🧐 What I Learned Last Week
Week ending Friday March 11, 2022
What I Learned Last Week curates the most interesting content relating to business acquisitions, operations, entrepreneurship, finance, and more. WILLW is a publication of The Business Inquirer.
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📰 Articles
Eads Bridge Holdings published an interesting article on how to use your existing customer data to define your ideal customer and find more of them. This is an exercise I will be doing at DueDilio shortly.
For starters, make sure to define your ICP into terms that you can plug into prospecting and research tools. These tools have powerful search options to help you refine by job title, location, company size, and industry. If you can build a robust profile, tools like ZoomInfo and LinkedIn Sales Navigator are probably the easiest to get started with.
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Spencer Scott spent $280k to acquire a SaaS on MicroAcquire. He published a Medium article to talk about his journey and plans to turn it into a $10M ARR business. It’s an entertaining and inspirational read.
Spending $280k on MicroAcquire
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Chenmark had a great summary and thoughts on a 2019 HBR article that looked at whether it is better to be “nice” or “tough” at the negotiating table. Turns out it’s not as straightforward as it seems. While the HBR study points to the benefits of being “tough”, in reality, it highly depends on the actual negotiation taking place.
Third, there is a big difference between being nice and being fair and respected. Tough but fair is likely to garner more respect – and be more desirable with counterparties – than nice but irrational or erratic. Whatever it says in research, in practice, we have found that the best approach is to be authentic, stay true to your word, be direct in your communication style, and know when to walk away.
🧵 Twitter
Good thread for SaaS operators thinking through the trial vs. freemium question…
There are certain key concepts of accounting that you simply must understand. This thread touches on many of them…
Don’t overcomplicate things. This is the way…
No such thing as a perfect deal…
The hunt for yield & returns is going to have a big impact on SMB market very soon. Other interesting points here as well…
Some gems in this one…
This is a good discussion for those who are into proprietary deal sourcing…
Remember, there may never be a perfect deal but you can come close…
Wild to see the amount of interest in this opportunity. This is a signal in itself…
Interesting project to follow…
If you’re thinking of business ideas, unlimited design subscription seems to be in high demand. Brett is a rockstar…
🤔 Thoughts, Events, Other
LinkedIn Acquisition Sourcing
Jon Stoddard lowered the price of his “LinkedIn Acquisition Deal Flow Training” from $1,495 to $499 for a limited time. I’ve watched his free webinar and came away impressed. No affiliate links here. Just a personal recommendation that this training is solid.
You can re-watch the free webinar here.
You can sign-up for the paid training here.
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Resume Writing Rollup
I’ve been seeing a few resume writing businesses for sale lately. The economics look decent with gross revenues of $300k to $2M with good margins. This would be an interesting space to do a roll-up.
Pros:
Evergreen niche
Huge TAM
Simple business model
Relatively easy to hire operators/freelancers
A lot of adjacent services you can cross-sell
Fragmented market
AI is bringing COGS down
AI could help with automation
Cons:
Low barriers to entry
Not a recurring revenue stream
A lot of competition
AI is bringing costs down
CAC is getting more expensive
Resumes may become obsolete
I started a discussion around this on Twitter…
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Luck
Back in my equity research days, I remember often hearing the phrase “the harder I work, the luckier I get” coming from senior portfolio managers. It’s a phrase that has stuck with me. Hard work is just one of many ways we can increase the chance of getting lucky.
Sahil Bloom writes that “much of what we come to call "luck" is actually the macro result of 1,000s of micro-actions. Your daily habits put you in a position where “luck” is more likely to strike.”
This isn’t a new concept but I completely agree.
There’s an old Russian/Jewish joke that is relevant:
A poor man prays each day of his life to win the lottery.
Upon passing from old age and still poor, he’s in front of god and asks in dismay…
”I prayed every day. Why have you never granted my wish of winning the lottery?”
God replies to the old man…
”Have you ever even purchased a lottery ticket?”
Rough translation but you get the point. You have to actively put yourself in a position to attract luck.
Check out this great post from Sahil Bloom on how to increase your chance of being lucky.
How to Get Lucky: 20 ways to expand your luck surface area & create more luck
🛠 Tools & Resources
These are tools & resources that I personally use or have used. They may contain affiliate links so I’ll get a few pesos if you sign-up.
Cerebro Capital - Cerebro has a network of 1,500+ lenders who can provide debt financing for your acquisition, refi, etc. $500k minimum.
X5 Deals - Proprietary deal sourcing. They do the outreach and send you relevant, actionable deals directly into your inbox.
Curators - Proprietary deal sourcing. You need targets that fit your investment criteria, and Curators delivers week after week - we even update your personalized database on a daily basis with new information on best-fit targets.
BizNexus - Proprietary deal flow, deal aggregator, and exit prep.
PrivSource - Deal aggregator for lower and middle-market listings.
Calendly - Leading scheduling platform to easily schedule meetings without the back and forth. I’ve been using it for several years now. Free 14-day trial.
ProjectionHub - Access to 50+ CPA-developed financial projection templates. 25% discount using code “duedilio” at checkout.
Logology - Best automated logo & brand identity tool I’ve come across.
DeepBench - Access a cutting-edge expert network. $200 discount.
OpenPhone - The best business phone solution that I have found. $20 credit.
Eloquens - Knowledge marketplace. I’ve bought a few guides and templates here.
Deal Flow Scout - Peer-to-peer deal flow exchange. Free, open, transparent.
Deal Sourcing Guide - A directory I put together of online marketplaces, brokers, DFY deal flow, and more.
That’s all for this issue of What I Learned Last Week!
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