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Will Cannon

13 Oct, 10 tweets, 2 min read

If you were offered~ $75 million (can't disclose) for your company, would you take it?

I didn't.

Here are 5 reasons why (and why you might want to do the same someday):

And before I get into it...

The business I'm talking about is uplead.com, we build B2B prospecting lists.

And here's why I turned down ~$75M for it👇

#1 They were buying a slight majority stake (50-60%), they weren't buying 100% of the business.

I was going to be the CEO while not owning the whole business.

Selling the whole business is different than selling part of the business.

When you sell a part, you technically become an employee.

They could fire me from my own company...

And that was not a nice thought.

#2 It wasn't a good fit

There was a mutual discomfort in the negotiations...

We both knew it wasn't going the right way.

Rule of thumb:

If you wouldn't go out with them for a drink, don't do business together.

#3 Why sell at ~$75 when I can sell at a billion

Uplead is growing.

I know what the business is gonna be worth in the future - at least a billion dollars...

So why would I sell a stake in my business for less than that?

#4 Taxes

At the time,

Democrats were pushing for a retroactive tax increase.

Long story short... I'm in California. I was going to be taxed around 37%.

Because of the uncertainty of the proposal, there was a chance that I was gonna be taxed like ~52% of my proceeds.

Nope.

#5 I was gonna be part of 'the system'

I'm an entrepreneur because I don't work as an employee.

If I sold the majority stake,

I was going to be an employee to people who went to college, got their MBA, and climbed the corporate ladder in their financial firms.

They write checks but haven't been 'in the trenches' building the business.

That didn't vibe with me.

I built the business (and all my other businesses) for a single reason:

To have control of my life.

So I turned down a $75M offer.

Hopefully, these lessons gave you some valuable insights for your entrepreneurial journey.

And thanks for reading!

If you're interested in

>SaaS
>startups
>business
>outreach
>cold email
>getting clients

Follow me!

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More from @iamwillcannon

Will Cannon

@iamwillcannon

15 Oct

Arguably the most difficult (yet most important) aspects of building a successful SaaS:

Getting traffic.

The more traffic you get, the more customers you get...

It's very simple.

Here's 13 golden sources of potentially millions of hits of traffic for your SaaS👇

//THREAD//

#1 Twitter personal brands

...why do you think I've been putting so much effort on Twitter?

It's a fantastic place filled with thought leaders, business people, entrepreneurs, freelancers, etc.

These people need your SaaS - use Twitter to get in front of them.

#2 Cold email

Cold email is one of the best ways to get traffic.

You can directly contact the exact people your SaaS is meant for - so start sending cold emails!

#3 Cold calling

Yes, cold calling works.

Similar to cold email,

Use it to directly contact your target market.

Read 14 tweets

Will Cannon

@iamwillcannon

8 Oct

One RT = One piece of advice for anyone looking to build a SaaS company👇

#1 Raising your prices is the simplest way to increase your revenue.

It's scary but worth it.

You think people will leave but most won't.

Do it.

#2 Don't obsess with churn in the early days.

You're just starting.

Worrying about churn early will prevent you from seeing what makes them churn.

Read 42 tweets

Will Cannon

@iamwillcannon

29 Sep

I joined Twitter 2 months ago to share what I've learned about SaaS...

And now we're at 25k followers!

There's clearly a demand to learn more about SaaS,

So if I were you, I'd go ahead and follow these people as well:

@agazdecki

Andrew Gazdecki (Founder of Micro Acquire)
@agazdecki

Andrew is basically the leader of the bootstrap community,

So if you're into that?

Follow him.

I actually have a story with Andrew:

When I was a nobody, he took time out of his day to get on a Zoom call with me.

He listened to all our business pain points and offered advice.

He cheered me and said "Dude, keep doing what you're doing. Focus on x - not y".

He does this with other founders too - follow him.

Read 16 tweets

Will Cannon

@iamwillcannon

15 Sep

4 Reasons Why You Should Start Your Own SaaS

(And why becoming a multi-millionaire is way more likely than you think):

Even though I failed at

- Real estate
- Insurance
- Merchant services

And even filed for bankruptcy at one point,

Today I own 2 SaaS (one valued at ~$75Million) and they changed my life forever.

Here’s why it might change yours:

#1 Recurring revenue

For me, this was life-changing.

With recurring revenue:

>You have a rough estimate of how much money you will make (and when)

>Every client/customer you acquire is worth more than a one-off purchase

Read 12 tweets

Will Cannon

@iamwillcannon

10 Sep

I built a SaaS from zero to a ~$75 Million valuation in 3 years.

Here are 8 lessons I learned the hard way (so you don't have to):

#1 Talent

Once you get past a million in ARR, your job changes.

It turns into finding the best people for the job:

>hiring
>recruiting
>managing
>leading talent

This is super important.

Remember:

You're not gonna be able to build a huge business without talent.

>Find very talented people
>Pay them a lot
>Leave them alone

Simple.

Read 23 tweets

Will Cannon

@iamwillcannon

8 Sep

My SaaS just broke $8 Million in sales this year,

And I'm incredibly grateful to be in this position.

But it wasn't always this way...

Here’s the 6 (and a half) business I've failed at:

#1 Real estate

I didn't have any money and I wanted to build a real estate empire at the time.

At one point,

I slept in my real estate office.

I was leasing an office (800 sq feet) for my own business and lived in it because I didn't have enough money for an apartment.

I slept there and woke up and showered in a bucket.

(there was no shower)

Yes, I had a small bucket in a little bathroom.

This was just me and my girlfriend at the time (now my wife).

We lived in our office until we hustled enough to finally buy an apartment.

Read 16 tweets

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