Jaclyn Johnson
speaker
489 appearances
2 recordings
2 series
first heard Dec 2024
last heard 27 Apr
Jaclyn Johnson’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 1 in all, peaking in Apr 2026 with 1.
Appearances
The negotiations like private equity never likes to sell back to the founder. Really? I didn't know that. Why? Because typically, I think it's considered a failure on their end, right? So when you think about going back to that, it doesn't exactly make sense. I'm sure in some scenarios it might, but I think for them, it doesn't look good to their LPs. Like, it can be perceived as...
the optics aren't great also there was like a want to sell it to a bigger media company and things like that which obviously makes sense too and i was supportive of the best possible outcome right i wasn't like gunning to mess up any deals that they might have had but i also was like i do feel very strongly that i'm the best person to take this back because of a few different things one to your point it's a community-centric business yes on paper there's a p l and there's revenue and there's this at the end of the day there's people and people related to that business
in part because of me and my journey in building it. And so I think it's really hard, whether it's a strategic acquisition or a private equity acquisition or any type of acquisition, it's very challenging when you're so connected to a brand that was built around you and your vision and your story to then sell it. It's just hard. It's a hard business to then grow and build separate of that person.
And I think they didn't realize that or maybe they thought because we were going more digital, but then events came backers that kind of go into it. Right. So basically, net net through the negotiations, finally, it became clear that it would basically come back to me, which was very exciting.
Totally. It was weird because it was like, again, I had already started another company, Cherub, which we'll talk about. And Blueprint. And so I was like, this feels crazy, but... But it weirdly feels timely. Like I am a big believer in everything happens for a reason. And I think like meeting Marina, launching the blueprint, like all those things led up to that moment.
Because truly, if Marina was not in the equation, I wouldn't have done it.
She's the CEO now. Yeah. So basically, it was this like kismet reality that I think happened for the right reasons.
yeah so basically we exited for 22 million dollars that was the valuation that we exited at which is amazing i'm very proud of it however our valuation should have been much higher but due to covid basically they did a blended ebitda for the the years so it was a little different in that way typically i would say most event businesses would have exited based on a four million dollar ebitda in 2019 for 40 to 70 million depending
Very happy with the way it ended. I owned a majority stake, but I can't tell you the full amount. But I owned a majority stake because obviously we had no investors outside of myself and my partners.
Yeah, they own like 1% of the company.
It's yeah. So it's just a totally different strategy. So like selling a business. Yes. I talk about this all the time. Twenty two million dollars is like I'm going to get the majority of that cash right in that transaction because I own the majority because I didn't give up equity while raising money.
Whereas founders, again, who are going to have these billion dollar exits need a lot of money to get to that mark in general. So they'll raise a lot of venture capital and therefore dilute themselves. So there's different ways to view equity and there's different ways to build businesses and there's different ways to exit businesses.
I actually have a good friend who I think her exit was like 500 million, maybe 450 million. And we ended up making around the same amount of money. Is there any right or wrong way to do it? No, not necessarily. It really just depends on the type of business like you want to build.
Yes.
Yeah.
no it's not at all and also it typically is you don't know if it's cash you don't know if it's equity you don't have to to roll equity there's earn outs as part of it and mine had all three it's interesting because a lot of people were like wow congrats i'm making 22 million dollars and you're like no not really and again after taxes it's like even more but i feel really happy with where i'm at and like as i mentioned the sale of crane cultivate was by far my biggest windfall and obviously has set me up for a life that i never thought i could have and is amazing
However, it was the decisions I made leading up to that that also has increased my net worth over time. And that's like the real estate, the angel investing, obviously bringing on a wealth advisor. All those things are making my money work for me. So it was not just, yes, I had a lot of eggs in that basket, but I also diversified along the way, which I think is important.
That is my story. I hope that continues to be my story.
I can't tell you that.
I feel really good with where I'm at. I think financial security is so important to me. I think I've worked so hard for this moment in my life and I do feel very fortunate. My life didn't change so drastically. My real estate changed, maybe the car I drove changed, the trips I take changed, but like nothing was so overnight completely drastic for me that it feels really good.
Showing 401–420 of 489 · page 21 of 25
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