Want to Get Acquired? Then Fix This!

Benjamin Friedman
October 15, 2024

Morning beehiivcommunity! This newsletter turns experience into lessons you can apply to your startup. As a growth partner for visionary founders, we help sharpen leadership skills and unlock growth potential.

They Reached 100% Quality, then a Dream Exit

"Ideas are easy. Implementation is hard." – Guy Kawasaki

The startup journey is a bumpy one.

After guiding multiple mergers and acquisitions, I’ve gained some practical insights that lead to saved time and costs—and growing a business.

This series of four posts looks at startup journeys and key learnings from working with successful founders.

Years ago, I joined a B2B e-commerce company that processed tens of thousands of payments every day. Occasional mistakes by the processing team caused our clients—including Fortune 500 companies—to miss substantial payments and lose customers.

The founders spent valuable time dealing with frustrated clients instead of on expansion.

But in just six months, we transformed our recurring error rate into near-perfect execution, retained major clients, and freed the founders to focus on growth.

Read this week’s issue on how we did it:

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Expert Tips for Startups
Quick, valuable insights from accomplished founders

Steve Jobs' Wisdom and the EdTech Love Affair

Education lags behind social media in engaging young people. That's why I tell young founders, "Fall in love with EdTech."

This industry values child-friendly, engaging, and fun user interfaces more than technological expertise. As Steve Jobs said, "Simple can be harder than complex. Work hard to get your thinking clean. It's worth it in the end because...you can move mountains." Additionally, success in this space relies on a strong network, so prioritize building one.

By embracing the industry's unique challenges, you can watch your startup thrive.

Aidan McDowell is the Founder & CEO of UniqLearn, revolutionizing education by sparking joy in learning to boost student performance.

Co-Founder Equity Mistakes to Avoid

In order to get your startup off the ground, it's critical to keep co-founders motivated. One of the best ways to do that is to figure out a fair co-founder equity split.

In this video, Y Combinator Partner, Michael Seibel, explains:

The ins and outs of co-founder equity
Why it's important to be generous with that equity
How to avoid bad advice that can lead to co-founder breakups.

Watch the YC Startup School recording HERE.

Need Some Help?

Accelerate your growth and remove bottlenecks with expert-driven strategies and connections—at a fraction of the cost. We've guided five successful M&As in the past ten years and can do the same for your startup.

Book a free 30-minute call HERE to see how we can help.