Built to Sell Radio
Built to Sell Radio is a weekly podcast for business owners interested in selling a business. Each week, we ask an entrepreneur who has recently sold a business why they decided to sell their business, what they did right and what mistakes they made through the process of exiting their business. Built to Sell Radio is the ultimate insider's guide to approaching the most important financial transaction of your life.
- Update frequency
- every 7 days
- Average duration
- 53 minutes
- Episodes
- 512
- Years Active
- 2015 - 2025
Ep. 51 Your Training Wheels Business
Have you thought about when you want to sell your company?
A lot of owners think selling equates to retirement, but selling your business and retiring are not the same thing.
Sure, some people sell b…
Ep. 50 The 50% Bump
When Mark Carlson put Minnesota Mailing Solutions on the block, he got two offers for around $3 million, which represented about four times his pre tax profit – a respectable price for a postage mete…
Ep. 49 The External vs. Internal Sale
When the time comes, do you want to sell your business externally, or internally to your employees or family members?
Once you decide, a little piece of you may always wonder how the other option wou…
Ep. 48 The Biggest Mistake Most Owners Make When Selling Their Company
Mike McCarron sold MSM Transportation to the Wheels Group for $18.6 million. After receiving the letter of intent (LOI) he signed it immediately. If McCarron had the opportunity to do it all again he…
Ep. 47 Why Was This Money-Losing Business Worth $10 Million?
For most of its 17 years, Imaging Path was a successful IT services contractor that peaked at more than $16 million in sales.
Imaging Path founder and CEO Corey Tansom kept a close eye on his busines…
Ep. 46 The Apple Acquisition
Carl Silbersky sold his facial recognition software company Polar Rose to Apple in 2010 for a reported $29 million. The negotiation was relatively smooth but Steve Jobs would not budge on one deal po…
Ep. 45 Raising Money Vs. Going It Alone
Katherine Hague, co-founded ShopLocket in 2011 and sold her business two years later to PCH, a billion dollar Irish company.
Hague was a prodigious fundraiser in her two years from idea to exit. She …
Ep. 44 Multiple of What?
Dennis Hart sold his advertising agency, Apex Media, for 7.1 times EBITDA.
Selling for 7X sounds like a great exit but it disguises the complexity of the negotiations. Hart felt like he knew precisel…
Ep. 43 The Ambush
How much would someone have to pay you to buy your business today? That’s the question Kris Jones was asked when billionaire Michael Rubin approached him about selling. Jones’ answer to Rubin’s quest…
Ep. 42 How One Email Triggered Seven Acquisition
Back in 2011, Nathan Latka started Heyo, a social media company that helped businesses advertise on Facebook. By 2016, Heyo had raised $2.5 million in seed and venture capital financing and, by all a…
Ep. 41 The Fishing Trip
When John Bowen received a $37 million offer to buy his business, he thought it was too good to be true.
As it turns out, it was.
Bowen had received a non-binding letter of intent from a global bank,…
Ep. 40 Is Your Partnership A Ticking Time Bomb?
John Maddox co-founded the digital agency Ten Fast Feet in the depths of the financial crisis. Despite his timing, Maddox was able to grow the business to $2.3 million in sales by 2013, when he got a…
Ep. 39 A Brand That’s Built to Sell
If you have ever put a label on a sippy cup, chances are Julie Cole’s company, Mabels Labels, produced it. Cole and her three partners built Mabel’s Labels into a $10 million business providing label…
Ep. 38 Selling Your Company vs. Selling Your Product
Natalie Susi started Bare Organic Mixers to supply low-cal cocktail mixers to bars and restaurants in southern California. Susi got her product into 300 locations before she decided to sell her compa…
Ep. 37 $250K to $180M
Aaron Houghton sold iContact in 2012 for $180 million. The first round of growth was financed by something called convertible debt, which Houghton recommends to any entrepreneur for its simplicity. T…
Ep. 36 The $20 Million Expiry Date
In eight years Ryan Born built Audio Micro, which began operations in his spare bedroom, into an Inc. 500 company. Born went on to sell his business for more than $20 million in 2014 – a deal that on…
Ep. 35 Playing Chicken
Jeff Hoffman sold Competitive Technologies, a business intelligence company serving the travel industry, to American Express in a nine-figure exit. After the Letter of Intent (LOI) was signed, Americ…
Ep. 34 The Strategic
Most financial acquirers will arrive at an offer for your business by calculating the profit they expect you to make and deciding what they are willing to pay today, for your profit stream in the fut…
Ep. 33 Identity Theft
Yvonne Tocquigny built her Austin-based advertising agency up over 35 years working with clients like Jeep, Dell, Hitachi, USAA and Caterpillar. Then in 2015, she got a call from New York wondering i…
Ep. 32 The Atheist Bible Salesman Who Sold His Company for 5X Revenue
Trevor McKendrick had created the best-selling Spanish-language Bible app when he was approached about an acquisition offer. Salem’s original offer was 3.5x revenue but Trevor got them up to 5x with …