How to Sell Your Company: A Multi-Time C...

CJ sits down with multi-time CFO Rick Smith, founder of Bonfire Advisory and author of Six Months to the Sale, to break down what actually happens when you sell a company. They cover why buyers value some businesses on ARR and others on EBITDA (and why being slightly profitable can hurt you), how to negotiate banker fees, what buyers find when they dig into your balance sheet, and why every cap table Rick inherits is wrong.

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LINKS: 

Mostly Talent: https://mostlymetrics.typeform.com/to/cLTxtAsN

Guest: linkedin.com/in/rick-smith-906939

Company: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bonfire-advisory

CJ: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cj-gustafson-13140948/

Mostly metrics: https://www.mostlymetrics.com

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TIMESTAMPS:

1:21 Meet Rick Smith and "Six Months to the Sale"
2:44 Why Teach M&A Through Fiction
4:26 CEO/CFO Tension
7:08 Botching the Announcement
8:15 How Staff Really React
9:18 When Personal Life Collides With a Deal
13:50 ARR vs. EBITDA
17:58 What to Optimize Before a Sale
18:50 Churn and Contract Renewal
20:43 Strategics vs. PE
27:46 Investment Banker Fee Structures
29:09 What's Negotiable
29:56 The Realtor Problem
34:53 Big 4 vs. Regional Firms for Audit and QoE
35:47 Negotiating Accounting Fees
37:47 Deferred Revenue
41:23 Warrants, Options, and Carta Cleanup
44:02 QSBS: What CFOs Need to Know
45:28 Quality of Earnings: Who Pays and Why
47:44 What a QoE Actually Digs Into
51:22 Why Deal Momentum Is So Hard to Stop
53:47 The Waterfall
58:19 Who Keeps Their Job
61:31 Why Selling CFOs Feel Intimidated
62:56 Prospect Theory
65:28 Where to Find the Book

#RunTheNumbersPodcast #MandA #CFOLife #SellingACompany #QualityOfEarnings