Best Hosted By John Warrillow The Creator Of The Value Builder System Podcasts (2025)

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Ep 511 Exit Story: Why Ronan Berder Walked Away from Techstars and Sold Wiredcraft for 67 Million Euros 1:09:48

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1d ago1:09:48

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Ronan Berder built Wiredcraft to 140 people, then sold to Publicis for a reported 67 million euros. This Exit Story traces the moment he walked away from Techstars and a product dream to double down on services—and why that decision paid off.By John Warrillow

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Ep 510 Mastering the Deal: Earn-outs, Equity Rolls & Seller Notes—Risk or Reward? 16:54

4d ago16:54

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Most owners want 100% cash at closing. Most acquirers want the opposite—they try to hold back as much as possible and tie it to future results. That tug-of-war defines the negotiation. In this week’s episode of Built to Sell Radio, you discover how to turn common transition structures from potential pitfalls into opportunities for upside.…

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Ep 509 Mastering the Deal: 4 Buyer Types — Private Equity, Strategics, Hybrids & Acquisition Entrepreneurs 27:01

11d ago27:01

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What happens when it’s time to sell? Every acquirer looks at your business differently. In this special episode of Built to Sell Radio, John Warrillow breaks down the four most common buyer profiles and explains how each thinks about acquiring a company. Along the way, you’ll hear clips from past guests from our Inside the Mind of an Acquirer serie…

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Ep 508 Exit Story: The Surprising Math Behind a $100 Million Exit 49:48

21d ago49:48

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Dan Berger built Social Tables into a SaaS success story with $20M in recurring revenue and more than 6,000 customers. He sold the business for $100 million. But after raising $27M in venture funding and navigating liquidation preferences, his personal payout was just under $20M. In this week’s episode of Built to Sell Radio, Dan reveals the surpri…

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Ep 507 After the Deal: Why Adam Rossi Wanted to Undo His Exit 1:07:16

29d ago1:07:16

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Adam Rossi built a 250-employee software company serving law enforcement and intelligence agencies. They routinely beat Lockheed Martin in head-to-head bids. Then a banker came back with five acquisition offers — each at the “absurd” number Adam and his wife had thrown out as a hypothetical. The winning bid came from SRA International, a publicly t…

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Ep 506 Exit Story: $50 Million Was His Number—Here’s How Josh Payne Got There 46:51

1M ago46:51

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Unlike most tech founders, Josh Payne never dreamed of a billion-dollar valuation. His goal was simpler—and harder. He wanted his equity stake to be worth $50 million. To get there, he skipped the usual playbook. No blitzscaling. No VC treadmill. He raised a small seed round, built a profitable company, and avoided dilution. By the time he sold Sta…

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Ep 505 Inside the Mind of an Acquirer: Why David Hauser Walked Away After a $175M Exit to Become a Disciplined Buyer 57:08

1M ago57:08

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Most founders measure success by the price they get for their company. David Hauser did that—he built Grasshopper to $30M Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) and sold it for $175M – almost 6 times revenue. He and his partner owned the majority of the shares so the deal was life-changing for Hauser. But what makes this interview different is what Hauser …

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Ep 504 Exit Story: One Founder’s War with Private Equity—and the $500M Ending 1:11:29

2M ago1:11:29

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After selling When Rich Galgano was 25, he left a sales job in wire distribution to start Windy City Wire. Within nine months, he was doing over $1 million in sales—while fighting a lawsuit from his former employer. Fast forward 30 years, and Galgano had built the dominant low-voltage cable distributor in the U.S., sold it for just under half a bil…

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Ep 503 How to Land an 8-Figure Deal Without Running the Business Day to Day 53:02

2M ago53:02

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When Ryan Atkinson sold CORE Resources to 24 Seven, it wasn’t his first exit. After selling Redwood Global in 2014, Ryan played a different role in his next venture—injecting $2 million of his own capital while his partner ran the business day-to-day. The model worked. They grew CORE Resources into a go-to firm for specialized technology talent sol…

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Ep 502 The Body Language of a Deal with Christopher Hadnagy 48:55

2M ago48:55

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Negotiating the sale of your company may be the highest-stakes conversation of your life. In this episode of Built to Sell Radio, part of our Mastering the Deal series, you'll learn how to stay composed when everything you’ve built is on the table. Christopher Hadnagy, author of Human Hacking, teaches elite military units and Fortune 500 companies …

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Ep 493 Exit Story: Selling a 20-Person Agency for 5.5x EBITDA 44:34

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Most stories we cover involve eye-popping multiples or headline-making exits. They’re fun—but not always realistic. Jeff DeGarmo’s story is different. No private equity windfall. No tech hockey stick. Just a well-run, 20-person service business built over 16 years and sold for a solid 5.5x EBITDA.By John Warrillow

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Ep 492 Mastering the Deal: How Greg Alexander Got $162M for a 30-Person Firm—and What He’s Learned from Watching 50 Other Exits Up Close 58:39

4M ago58:39

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Greg Alexander sold SBI, his 30-person consulting firm, for $162 million. Since then, he’s had a front-row seat to 50 other service firm exits through his peer group, Collective 54. In this episode of Built to Sell Radio, Greg breaks down what separates firms that sell from those that stall. This is a Mastering the Deal episode of Built to Sell Rad…

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Ep 491 Inside the Mind of an Acquirer: The Case for Unsexy 1:03:55

5M ago1:03:55

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What makes someone want to buy an “unsexy” business? Jon Pole has acquired 19 traditional radio stations. On paper, it’s an industry many assume is in decline. But for an experienced buyer like Pole, these deals are less about media trends and more about community, cash flow, and culture.By John Warrillow

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Ep 490 Exit Story: How a Middleman Built and Sold a $19M Distribution Business 52:12

5M ago52:12

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Sean McAuliffe didn’t invent anything. He was a distributor. If you lost your car keys and went to a locksmith to cut a new set, chances are your locksmith got the replacement key from Sean’s business. He bought cheap keys from Asia and sold them to locksmiths. Nothing fancy. Like so many businesses, Sean was a middleman. He'd never really thought …

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Ep 489 Inside the Mind of an Acquirer: Sequoya Borgman on How Independent Sponsors Buy Companies, Structure Deals, and Spot Pretenders 1:06:52

5M ago1:06:52

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What do acquirers really want? Sequoya Borgman has acquired 19 companies and exited two. He’s raised capital on a deal-by-deal basis, working outside the traditional private equity model. In this episode of Built to Sell Radio, Borgman explains how “independent sponsors” operate—and why more wealthy individuals are now pooling money to buy lower mi…

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Ep 488 Exit Story: Garren Hilow on Selling for $190M, Taking Stock, and Missing His Earn-Out 59:23

5M ago59:23

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When Garren Hilow helped start Abveris, he didn’t have much—just a background in sales, a co-founder with a Harvard PhD, and a stock option representing 16% of the company. Eight years later, he bought out his co-founder, bootstrapped the company with bank debt (collateralized by his house), and sold it in a stock deal that peaked at $190 million.…

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Ep 487 After the Deal: How the Ultra-Wealthy Invest After Selling Their Business 1:07:15

6M ago1:07:15

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What would you do with $20 million? That’s the minimum amount required to join Tiger 21, the exclusive network where ultra-high-net-worth entrepreneurs learn how to preserve and grow their wealth. Michael Sonnenfeldt founded Tiger 21 after selling two companies and realizing that the skills that made him a successful entrepreneur didn’t translate i…