Thomas

But because they were monetizing the GMV on the back end,

It was actually quite a good business because they were essentially funding their marketing with one-time sales and then monetizing the back end.

But most people on stage would say, you have to be recurring SaaS if you're not, you don't have a good business.

But in his case, it was fine.

Some buyers didn't like it.

Some hated it.

Some thought it was a good idea.

And ultimately with this business, it needed a CEO.

The founder was great, but he couldn't really grow it any further, needed to hire some more people.

So definitely something that people think about.

Lots of doomsday information out there at the moment about M&A.

If you look at Wall Street year on year, as in 2021 to 2022, down 38% total deal volume.

Lots of banks making layoffs, lots of challenges in the market.

If you're doing deals above 250 million, which is a lot of Wall Street, that's what they're seeing at FE International.

We saw 51% growth last year in total deal volume.

So deals below 250 million are still happening all the time.

If you build a good profitable business like Josh did, you can sell it in any market.

And my firm belief, 13 years into a business and probably in the next 13 years, that will still always exist.

There's never going to be a world where there is not a pool of buyers out there that wants to buy profitable businesses.

Go through section two.