In Episode 49 of This Week in Local, Localogy Senior Analyst Charles Laughlin facilitates a mini-masterclass on “BD-led M&A” with Josh Scherman of B2B Software Advisors.

Josh is a small business SaaS veteran (ex of ConstantContact and SurePath Capital Partners) who now advises SMB software companies on growth and setting themselves up for successful exits.

In brief, “BD-led M&A” is something we see every day when we read about this or that software company being gobbled up by a bigger fish.

Often the companies involved knew each other long before one purchased the other. And these relationships often begin with partnerships struck by biz dev pros traveling from one industry conference to another forging integration partnerships, reseller relationships, and so on.

These relationships often mark the beginnings of courtships leading to rich exits.

On the episode, Josh cites a number of famous examples of BD-led exits, including Endurance International and ConstantContact. And more recently, Atlasian’s acquisition of Loom.

In fact, Josh says this LinkedIn Post from Loom Co-founder Vinay Hiremath reads like an advertisement for BD-led M&A.

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This Week in LocalBy Localogy Dec 12, 2022