🧐 What I Learned Last Week
Week ending Friday December 31 2021
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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Hello Friends!
I want to wish all of you a great 2022! May you have much health, wealth, luck, and happiness. 🥂🚀
This issue of The Business Inquirer is brought to you by DueDilio.
DueDilio is a due diligence concierge connecting business buyers and private investors with quality, pre-vetted due diligence service providers.
Our deep network of 150+ independent professionals, boutique and mid-size firms, and subject-matter-experts enable us to address finance, technology, legal, operations, marketing, and other diligence projects.
Submit your project. Review qualified proposals. Hire diligence provider.
📰 Articles
A bit of self-promotion. I had the pleasure of being a guest on Episode 40 of the Top M&A Entrepreneurs podcast hosted by Jon Stoddard of Stack Acquisitions. The conversation mainly revolved around my background and DueDilio.
Roman Beylin is the founder of DueDilio, an M&A due diligence marketplace as well as publisher of The Business Inquirer newsletter. He began his career in investment management and moved to investment banking. In 2013 he caught the entrepreneurial bug and co-founded one of the first alternative data consulting firms counting some of the most well-known hedge funds as clients. After a few years, he sold that business and since then has been active in the Entrepreneurs through Acquisition space working full-time on DueDilio, The Business Inquirer as well as some smaller projects. He resides in Boston, MA.
E:40 Top M&A Entrepreneurs Roman Beylin, 1 Acquisition to launching DueDilio, Due Diligence for M&A
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The Business Buyer Advocate is hosting an interesting free webinar on Jan 5th titled “How to Avoid or Beat Buyer Competition”.
Searching but not finding enough worthwhile opportunities? Losing deals to other buyers? Participate for answers. Progress more productively.
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The Wolf of Franchises published a look back at the top 10 franchises that he covered this year. And the top franchise goes to…Crumbl Cookies.
🍟 Week 22: Top Franchises of 2021
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The next big thing published a long post highlighting what technology’s top thinkers are pondering for 2022. I really like the format of this post as it goes into each theme and highlights relevant insights. Long but interesting read.
The next big thing in 2022 is...
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XO Capital published their 2021 year in review. In 2021 they had a successful year with 5 acquisitions and 1 exit. For anyone who’s thinking of rolling up small(ish) SaaS businesses, they’re a great case study.
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Julia Dhar is a business strategist at BCG and a world debate champion. In March she gave a Ted Salon talk on how to have constructive conversations. I believe this is the most viewed Ted talk of 2021. It’s a short 10min presentation worth watching. Whether you’re negotiation with a seller or managing a company, knowing how to negotiate in a productive way is an important skillset.
"We need to figure out how we go into conversations not looking for the victory, but the progress," says world debate champion Julia Dhar. In this practical talk, she shares three essential features of productive disagreements grounded in curiosity and purpose. The end result? Constructive conversations that sharpen your argument and strengthen your relationships.
How to have constructive conversations
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Inex One is an interesting business. They are a single platform where you can access and manage all expert networks and expert interactions. So instead of going to GLG, Guidepoint, Zintro, etc - you just go to their platform and submit one request that automatically goes to all the expert networks. Interesting concept.
Anyhow- they have an article about the market size of the expert network industry. I thought it was a great read.
The expert network industry surpassed $1.9 Bn in 2021 revenues, generated by more than 100 expert networks.
The industry has seen 18% average growth since 2015. A pandemic-induced dip in H1 2020 was recovered by even stronger growth in 2020, with year-on-year growth surpassing 20% in 2021.
🧵 Twitter
Importance of cash flow…
Entrepreneurship = Wildcatting. Drill multiple wells until one hits. Then focus on the well that’s gushing…
Good tips for those acquiring or launching a Shopify App…
A nice spreadsheet of Shopify App valuations…
Things to be mindful of in ecomm…
If you’ve ever been curious about investing in vacation rentals, this has some good pointers…
I’m a poker fan and thought this was interesting. Shows that even the best players in the world make about 20% ROI…
One of the best investors that not many have heard of. Follow him on Twitter. This is a great quote to remember…
🤔 Thoughts & Commentary
Miami
My wife and I spent some time in Miami last week enjoying the sun and scene. We’ve been going at least once a year for the past few years and have really enjoyed it. This trip felt different. Felt like there was more energy in the city. Brickell, Wynwood, and other areas outside of Miami Beach were bustling. It felt like a more walkable city than it has in the past. Tons of new restaurants, high rises, and people. You can see the positive effects of migration.
The tweet that started it all…
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Newsletter
It’s been an incredible year for The Business Inquirer. We started the year with 295 subscribers and finished with 1,257. I went from publishing once a week to 2x a week. What started as a creative outlet morphed into an incredible community, new connections, and opened a lot of doors.
Thank you for being a subscriber!
🛠 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.
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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Important Disclaimer: This newsletter is provided for informational & educational purposes only, and should not be relied upon as legal, business, investment, or tax advice. This newsletter may link to other websites and certain information contained herein has been obtained from third-party sources. While taken from sources believed to be reliable, it has not been independently verified. The Business Inquirer makes no representations about the enduring accuracy of the information or its appropriateness for a given situation. References to any companies, securities, listings, investments, or digital assets are for illustrative purposes only and do not constitute an investment recommendation or offer to provide investment advisory services. Charts and graphs provided within are for informational purposes solely and should not be relied upon when making any business, tax, or investment decisions. Content in this newsletter speaks only as of the date indicated. Any projections, estimates, forecasts, targets, prospects and/or opinions expressed in these materials are subject to change without notice and may differ or be contrary to opinions expressed by others.