David Hauser

Identify the right acquirer that's going to get tremendous value from your business and go after those people, not just say, I'm going to get an investment bank and run a process.

It rarely ever happens.

So don't waste the time.

Timing matters.

So I'll give you a really quick story about Grasshopper because it goes into the last point, which is every conversation is a no-go-go conversation.

We learned this from the bankers we had involved to help us through that process.

So at Grasshopper, we sold the company in May.

We closed the deal in May.

Six weeks later, after we closed that deal, an activist investor told Citrix they had to sell off all of their SaaS business.

So we were weeks away from the deal not going through, right?

Not because of something we did, not because of something Citrix did, an external factor, right?

So timing just matters.

Sometimes people call it luck, sometimes whatever, but it's timing.

And then every conversation is go, no-go.

Meaning when you get on the call with that acquirer,

They are seconds away from saying yes or no.

Every time.

Right?

And you just have to understand that and know no deal is complete until the paperwork is signed.

Yeah, well, that's even better, money in the bank.