Sometimes the highest cash offer isn’t the best deal. Other factors like team, equity, and the long-term survival of a company play a part in our decision making as well.

A strong mission matters. When it comes to finding the ideal investor for an impact-driven company, it’s all about the story.

It’s important to approach the buyer universe creatively and strategically, and to have a strong acquisition rationale for any individual buyer. Our ability to develop a strong acquisition thesis for a less-than-obvious buyer enabled us to create an optimal outcome for Jetlore.

Competitive tension ensures ideal outcomes. Even when we think we know the right option, we challenge ourselves to think creatively and explore unexpected scenarios—you never know what you’ll discover along the way.

Don’t take shortcuts. By spending time getting to know the business and understanding its value, we wrote a story that appealed to potential buyers, while also ensuring an ideal outcome for the Typhoon Data team.

The outcome of an M&A process is important to a founder, and the process itself has inherent volatility. It can be a challenge to ‘stay steady’ day-in and day-out, but a strong relationship built on trust helps ensure ideal outcomes—and a better experience—for all parties.

How leveraging interest from multiple parties allowed us to close a deal with the right investor, on the founder’s terms.

Generate interest from multiple buyers, know where the synergy and scarcity value is between all the buyers and sellers, and be willing to walk away if you don’t get compelling terms, including valuation.