have
03:01 Randy wood in 195 Randy co-founded
03:03 nonlinear Creations a marketing and
03:05 Technology Services Company by 2017
03:07 nonlinear expanded globally operating in
03:09 Canada the US Brazil and the UK Randy
03:11 orchestrated the Strategic sell of
03:13 nonlinear to valtec a global agency
03:15 focused on acquiring other companies he
03:17 elected to join the acquirer and today
03:18 plays a key role in their acquisition
03:20 strategy currently Randy drives Revenue
03:22 growth for Valtech in North America
03:24 actively exploring potential
03:25 Acquisitions his unique perspective
03:27 having been both a founder and um of
03:28 being part of the selling firm and a
04:30 corporate representative of buying one
04:31 fuels his passion for guiding
04:33 entrepreneurs through exit processes
04:35 Randy welcome to the show hey thanks so
04:37 much for having me no problem glad to
04:39 have you on how are you doing I’m doing
04:41 well actually yeah it’s been a great
04:42 start to the year awesome well let’s go
04:44 ahe and get this kicked off and so you
04:46 know maybe for those listeners you want
04:47 to go ahead and just give a little bit
04:48 of a background of you and kind of how
04:50 you got into your first business oh
04:52 interesting it’s always challenging to
04:53 go back and remember what life was like
04:55 before you started your business so um
04:57 you back to 1995 which is a long time
04:59 ago uh in Internet years certainly a
04:02 long time ago in just real years um I
04:04 had a university buddy and we both had
04:06 pretty good jobs for mid 20s uh
04:09 individuals but we felt like we wanted
04:11 to take a swing at doing something on
04:14 our own right something a bit different
04:15 so uh he decided to quit his job as a
04:18 seller of software to the former Soviet
04:20 Union and I quit my job as a lobbyist
04:22 for the federal government in Canada
04:23 though I was for the good guys I work
04:25 for the environmental Lobby and the
04:26 Heart and Stroke Foundation so I was on
04:27 the side of the Angels he was on the bad
04:29 guys right so the bad guys with the guy
05:30 we balanced right it was a good
05:32 partnership um but literally we just
05:34 decided one day at the gym that we
05:35 should just try and do something on our
05:37 own and uh that internet thing sounded
05:40 kind of interesting back in 95 algor
05:42 information Super Highway for those that
05:44 are old enough to recall uh nobody
05:46 really knew what the internet was
05:47 broadly then we just knew that it was
05:49 growing quickly and we were able to get
05:51 our brains around it we did not come
05:53 from technology backgrounds but we knew
05:54 enough technology to be dangerous um
05:56 none of us were developers um but we
05:58 found we were able to hire those fairly
05:59 quickly
05:00 and really it was one of those things
05:02 you can do when you don’t have a
05:03 mortgage and don’t have kids that you
05:05 probably can’t do once you have a
05:06 mortgage and kids we just
05:08 quit um rented a very small half falling
05:12 down dilapidated Shack as our office and
05:14 then hired a couple other 20 somethings
05:16 to help us out and we grew from there
05:18 how’d you have the money to hire those
05:19 20s somethings at the beginning oh that
05:21 was interesting there was a job creation
05:23 program by the federal government that
05:25 would uh subsidize them dramatically but
05:28 they had to be from non-traditional
05:29 backgrounds so we hired I think it was a
06:31 plumber and a plastics manufacturer were
06:34 our first employees we turned them into
06:35 HTML developers back in 1995 so we were
06:38 creative let’s just put it that way so
06:40 it sounds like back in the 90s the
06:42 government was trying to incentivize
06:43 people to get into Tech right and now we
06:44 almost have the opposite you have
06:46 programs that are trying to get the blue
06:47 collar kind of you know job path and
06:50 career growth opportunities yeah and I
06:52 should also say because we were a
06:53 Services business you know one of the
06:54 advantages of starting a Services
06:56 business as opposed to a product
06:57 business is you generally get cash up
06:58 front or very close to when the work is
06:60 done so it’s a little bit self-funding
06:02 and it’s certainly easier to bootstrap
06:03 than if you have to invest I don’t know
06:05 a million dollars to build a restaurant
06:06 or something before you see your first
06:08 dollar and so then I guess what exactly
06:11 was the vision when he started it right
06:12 what did you guys set out to do at the
06:14 time I mean you wanted to get into the
06:16 into the internet but hey did you know
06:18 you’re gonna be an agency or what did
06:19 you guys Envision initially no like big
06:22 money no whammies something like that uh
06:26 honestly the internet at that point it’s
06:27 really hard to recall but it was like it
06:30 was so nent that no one really knew what
07:32 it was or where it was going like this
07:33 is just as Netscape had launched the
07:35 first browser right as was the first
07:37 time it was ever starting to be seen by
07:39 people who didn’t go and get a cide
07:41 degree so we knew there’s opportunity we
07:43 didn’t really have much more Vision than
07:45 can we find people to pay us to tell
07:46 them about the internet or to do
07:48 something we managed to land early on a
07:50 contract with the National Gallery of
07:52 Canada um which is fairly prestigious in
07:55 Canada and recognized in both private
07:56 and public sector so it was a really
07:58 great um opportunity for us
07:00 and when that launched in February 96 it
07:04 was front page of news in Canada across
07:06 all the major papers which is ridiculous
07:07 when we think about it like a website
07:08 launching was front page news in like
07:10 our major national newspapers but it was
07:12 a perfect win for us because suddenly we
07:13 were the experts right we were about six
07:15 minutes ahead of everybody else but we
07:17 were the experts and that was okay at
07:18 that point in time and so we found
07:20 ourselves running around and building a
07:21 bunch of HTML websites at that point
07:23 using notepad or whatever our tools were
07:25 available because there weren’t very
07:26 many and then that company evolved we
07:28 evolved with the internet um we
08:30 eventually became an integrator of
08:32 package Solutions became a partner of
08:33 sitecore we did some advertising work
08:36 that came and went for a while we were
08:38 doing live streaming video with Warner
08:39 Brothers for a bit you know that was a a
08:41 piece of the puzzle too so we we played
08:44 with whatever people were willing to
08:46 invest in as the internet matured we
08:48 tended to put a foot in that water does
08:50 that make any sense I describe that it I
08:53 was G say it absolutely does I mean
08:54 you’re you’re preaching my language
08:55 because uh you know that 99 to 2005 era
08:58 that’s whenever I was you about 10 years
08:00 younger probably so I was probably too
08:02 young to do anything professional right
08:04 but I made a lot of money as a high
08:05 schooler playing that world and you know
08:07 seeing get it evolved and you know the
08:09 and I remember just flipping domains was
08:11 like my first business right like and
08:13 there’s so many domains that in
08:14 hindsight I’m like man I should have
08:15 picked up those domains right and held
08:16 them right didn’t have that business
08:18 mindset but it was a little bit of the
08:19 wild west back then and it’s just been
08:21 amazing to see what the internet has
08:22 turned into right well the funny thing
08:25 is that all the promise of the dotcom
08:27 boom and it was ridiculous and
08:28 irrational EX BR and all of that but
09:31 everything people thought was going to
09:32 happen happened it just didn’t happen in
09:34 6 months right it took more like 6 to8
09:36 years for it to happen but none of it
09:37 was wrong and for what it’s worth I kind
09:39 of feel like we’re at that moment with
09:41 AI right now where there’s a whole lot
09:43 of Promise it’s going to change every
09:44 part of the economy I don’t think it’s
09:46 going to happen by next January though
09:48 so we may get ahead of ourselves in
09:49 valuations but I do think it is like the
09:51 internet a place where it’s going to
09:52 change everything um so that you know
09:55 your your grandmother will be using AI
09:57 the way that your grandmother uses
09:58 Facebook right there’s going to be
09:59 something happening that’s really real
09:01 so I kind of feel like that’s happening
09:02 now for what it’s worth pretty amazing
09:04 so how long was the Journey of your
09:06 bootstrap to then your next phase in
09:09 that how many years did you guys spend
09:11 in that well we spent 23 years so we
09:13 bootstrapped the whole way we never
09:15 raised external capital for the services
09:16 company we did have a a side Adventure
09:18 where we spun off some software and as I
09:21 suggested earlier raise some money blew
09:24 up gloriously in the Doom crash um and
09:26 that’s a whole other set of learnings
09:28 that we had but yeah the services compy
09:30 we grew out of revenue for 23 years and
10:32 as life went on WE expanded we found
10:34 ourselves um with a model where we sold
10:37 to American customers primarily and also
10:39 the UK so we had operations in the US
10:41 and the UK and then we paid our people
10:43 in Canadian dollars and Brazilian R and
10:46 that model turns out to be pretty
10:47 profitable um we went to
10:49 Brazil quasi intentionally uh found
10:52 ourselves with a group there eventually
10:53 Incorporated and that’s a hard thing to
10:55 do in Brazil uh but we found our way
10:57 through their Network and um rather
10:59 using legal structures and once we got
10:01 established there we found ourselves
10:02 with access to just brilliant Talent at
10:04 a cost that we could actually afford and
10:06 that model worked for us right there’s a
10:08 bit of currency Arbitrage and there’s a
10:09 bit of uh near Shoring and and together
10:11 between British pounds and US Dollars we
10:14 did okay so in that journey of I guess
10:17 23 years right I mean you didn’t have
10:19 any previous leadership skills you
10:21 didn’t have any like management EOS that
10:23 they offer today so what were you guys
10:26 doing I mean was it just learn as you go
10:28 and did it one point stumble forward my
11:30 friend just absolutely created I mean we
11:33 we I mean oh in retrospect you know but
11:36 if you Looking Backward it’s really easy
11:38 to know what we should have done but
11:39 that’s always the case if it’s not the
11:41 case then you’re a very fortunate person
11:42 or you didn’t try very hard um I kind of
11:45 feel like we used to joke about our
11:46 business strategy being just make every
11:48 mistake possible but make it once right
11:51 I just don’t do it twice so we did we
11:53 made a in not just huge number of
11:55 mistakes like we probably didn’t have to
11:57 invent bookkeeping from first principles
11:59 right we might have wanted to hire an
11:01 accountant rather than doing it all in
11:02 Excel or you know we might have thought
11:04 about how we structured our leadership
11:05 team earlier um our management rhythms
11:08 all the stuff that we learned along the
11:10 way yeah now you can pick up a book like
11:11 EOS or any of the other systems there’s
11:13 a number of them out there and gives you
11:14 some guidance on how you might do that
11:16 we found it by trial and error and uh do
11:18 you say stumble forward because that’s a
11:19 really good way of phrasing it right
11:21 like we just we kept working until it
11:23 didn’t work and then we changed what
11:24 wasn’t working and hoped that would work
11:26 and we got to a point where with the
11:28 right people you can get away with that
12:30 right it doesn’t work if you haven’t got
12:31 the right people with the right people
12:32 you can do amazing things no it’s
12:34 everybody thinks you know they see a
12:35 company think it has it act together and
12:37 usually you don’t it’s about stumbling
12:39 forward and just making sure you don’t
12:40 fall right just keep keep moving forward
12:43 and just keep Ling The Next Step as best
12:45 as you can and just not fall so yeah
12:48 every no day is like the other but um
12:51 let me ask you this I mean was there you
12:53 know was your growth linear or was there
12:54 just a pivotal thing that happened that
12:56 just really kind of you know basically
12:58 changed the trajectory of the company
12:01 yeah it was not linear um company’s name
12:03 is nonlinear but that’s nothing to do
12:04 with their growth rate we listen from 95
12:08 to 2000 you could do no wrong right the
12:10 the tide was coming in all Boats were
12:12 going up crazily forgiving place to
12:14 start a business because you can make
12:15 all kinds of mistakes and still get away
12:17 with it um there was far more demand
12:19 than there was Supply really fun place
12:22 to be a young entrepreneur um after the
12:25 crash we didn’t have a lot of Dooms in
12:27 our in our portfolio but there was a
12:28 real pullback investment across the
13:31 board and you know that definitely hit
13:32 us so if you think about it we grew like
13:33 this we shrank I got to learn all those
13:35 fun things about how you do layoffs in
13:37 various parts of the country didn’t
13:38 realize there were so many different
13:39 laws in each state in the Union or each
13:41 province in Canada so got to learn all
13:43 about doing layoffs not the funnest part
13:46 of the journey um so we reinvented
13:48 ourselves at that point found a
13:49 different value proposition changed how
13:51 we went to Market uh invested in some
13:53 salespeople um that were very highly
13:56 paid and very successful and and we grew
13:58 fairly consistently and then somewhere
13:00 around uh 2008 not really related to the
13:03 financial crisis but we lost a couple of
13:05 salespeople and we realized that we
13:07 could no longer how to put this when
13:09 you’ve got a really good salesperson
13:11 when they leave you they leave with
13:12 their book of business it’s really tough
13:14 to continue your growth path and so we
13:17 very deliberately shifted from a sales
13:19 Le organization to a marketing Le
13:21 organization we invested in creating
13:24 content we’d shut down the whole company
13:26 for half a day every month and everyone
13:27 wrote I didn’t care if you were the
13:29 janitor or the HR manager or our Chief
14:32 Architect right everyone wrote and we
14:33 published and within couple years we
14:36 were dominating our Niche online for
14:38 most of the key Search terms and that
14:40 turned into a steady flow of leads which
14:41 turned into really consistent Revenue
14:43 growth uh to the point where we could
14:45 predict six months out how many New
14:46 Deals we’d get and and that shift
14:48 probably was the accelerant that let us
14:51 grow to the point where exiting to
14:52 Valtech made sense no it’s that was
14:55 probably what early
14:56 2010s yeah so we started it in 20 8 n
14:00 and then somewhere around 2010 it really
14:02 took off yeah that’s I know I remember
14:03 seeing that [ __ ] no cud this to you I
14:04 mean so it sounds like you know instead
14:07 of letting sells people going fishing
14:08 their own leads you were bringing them
14:09 leads on a platter that they needed to
14:10 close but obviously that put the power
14:12 back in your hands right you’re not kind
14:14 of susceptible to people that are
14:16 essentially going to use their book as
14:18 their leverage right to take advantage
14:20 of the company and Yeah we actually got
14:21 to the point we had very few sales
14:23 people like we would just have our
14:24 executive team or or our best technology
14:26 Person Pitch what they were going to do
14:28 and The credibility that came with that
14:29 was super high so as long as you had a
15:31 lead flow high enough and then you were
15:33 selected your opportunities you could
15:35 really do that and kind of avoid the
15:36 whole salesy process entirely and I’m
15:38 sorry I interrupted you no what what was
15:40 the average deal size oh at that point
15:43 we’re probably 350,000 400,000 somewhere
15:47 in that area pretty big so yeah okay
15:49 yeah got it yeah there was an incredible
15:51 book and I wish I knew the name of it
15:53 but they it talks a lot about getting
15:54 your employees to engage in writing
15:56 content right so even before that book
15:59 was written you you employed that you
15:01 got that out there so how do you get the
15:03 Buy in on something how do you get the
15:04 employ it’s amazing what desperation
15:07 will do for you but a couple of things I
15:09 joke but we we had a really good team so
15:11 our team felt very coherent we did a lot
15:13 of um internal Communications we were uh
15:17 we had basically open book management
15:19 there’s profit sharing um we spent a lot
15:21 of time educating our team on how to
15:23 read a balance sheet for example so they
15:25 can understand the numbers when we we
15:26 shareed them so they all understood the
15:28 status of the company at almost every
15:29 time so it was part of it right they
16:31 felt kind of part of the team and
16:32 involved and engaged in a mission part
16:35 one second thing is that we really um
16:38 celebrated the wins around content
16:40 publication so we would at every monthly
16:43 All Hands we would announce which of the
16:45 various pieces that been published had
16:47 the most views um which had the biggest
16:49 distribution there were prizes for
16:51 people who had the biggest increase from
16:53 one year to the next you can like the
16:54 whole point was it became clear to
16:55 everyone in the organization that the
16:57 way you move ahead in the company or the
16:58 way that you g prominence is by
16:00 publishing really solid material and so
16:02 it became kind of self motivating and
16:03 the truth was the best people in the
16:05 company produce the best material and so
16:07 everyone aspired to be them and there
16:08 was this kind of upward spiral of
16:10 goodness that worked out so that wasn’t
16:12 deliberate but that’s how it actually
16:13 ended up working out I love the yeah
16:16 offline there’s another company I’ll
16:17 tell you about a little later I remember
16:19 they just did that I think they got
16:20 phenomenal growth and now you’re kind of
16:21 inspiring me I think my leadership is
16:22 not going to like me going back and just
16:24 saying all right guys starting today
16:25 everyone needs to write content but I’m
16:27 I’m a huge proponent of content and it’s
16:28 funny it’s the way we’ve built the
17:30 company to where we are now is really
17:32 content and education and then we’ve
17:34 kind of almost you know Fallen back a
17:36 little bit right you get so busy running
17:37 the thing and you kind of you know you
17:39 fall backwards a little bit and now I’m
17:41 just getting re re rejuvenated of hey we
17:43 should probably have a revisit that and
17:44 just kind of get a more thorough
17:46 strategy and getting everybody bought in
17:48 it’s amazing probably to dip into your
17:50 employees Minds because a lot of them
17:51 have their own creative genius right and
17:53 they’re the ones that blow you away the
17:55 most because you’re like wow it’s things
17:57 I didn’t see total side effect of this
17:60 utterly unplanned is that we very
17:01 quickly figured out who the super smart
17:04 people that we didn’t know were right
17:05 like junior team members that had just
17:07 joined us or that were in Brazil that we
17:09 didn’t see when you wrot when you read
17:10 what they wrote you realize like okay
17:13 this person is like that that’s a keeper
17:15 that’s a star we have to hang on to and
17:16 it’s really hard to get that visibility
17:18 as you grow right it’s not hard when
17:19 you’re 30 people but you get up to 110
17:21 or 120 people across different
17:23 geographies that line of sight to who
17:25 your stars are is really difficult and
17:27 that was not intended but it was hugely
17:29 Val that came out of that process yeah
18:31 and last question on this before we get
18:33 to your your your part is you know so
18:36 when you have so many different
18:37 locations and you mentioned you have a
18:39 monthly on De like you have everybody
18:41 coming together how did you pull that
18:42 off before the really the days of Zoom
18:45 that that we didn’t all have teams and
18:46 we didn’t have all that stuff so what
18:48 did you do in order to have an all hands
18:50 for for all those different locations
18:52 what do we do that’s a good question so
18:53 we didn’t use teams WebEx maybe but
18:56 there was something before WebEx that we
18:58 used as well and I’m sorry have to back
18:59 in the archive to see so it was clunky
18:01 um there was no streaming video but we
18:03 were able to share the Powerpoints and
18:04 the audio right so that’s really what we
18:05 did for the most part the PowerPoint
18:08 whatever slide where you’re using became
18:10 really important um and we had the same
18:12 Rhythm each month so people knew what to
18:13 expect and generally speaking we do like
18:15 an all hands for the entire organization
18:17 and then each region would have 15
18:19 minutes either before or after where
18:20 they would do their own thing um early
18:23 on WE experimented with actually having
18:24 live cameras in the office so that when
18:26 you sat down at the at the lunch table
18:28 you’d basically looking into the lunch
18:30 table in Brazil or something we couldn’t
19:32 get the technology to work but I still
19:33 think it would have been a great idea we
19:35 just it was just too early for it to
19:36 actually work out yeah yeah now there’s
19:38 one right now it’s a the robot that you
19:40 can control so people that are remote
19:41 can basically be in the office by having
19:43 like a little robot with an iPad and
19:44 it’s showing their face and they can
19:45 just navigate around the office and so
19:47 there was one company that opened it up
19:48 to the public and someone figured out a
19:50 way to sneak the device out of the
19:52 building they’re trying to lock it in
19:53 within the building and they were able
19:55 to you know yeah oh the stuff that’s
19:57 coming it’s going to be insane yeah
19:59 going to be insane so talk to us a
19:01 little bit about so 23 years right and
19:04 then comes a time where you’re now ready
19:06 to exit were you now going out and
19:09 seeking that or did somebody come out
19:11 and find
19:12 you yes and both here’s how this worked
19:16 um shann and I have been running the
19:17 company long enough to realize that the
19:19 window opens to sell your company and
19:20 then it closes right so there times and
19:22 valuations are high money’s cheap
19:24 there’s lots of demand and that will be
19:26 followed by a period where that’s not
19:28 true and so 2017 things are 16 things
20:32 are going really well for us put a great
20:33 growth curve uh we’re an implant of
20:35 something called ssye which is really
20:37 hot technology there weren’t very many
20:39 firms able to do it so all the things
20:41 were lining up for us and we sat
20:43 together you know went at a beer
20:45 frequently did probably that’s the
20:46 problem with being University buddies is
20:48 that that beer drinking thing continues
20:49 all the way through the whole yeah
20:51 exactly um we said like we either have
20:53 to exit now or we have to wait for the
20:55 next cycle right we knew it was going to
20:56 be now or there be like a dir and right
20:58 now we’re in the middle of a quiet
20:59 period so we knew and would have been
20:02 tough right so we knew it was like now
20:03 or wait 58 years and we thought where we
20:07 were in our life where the company was
20:09 where our team was because they were we
20:12 had great team members been with us for
20:13 like 20 years 18 years 17 years and they
20:16 were often better had more potential
20:19 than we could help them fulfill inside
20:21 our company right we couldn’t grow the
20:22 company fast enough for them to have the
20:23 career path they deserved and that was
20:25 one of our motivations to join a bigger
20:26 firm was to let them to rise to their AB
20:28 level of ability so that was the
21:30 conversation and so we said yes let’s
21:32 formally go to market now one of our
21:34 indicators was that people were calling
21:35 us and saying would you would you like
21:37 to be bought so that’s the other half we
21:39 knew there was demand because people
21:40 were asking so we went and got a banker
21:42 I ran the process Shannon ran the
21:44 company with Dan and Ally our executive
21:46 team that worked out really well I was
21:48 able to we weren’t distracted by the
21:50 process because I was able to take it on
21:52 my own and run it with her banker and we
21:54 talked to I don’t know 80 100 different
21:57 potential acquirers or invest over the
21:59 year we kind of ran down both processes
21:01 like do we want to raise money or do we
21:02 want do we want to exit fully and uh and
21:05 very late in the process valtec came to
21:06 the table we hadn’t known them but our
21:08 Banker brought them to the table and
21:09 very clearly very quickly we realized
21:12 they were the right firm for us go so
21:14 you you know it sounds like he
21:15 traditional investment banker and you
21:17 had a good experience with it right
21:18 you’re happy you did it you don’t kind
21:19 of hey we should have done it any
21:21 differently yeah I think it’s um I give
21:23 this advice to other entrepreneurs when
21:24 asked and people spent a lot of time
21:27 thinking about who they want to sell
21:28 their company too you just spend about
22:31 that same amount time thinking about who
22:32 you want to help you have help you to
22:35 sell your firm so your selection of who
22:37 the banker is your broker it’s a
22:39 critical decision and it’s not one you
22:41 should make lightly it’s one that I
22:42 think you should think like really hard
22:44 about because they are going they have
22:45 the potential to um make or break the
22:48 biggest transaction you’re going to do
22:50 in your life so don’t underestimate the
22:53 time you should take just to really vet
22:55 them understand them understand not just
22:58 kind of their track record but who
22:59 you’ll be dealing with how senior they
22:01 are how closely their values align with
22:03 yours it’s similar I think in many ways
22:05 to hiring a senior employee like you
22:06 have to make all those same kinds of
22:08 decisions and some of them are at the
22:10 gut level so that that’s my my
22:12 recommendation around that yes we did
22:13 okay um knowing what I know now we might
22:16 have made different choices but you know
22:18 we end up in the right place so I can’t
22:20 complain too much and then what was the
22:21 time frame so when you you you engaged
22:23 with the investment banker and then when
22:25 you actually went with bource what what
22:27 did that what would that time frame I
22:29 think we were probably eight months from
23:30 the time oh might be longer than that
23:32 maybe closer to a year from when we
23:33 first engaged them because then we had
23:34 to get all our due diligence stuff
23:35 pulled together I think our sort of
23:37 active road show was maybe six to eight
23:39 months and then once we um once beltech
23:43 became apparent that that deal was
23:44 likely to happen between sort of the
23:47 handshake through the letter of intent
23:50 to closing was about six weeks so it was
23:52 very fast after we after we found the
23:54 right partner things moved very quickly
23:56 were they were they the only Loi that
23:58 you guys had or was it the only one they
23:00 all accepted I mean did you all get down
23:01 the aisle with anybody else kind of we
23:03 went down the aisle a couple of times
23:05 but it became clear pretty quickly that
23:06 we weren’t good fits either culturally
23:08 in one case Shannon turned to me in one
23:10 of the meetings and said I think he’s
23:11 trying to fire me and they haven’t
23:12 bought the company yet can they do that
23:13 is that a thing we can do um so that
23:15 wasn’t going to work and in other cases
23:18 Brazil was really a strength for us we
23:19 thought but there were lots of firms
23:20 that were scared uh of the complexities
23:23 of Brazilian law so if you’re a if
23:26 you’re a thousand person Professional
23:27 Services firm in Ohio that only does
23:29 work in Ohio you know Canadian law
24:31 scares you let alone Brazilian law so a
24:33 couple of those just died on the table
24:35 because they couldn’t get their head
24:36 around how to operate
24:38 multinationally um but actually it all
24:40 worked out for the best because VTEC was
24:41 a great fit culturally um they were
24:44 already multinational so that wasn’t an
24:45 issue in fact the the fellow that led
24:47 their m&a team at that point um ended up
24:49 having a cottage very close to our
24:51 office in Florianopolis Brazil which was
24:53 like the craziest thing ever because um
24:55 it made clearly clearly evident to us
24:58 that he the Dynamics of you know living
24:01 in the laam so um they just a great fit
24:04 um and they’ proven to be a great fit
24:05 after the sale as well awesome now
24:08 what’s your role what’s your role with
24:09 Valtech my role is evolved with Valtech
24:12 so um Valtech has a philosophy of
24:15 keeping Founders around if they can uh
24:17 post acquisition and to do that they
24:19 usually take you out of your role of
24:20 running your team and putting you into a
24:22 different role and initially I was
24:24 involved bounced around a few different
24:26 things they need fixed so I was kind of
24:27 a fixer in the organization in the last
24:29 couple of years they’ve asked me to uh
25:31 take a lead role in the m&a process in
25:34 North America basically helping them
25:35 identify uh new firms that would be
25:38 appropriate dad that solves our problems
25:40 and that have the kind of cultural um
25:42 similarities that would allow us to
25:44 acquire them so think about me sourcing
25:45 deals for VTEC framing them up and then
25:49 sometimes doing the integration work
25:50 afterwards yeah it well speaking of deal
25:51 so let’s go back to your deal though
25:53 right so ultimately you know how did
25:54 they value the company what was what did
25:56 yall do on the structure side right you
25:57 know what did it take to get the deal
25:59 and were there certain things that you
25:00 and your partner knew you were looking
25:01 for or things that you knew that you
25:03 weren’t going to agree to right up front
25:04 that you basically told your investment
25:06 banker like hey I’m not going to do a
25:07 blank a lot of times it’s a seller carry
25:09 right is one of those things I mean what
25:11 what did that all look like I like like
25:13 any Services firm you know what we
25:14 wanted was Cash on the barrel head um we
25:17 realized that’s unlikely to happen um
25:20 all the time we were looking for a home
25:22 for our team right we wanted how big of
25:25 the team was it we well the team was
25:27 about 110 people at that point I I think
25:29 it depends a little bit how you count
25:30 the contractors in some Latin American
26:31 countries but like about that size and
26:33 and we just wanted to confidence in our
26:37 gut that they were going to a be able to
26:39 like succeed in this new
26:40 organization um those are the two
26:43 biggest I guess pieces of the puzzle we
26:46 had a number in mind um but we were
26:48 going let the market determine what it
26:49 was worth and then decide whether it was
26:50 worth that to us or not um and the
26:53 valtec deal was you know checked all
26:55 those boxes Valtech was about 20 people
26:59 at that point um it’s about 6,000 now to
26:01 give you a sense of the growth um but of
26:04 those 2,000 very few were in North
26:05 America maybe 100 so by bringing our
26:07 team
26:08 in essentially our senior execs were
26:11 suddenly senior execs inside btech
26:13 because there wasn’t a North American
26:14 structure so it was a perfect fi for
26:16 smar key people like Daniel Rish or
26:19 Alison Abraham who very quickly became
26:21 very senior people in a global
26:22 organization right so that was a big
26:24 checkbox for us and then Valtech um yeah
26:27 the valuation was reason
26:29 services companies always trade within a
27:31 range right so you’re not going to get
27:32 like the software as a service kind of
27:34 valuation so it was within that range
27:36 and deal what’s the multiple first
27:38 services company and this is purely
27:40 Professional Services right to be more
27:41 specific right just kind of rough just
27:43 so people listening kind of I don’t know
27:45 you see like five to four to eight times
27:48 IA but it changes by time right now I
27:50 think the numbers have come down um we
27:53 were in pretty good place at our point
27:54 in time sometimes they’ll tra CH trade
27:56 on on Revenue multiples if it’s fast
27:57 growth right some between like 0.9
27:59 Revenue to
27:01 1.1 um that’s just like top of my mind I
27:03 haven’t got any formal numbers right now
27:05 four to eight so it’s not too bad I
27:06 thought thought it was gonna be higher
27:07 than that so that’s just reasonable yeah
27:09 some of these multiples you’re just like
27:10 man how do they make some of this stuff
27:11 work right no no if you’re software and
27:14 services company right you might get the
27:15 enormous multiples on top of that
27:17 Professional Services they’re basically
27:19 buying the cash flow going forward right
27:21 in most cases if you’re in a tech
27:22 company maybe it’s a bit more than that
27:24 and if they want your management team
27:25 like they did in our case if they want
27:26 your region it varies but not it’s not a
27:30 um let’s put it this way if Shan and I
28:32 could go back in time and we’re a bit
28:33 smarter we probably should have started
28:34 like Google or Facebook or something but
28:36 we didn’t so this is the valuation we
28:38 get life a lot of hon I still remember
28:39 thinking about starting YouTube but once
28:41 upon a time something like a YouTube and
28:42 thinking like it’s too expensive to do
28:44 video hosting right I was too young and
28:46 naive to know about it’s okay if you
28:47 lose money for 15 years gota go raise
28:49 the equity and it’s all about the long
28:51 game so when we started out talking
28:53 right at the very beginning so you’ve
28:54 been a bootstrap entrepreneur right
28:57 didn’t you didn’t take any capital on
28:59 this company in you guys raised it made
28:02 it happen and grown it now there was a
28:04 point inside of that though you
28:06 mentioned you did a tech Venture and you
28:08 also went to the Canadian Mark was it
28:11 the stock exchange yeah so let me
28:13 explain that because it’s a it’s a
28:15 complicated story I’ll try to do it
28:16 quickly we could probably spend three
28:17 hours and this is another place where
28:18 beer helps actually tell the story
28:20 because it was a painful one so um 98
28:23 roughly maybe 99 we’d realized that
28:26 we’re having a hard time explaining to
28:27 our clients whether they were being
28:29 successful or not online this is the
29:30 years before Google analytics right it
29:32 didn’t exist web Trends existed that’s
29:34 the one thing it’s crazy expensive super
29:36 difficult to deploy and manage so we
29:38 built a technology so that our clients
29:40 were able to understand if we were
29:41 actually delivering value to them and
29:43 then we realized that technology was
29:45 much more valuable as a technology than
29:46 as a service offering for us so we rais
29:49 some Angel money from uh some local
29:52 fairly High Networth individuals we
29:53 spent out a company called byst stream
29:55 buy stream and basically it was Google
29:57 Analytics right used a very similar
29:59 technology if you look back at the
29:00 interface look kind of comparable to
29:02 what Google analytics used to be and uh
29:05 we raised an angel round we got a bunch
29:07 of clients we raised a um Venture
29:10 Capital round from led by Safeguard
29:12 Scientifics out of Philadelphia yep so
29:14 um I think it was 23 million us was the
29:16 announced number so it was one of the
29:18 bigger bench rounds for software in
29:20 Canadian history at that point in time
29:21 especially because the Canadian dollar
29:22 was weak so that turned into a lot of
29:24 Canadian dollars uh the trick being that
29:26 we didn’t get all the cash up front we
29:28 got it in tranches and uh we were like
30:31 the last company to raise money before
30:33 the dotom crash happened we’re like that
30:35 guy hanging off the helicopter right get
30:37 getting dragged out um so all that to
30:40 say the second trunch didn’t show up um
30:42 and there’s some complexity there so we
30:45 we had to very quickly wind down that
30:47 company now wind it down we we were able
30:50 to reduce our size quickly we ran it for
30:53 a couple more years um we were able to
30:56 restructure the company so the vure
30:57 capital firm was no longer involved it
30:59 was just the original Founders and the
30:00 angels and at that point we uh sold the
30:04 intellectual property to a company
30:05 called watchfire which eventually was
30:07 bought by IBM so that was one way that
30:10 our Angel Investors got repaid and then
30:12 we took the empty company and at that
30:14 point in time there was a way of um
30:18 using the losses in the company to
30:20 structure uh oil and gas exploration
30:23 company it’s a really complicated tax
30:24 thing and I won’t claim I really
30:26 understand it basically what allow us to
30:28 do is
30:29 um for certain types of exploration
31:31 companies the losses in the company flow
31:33 through to the Investor’s personal tax
31:35 accounts right so if you invest you get
31:37 a write down on your taxes so the losses
31:40 in the company had value in that um
31:43 circumstance and so we turned it into a
31:44 firm called Fair West energy which then
31:46 traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange so
31:48 that’s the long story the short way of
31:50 saying it is that I’m not sure we were
31:51 successful but most of our Angels got
31:53 their cash back or very close which made
31:55 us more successful than most of the Dos
31:57 so I fig that’s a in my book I would
31:59 call it a huge win and man and all of
31:01 this while you were still running the
31:03 other company well there’s two of us
31:05 remember right so we kind of bounc back
31:06 and forth and we also had some very good
31:09 Senior Team Daniel or basically ran it
31:11 and we checked in for breakfast on
31:12 Fridays right so I I can’t claim that um
31:16 we were really doing both jobs well fun
31:19 times so then I guess for Valtech going
31:21 back to Valtech you know the for the
31:24 deal itself right was it was did you get
31:26 that kind of cash up front like you won
31:28 or did they was an earnout I mean how
31:30 how they ended up structuring it no ear
32:32 no so we had a fixed price but the
32:33 structure was uh shares and cash right
32:36 so some cash up front um especially
32:38 because the way the taxations in Canada
32:40 works if you sell to a foreign company
32:42 you pay taxes on the whole thing up
32:43 front whether you get the money or not
32:45 so you have to make sure you get enough
32:46 cash to cover that so it’s you know the
32:48 whole structure had to be negotiated but
32:50 yeah we were very happy with it it was a
32:51 very substantial part of the of the
32:53 total was in in cash and the rest was in
32:55 shares and then you know those shares um
32:58 we were able to you know navigate
32:59 through that and get value for them as
32:01 well so as the company grew you know our
32:03 net worth increased as well so yeah good
32:05 story all around awesome and so today
32:07 you’re just out there talking to guys
32:09 like us you know listeners like this and
32:11 trying to find nice businesses to buy
32:13 right I mean what what type of
32:14 businesses are you guys focusing on
32:16 traditionally Valtech has acquired
32:18 founder-led companies very much like
32:20 ours right in the let’s say 10 million
32:23 Revenue to 30 million Revenue range
32:26 that’s been where we’ve had a great deal
32:27 of success since and rolling them in um
33:30 there’s a a real respect for the
33:32 entrepreneurial fire that you get in
33:34 those kind of organizations um and
33:36 that’s that’s historically what we’ve
33:37 acquired so um we acquired a performance
33:40 marketing firm in Charlotte a couple
33:42 years ago um which was a bit of a
33:44 stretch for us because an area we wanted
33:46 to be in but we hadn’t been in so by
33:48 bringing in a firm in Charlotte you know
33:49 they just fit like the people there
33:51 really understood um how to make things
33:54 happen there wasn’t a lot of um overhead
33:57 or sort of complexity and so it’s fairly
33:59 easy so that’s what we looked for
33:01 historically um right now the digital
33:03 marketing space no no that was an
33:05 exception actually so right now the
33:07 deals that we’re looking at more
33:09 commonly are integrators so somebody who
33:11 might be in the data engineering space
33:13 I’d love to talk to them or if you’re
33:16 like an adobe partner who can implement
33:18 the Adobe stack you know we’re certainly
33:20 looking for that um but all the big
33:22 caveat because the big news for this
33:24 year is that
33:26 um in
33:28 February um Kenan ca’s board recommended
34:32 us to their shareholders um to acquire
34:34 them um and we’re waiting for antitrust
34:38 to complete so essentially kenart is
34:39 about a 2,000 person organization and um
34:43 our board was the one that actually
34:45 pulled that together I wasn’t part of
34:46 the deal but that’s a huge deal for VTEC
34:49 right like we’re used to buying
34:49 companies that are much smaller than
34:51 that um more in the 100 to 300 person
34:54 range you know whereas this is a big
34:55 company and that will probably mean that
34:57 we’re spending some time figuring out
34:59 how to integrate this’s much larger
34:00 Beast than we have previously
34:02 integration is a hard part and so
34:03 everything in the in the software space
34:04 though right you guys aren’t going to go
34:05 buy a plumbing company would y’all no
34:07 it’s all Tech integration generally um
34:09 we do have some you know we some brand
34:10 we have some really cool we’ve got a
34:11 theme park division which does amazing
34:13 things right but again all in the
34:14 technology space so we do the software
34:17 behind things um like I don’t know um
34:20 Mario Brothers World in Japan right so
34:23 like some of the cool stuff that happens
34:24 there some our guys did the magic for
34:25 that some our GS did um so we got like a
34:28 fairly broad breadth we actually have a
34:29 joint venture with Audi that is helping
35:32 build the the next glass for the inside
35:34 of the car right the actual operating
35:35 system for your vehicle so we do a lot
35:37 of things they’re all Tech related but
35:39 they often have a creative or a brand
35:41 element on top of it and so that’s what
35:42 we bring to the table so when you find
35:45 that co-founder right what are those
35:47 like what are your initial like if if
35:49 co-founders listening right now that fit
35:51 right into what you guys like to do what
35:53 are those things in your due diligence
35:55 what are you looking for sure I’m going
35:57 to take like the big deals off the table
35:59 and talk about the ones that are sort of
35:00 still founder L because that’s where I
35:02 actually have more influence so there’s
35:03 a few things right has to fit the the
35:05 technology like it has to be what we
35:06 need um if you’re if you’re in a space
35:09 that’s just sort of just additive for us
35:10 it’s probably not going to happen for
35:12 you because we’re not going to pay very
35:13 much but say we need um say in Europe
35:17 we’re really strong in a given
35:18 technology but we have no capability of
35:20 executing that in North America we might
35:22 look for a firm that can fill that Gap
35:24 right so part of it is like do you check
35:25 that box and then there’s the financials
35:28 right at the end of the day we’re a
35:29 financially rigorous organization so if
36:31 you’re a services company that’s losing
36:32 money we’re probably not going to talk
36:33 to you right but if you’re growing
36:35 quickly or even moderately and you have
36:37 you have solid profitability then you
36:39 know that’s a conversation we’ll have
36:40 those are kind of getting in prices and
36:42 then you get into the intangibles right
36:44 um that first meeting with the founders
36:46 tells you a lot about the culture of the
36:48 organization how they present themselves
36:50 what motivates them which often trickles
36:52 to the organization and there are times
36:54 in that very first meeting you know it’s
36:55 like nope we that’s not going to work
36:57 this is not a firm that we want to be
36:58 part of the team and there’s other times
36:00 where you meet and it feels like you’re
36:02 talking to somebody you’ve worked with
36:03 for 20 years and it’s pretty clear
36:05 there’s a an organizational structure we
36:07 can put together that’ll benefit both
36:09 sides so what is the biggest mistake you
36:11 know Founders are making right whether
36:13 it’s that first meeting financials is it
36:15 you know their back office what are the
36:16 biggest things that you think that you
36:18 constantly see that you’re like man if
36:20 you guys just get ahead of this you’d be
36:21 in much better position there there’s a
36:23 lot of ways to do things incorrectly
36:26 when it comes to Acquisitions you can
36:27 have a very success compan that’s very
36:29 hard to buy and that’s the thing that I
37:30 I spend my time often conveying to firms
37:33 so
37:34 um most firms that are going to Market
37:37 that have hired a banker or a broker
37:38 have had this conversation right but if
37:40 you’re getting ready you have to think
37:42 through things like um what do my
37:44 financials look like right how much um
37:47 how how aggressive have I been in sort
37:50 of minimizing my personal taxes um
37:52 within the company because that often
37:53 turns into like numbers that just don’t
37:54 make sense from the outside and you
37:56 can’t get the value for it I understand
37:57 why you do it but it’s just not a great
37:60 place to be when it comes time to
37:01 actually sell the firm so clean up your
37:03 books make sure they’re running like
37:06 solidly audited books are ideal if
37:08 you’re really small maybe not but make
37:10 sure that you you know you’re doing the
37:12 things you need to do so that an
37:13 external accounting firm can look at it
37:15 and give our board for example Comfort
37:17 the numbers make sense right we had one
37:19 deal die because they couldn’t because
37:20 it could never get their head around the
37:21 way the accounting was done so just
37:24 invest the time energy and take the hit
37:26 professionalize your accounting that’s
37:27 one thing I would suggest um I’d also
38:31 suggest if you’re seriously thinking
38:33 about going to Market that you take a
38:35 hard look at your contracts um both
38:36 employee and client contracts and just
38:39 make sure that they’ll stand up to
38:41 scrutiny by you know one of the big
38:43 legal firms because it’s another area we
38:45 see there’s often shortcuts taken but
38:47 they cost you in the long run right so
38:49 it’s a it’s worth getting your legal the
38:52 paperwork figured out it’s not the most
38:53 exciting part of being an entrepreneur
38:55 but if you get that done it makes the
38:56 deal an awful lot easier to get done so
38:58 there’s there’s two things um and then
38:01 the non- bus stuff and this is actually
38:03 in many ways more important like get
38:05 aligned with your spouse partner family
38:08 key stakeholders make sure they agree
38:10 they want to do this make sure they’re
38:11 prepared for it make sure they’re on
38:13 board make sure everyone’s aligned um
38:15 because I can tell you uh from
38:17 experience both personal but also from
38:19 acquiring companies that um deals often
38:22 die for no reason with for nothing to do
38:24 with the company but much to do about
38:26 the shareholder structure or the
38:28 interpersonal um challenges of the the
39:31 founders right so getting that figured
39:33 out ahead of time makes a lot more
39:36 likely you’ll get the deal done a bunch
39:37 of solid advice it’s funny that’s what
39:39 Equity launch pad we’ve kind of
39:40 structured the company to where we we
39:41 have basically what we call the backbone
39:43 right the thing that most entrepreneurs
39:44 don’t focus on until it’s almost like
39:46 too late right sales marketing hrit
39:48 accounting legal right those are not the
39:51 sexy part of the business most people
39:52 are excited to build a product or go
39:54 sell a product or you know get people
39:56 through the door and go close stuff but
39:57 but like you said accounting is a very
39:60 very important part of a company same
39:01 thing with legal same thing even with HR
39:03 and processes methodologies contracts
39:05 all of those things are critical and so
39:06 we kind of solve that same problem and
39:08 that’s really the value that we add any
39:10 to any to any of our portfolio companies
39:12 right as we acquire them and that’s we
39:13 can bring those systems processes brace
39:15 and kind of bring them up to that level
39:16 of maturity yeah I talked to some people
39:20 not really coaching but I’ll be asked
39:21 for my my thoughts by some fellow
39:23 entrepreneurs and I’ll say like you got
39:24 to start thinking about your firm from
39:25 the outside in as a as an investor right
39:28 like pretend you don’t know how your
39:30 firm Works how would you give me Comfort
40:32 that it actually works and that kind of
40:34 often will you know check the boxer turn
40:37 the light bulb on it’s like oh yeah
40:38 right I can see where you’d have no idea
40:39 how this works because often we just
40:41 make things up on the Fly which is great
40:43 and it works for you but you can’t sell
40:45 that it’s crazy how that accounting all
40:48 of that stuff that you don’t want to do
40:51 comes back to Haun you process
40:54 documentation all that stuff right yeah
40:56 yeah it is crazy well I’ll tell you what
40:58 Randy it’s been fantastic meeting with
40:00 you here today I mean I not many times
40:02 you get to meet a bootstrapped
40:04 entrepreneur that’s also taken Venture
40:05 Capital Money in another business went
40:08 the public route and now in his life is
40:10 a strategic buyer so you’ve hit all
40:13 spectrums of Entrepreneurship my I want
40:15 to grow I want to grow up and be Randy
40:17 know that’s it I I I would not wish wish
40:19 that on my worst enemy so no you don’t
40:21 want that but it has been an interesting
40:22 career I will say that so far I’ve very
40:24 much enjoyed it and well I certainly as
40:26 I suggested we’ve made lots of mistakes
40:28 none them were fatal so you know that’s
40:30 a big piece of it yeah last little piece
41:32 of words of encouragement for the people
41:33 that are listening yeah listen I think
41:35 being an entrepreneur is a really
41:36 difficult lifestyle but if you’re the
41:37 right person it’s probably the most
41:39 rewarding experience you can imagine the
41:40 highs are higher the lows are lower um
41:43 failure is more likely than not but if
41:46 you you got the stomach lining to manage
41:47 it there are very few things that are
41:49 more rewarding than kind of waiting into
41:51 the unknown and and making your own path
41:53 there beautiful well thank you for that
41:55 you know so let’s jump into our rocket
41:57 the rocket round I hope you’re ready for
41:60 thatc yeah so kicking off the first
41:03 first one so what do you like to do in
41:05 your free
41:06 time uh I’ve got a few Hobbies uh I
41:10 still scuba dive a lot my brother lives
41:12 in uh in Kenya right now he’s lived in a
41:15 whole bunch of places around the world
41:16 with uh various Aid organizations and
41:19 when I’m able to I will go and visit him
41:20 someplace and we’ll get a bit of time
41:22 underwater so that’s that’s been a
41:23 passion over the years um I I boxed for
41:26 years and I’m still in the community so
41:28 I’m obviously not competitive anymore
42:30 but I very much enjoy working out with
42:32 some of the younger folks and some of
42:33 the charity Fighters there’s a lot of
42:35 Charity fights happening now and it’s
42:36 useful to have somebody my age to get
42:37 beaten up by the respective
42:40 boxers up Mike Tyson’s upcoming fight so
42:42 we won’t bring that up leave that aside
42:45 he’s in better shape than I am though
42:46 I’ll tell you that speaking of scuba
42:48 diving I like to say that was it’s a CL
42:50 I took that class in college and I like
42:51 to say that was one of the most useful
42:52 classes I took in college and one of the
42:53 few that I still apply each you know
42:55 each year right so great uh all right
42:58 well next question so what’s been you
42:60 know your most memorable moment in your
42:01 journey right there’s been lots of highs
42:03 you know what’s been the highest of the
42:04 highs yeah 23 years right before we sold
42:07 the firm and then like seven years since
42:09 then um so you need me to pick one
42:11 people would probably think I’m going to
42:13 say the day we signed the deal right and
42:15 sold the company but actually weird
42:16 that’s weirdly anticlimactic because
42:18 you’ve had like eight months of working
42:19 towards that you basically want to go to
42:20 bed at that point you’re so tired from
42:22 the due diligence like it’s not as
42:24 celebratory as you might think probably
42:26 the most memorable was when we actually
42:27 closed that very first deal with the
42:29 National Gallery of Canada right it
43:31 wasn’t actually our first client but it
43:32 was our first substantive client and for
43:34 us to win that um two guys early 20s mid
43:39 20s um no real context or background
43:42 against I think IBM was one of the
43:44 biders for this right like we were so
43:47 far out of our depth that to pull that
43:48 deal off um we knew it was going to
43:51 change the complexion of everything and
43:52 I think that that was probably one of
43:54 our better celebrations yeah it’s
43:55 validating what you’re doing and you
43:57 know luckily you’re scuba diver so it’s
43:58 good to be you know outside far the
43:01 depth all right and last one so what is
43:04 your favorite uh tool or resource that
43:06 you like to
43:07 use yeah that’s a really interesting
43:09 question honestly I was thinking
43:12 probably LinkedIn like sales Navigator
43:14 is where I spend most of my time in
43:16 terms of like pruning through who it is
43:18 I might be able to talk to if I’m
43:19 thinking about like technical tools
43:21 right that’s probably the one that I use
43:23 most frequently to introduce myself to
43:25 new people um I think if you do it
43:28 diligently it can be very very helpful
44:31 awesome oh fantastic Randy thank you
44:34 very much definitely a wealth of
44:35 knowledge and so I guess for those
44:37 listening I guess how can people get a
44:39 hold of you oh sure probably the easiest
44:41 is to find me on LinkedIn if you just
44:42 type in Randy Woods and beltech or
44:45 nonlinear I expect I’ll pop up all right
44:47 nice easy name you know like Ferris MOA
44:49 I always have to spell it out for people
44:50 because they’re not gonna just type that
44:52 out into the thing exactly awesome well
44:54 Randy hey thank you very much really
44:56 appreciate I think it was of information
44:58 for the listeners yeah learned a lot not
44:59 at all been great fun thanks thank you
44:02 thank you for listening to the m&a
44:03 Launchpad podcast if you’ve enjoyed
44:05 today’s podcast and would like to
44:07 support us please leave us a rating and
44:08 a review after you listen I’m Casey menu
44:10 and I look forward to talking with you
44:12 next week
