If you haven't read the classic book "Valuation" by McKinsey, it's critical in your business education.

Here's a quick 8 part thread on the Mckinsey valuation process. 1/ McKinsey valuation is a method used by McKinsey & Company to evaluate the worth of a business or investment opportunity. It's a rigorous and comprehensive process that involves analyzing the financial and non-financial aspects of a business.

The importance of deal judgment is critical.

Quick thread on how I think about deal judgment: 1/ Deal judgment is a critical skill for anyone involved in business and finance. It's the ability to distinguish between good and bad deals, and to make informed decisions based on that distinction.

"If you manage a team of 10 people, it’s possible to do so with very few mistakes or bad behaviors. If you manage an organization of one thousand people, it is quite impossible. At a certain size, your company will do things that are so bad that you never imagined" - Ben Horowitz Quote is from “The Hard Thing about Hard Things” - to me it’s one of the first things you learn managing large amounts of people / managing law of large numbers

Congrats! Your company has been acquired.
Next up: Post-merger integration

Very little has been written about this less sexy part of M&A but it's equally (if not more) important.

As such, here's a quick thread for newly acquired CEOs (and employees) dealing with integration🧵 1) It's emotional for everyone and that's rarely discussed. Nobody really likes change and nobody likes uncertainty. And this is a double whammy of both. So be okay with it being emotional.

It’s launch day and I’m excited to launch The Brydon Group with @LeveredKnowledg and George Dutile

Brydon invests in a select number of Entrepreneurs in Residence (EIRs) each year as well as minority stakes in traditional search

A quick 🧵 on Brydon & our approach to search: @LeveredKnowledg 1) “Arm the Rebels” – Private equity is increasingly going downmarket competing for the best businesses. We bring the best of our 20+ years in large cap PE, from sourcing to dedicated capital to operating playbooks to help our EIRs win

Part 2: My dad began his career knocking on doors and ended by managing 40k+ employees. Here's 8 more of my favorite of his "Ressler Rules" of Management (original thread at end). A quick 🧵 1) It's O.K. to be stupid, it's O.K. to be arrogant but just can't be both

Had a blast at the 1st ever Wharton ETA conference last week. Here's 5 things I learned from the event: 1) If you put out the Bat sign, people will come. The Wharton ETA community has been dispersed for years - by putting an event with a date on the calendar - lots of alumni came out of the woodwork.

How do you search, acquire, operate, & grow a SMB or SaaS Business?

I talked to 500+ acquisition entrepreneurs and I generally hear the same questions

As such, I wrote up my answers to common questions.

Here are 5 of my popular 🧵 on search funds, SaaS, GTM, & Mgmt 1) "What do investors look for in a potential traditional searcher?" It's a common question I get (twice yesterday) and here's my 5 point framework and key questions from the investor mindset

https://twitter.com/steveressler/status/1446120381153116162

I'm often asked - "Can Search Funds Still Actually By Software Companies?" Here's 5 Types of Software Deals commonly seen in Search Funds. A quick 🧵 1) Niche Vertical Market SaaS - “Off-market” deals still very possible through search model. Many technical founders don’t want to sell to private equity

My dad began his career knocking on doors and ended by managing 40k+ employees. Here's 8 of my favorite of his "Ressler Rules" of Management. A quick 🧵 1 - "If you don't systematically plan, life is a series of random events."

This week I talked to three 1st year MBA students who were passionate about ETA & Search Funds. They each asked "What should I be doing during my MBA time to maximize my chances of success?" Here's my 5 tips - a quick 🧵 1 - Take the ETA Courses Available. If your school offers ETA courses, take them all and get to know your professor(s). They will help connect you with the ecosystem. Don't have a class? Take any PE courses & family or small business courses

"What do investors look for in a potential traditional searcher?" It's a common question I get (twice yesterday) and here's my 5 point framework and key questions from the investor mindset . A quick thread.🧵 1 - What is their motivation for ETA? Do they know what they are getting into? Searchers need to tell a story about why ETA is attractive to them & they've done diligence to know what it's really like (talked to 50 searchers, took ETA class, interned with search fund, etc)

Many entrepreneurs aspire for an acquisition. But nobody talks what it's like in your first year after an acquisition. And how to make it a success for all involved. Here's my 8 tips on succeeding in the 1st year post acquisition 🧵 Context: Today is the 1 year anniversary of the acquisition of Callyo (where I was President) by Motorola Solutions. This is my 3rd acquisition where I've been acquired (and helped integrate another 10+ on the other side)

Building a go-to market machine is tough & even harder when you are sub-scale. Here's 5 tips I consistently provide sub-scale start-ups & ETA entrepreneurs. A quick thread 🧵 1) There's four parts of the funnel - top of funnel (have enough leads?), SQL (are you getting enough qualified demos?), Wins (are you closing enough demos?), & Renewal/Expansion (are you renewing/expanding clients?). Think through it with this lens & make sure solving each piece

I've founded / been an exec / invested / advised in 25+ SaaS companies. Here are 5 common challenges I see in sub-scale SaaS companies & advise through the trough. A thread🧵 1) Moving from 1 sales rep to a repeatable sales team.  Often, sub-scale SaaS rely on 1 rep who has made the company.  Hard to make that transition & start to build a team and processes.

Talked to a recent grad trying to break into tech last night. My 5 top tips on job hunting for tech jobs: 1) Look at any lists for target companies - Top 10 Tech Startups, Tech Titans, Top by Crunchbase fundraising

I'm often asked about my experience as a CXO at a Vista Equity-backed company. Lots of mystery around their unique playbook, large AUM ($75B AUM) and charismatic (and controversial) founder Robert F. Smith. Here's my 5 lessons from my time at Vista on why they win 🧵⬇️ 0 - Andreesen says "Software is eating the world." Robert Smith says "All software tastes like chicken. They’re selling different products, but 80% of what they do is pretty much the same." And that's how they approach the world.

I sold my media company (@govloop) to a SaaS company (@govdelivery) over 10 years ago. A few reaction from listening to the @theSamParr @ShaanVP podcast on @HubSpot buyings @TheHustle 1) The value arbitrage is real. When we sold GovLoop probably had 10X the brand awareness and customer reach than GovDelivery but were worth probably 20X less in enterprise value.