🧐 What I Learned Last Week
Week ending Friday, October 8, 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!
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What I Learned Last Week is brought to you by Financial Due Diligence Course from HoriZen Capital. This course is designed for searchers, private equity investors, M&A consultants, students, and business acquirers.
📰 Articles
How do investors perform due diligence on searchers and independent sponsors before investing? That’s a question that was asked recently on Searchfunder. I thought these were two of the best answers…
How do investors perform due diligence on searchers and independent sponsors before investing?
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Failory had a nice write-up on how to pre-sell your SaaS idea. The goal here is to figure out if anyone wants your product before you actually build it. I did this for Transactionly and it helped.
8 Proven Strategies to Pre-Sell your SaaS Idea
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Eyal Toledano runs MicroAngel - a fund and a newsletter. In the newsletter he chronicles his journey of buying micro-SaaS businesses, fixing, optimizing, and growing them. His updates are always full of great insights. If you’re in SaaS, highly recommend checking it out.
MicroAngel State of the Fund: September 2021
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Marketplace Pulse writes about the growing overlap between Amazon & Shopify sellers.
The Amazon seller is now in its third form. The Amazon seller 1.0 was a reseller. Advertising on Amazon and private label brands created the Amazon seller 2.0. The current seller - the Amazon seller 3.0 - is building Amazon-native brands, intentionally selling multi-channel, driving traffic from outside of Amazon, and investing in social commerce. The underlying Amazon marketplace building blocks remain the same, but the seller had to evolve to create more value and differentiate from the competition.
Scratch that. There is no Amazon seller 3.0. They are now just sellers.
The Amazon and Shopify Venn Diagram
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This one is completely off topic but there is a beautiful article in the WSJ written by Jony Ive, the longtime Apple designer and collaborator of Steve Jobs. On the 10th anniversary of Steve Job’s death, Sir Jony Ive reflects on their collaborations and friendship.
Jony Ive on What He Misses Most About Steve Jobs
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Bain has released their 2021 Technology Report. Technology is reshaping the global economy as the largest creators of value, regardless of sector, have one thing in common: technology is critical to their business.
🧵 Twitter
Really great and easy way to think about valuations for SMB…
Moiz presents some great points that can be applied to any business really…
A bit off-topic but this guy is one of the best in real estate data. Good thread on what he’s seeing out there…
Awesome thread on restaurant M&A. Reads like a FAQ…
Nice thread for the parents out there on combining the principles of Ray Dalio (Bridgewater) to parenting…
We see this at DueDilio. Vast majority of deals fall through. Important to keep spirits up and move forward…
Applies to business and acquisitions. Don’t overthink things. Move fast, get revenue, perfect things later. ..
Good discussion on how & when to think about addbacks during financial due diligence…
Thread about physical therapy rollups…
In what other professions is this possible? Asking for a friend… 😁
🤔 Thoughts & Commentary
Fiverr
Just wanted to share a reminder that Fiverr exists. I feel like it’s an underutilized resource. I’ve had a few projects recently where I was quoted a price 60% cheaper on Fiverr compared to the same job I posted on Upwork. The Fiverr freelancer did an excellent job. I’m not sure if I would hire a CPA from there but for a lot of simple tasks, I think it beats other marketplaces. I would especially use them for automation projects. Quoted $165 on Upwork, got the job done for $30 on Fiverr.
🛠 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.
ProjectionHub - Access to 50+ CPA-developed financial projection templates. 25% discount.
PrivSource - Deal aggregator for lower and middle-market listings.
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.
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.