267. She Sold Her Business For 7 Figures To Private Equity & Later Bought It Back For 6 Figures

Cubicle to CEO

Ellen Yin

Entrepreneurship, Business, Marketing

5.0 • 580 Ratings

🗓️ 7 October 2024

⏱️ 62 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

We’ve had a few guests on the show who have sold their businesses, but this case study is the first time we’ve explored what it looks like to buy your business back post-exit. After building BestSelf Co. to $45 million in sales, Cathryn Lavery sold her company to private equity in 2022 for 7 figures. She remained involved in the company as a brand ambassador, but watched as they made big changes that did little to grow the business. Then last year, she was given the once in a lifetime opportunity to buy the business back for pennies on the dollar - a six figure sum - when the private equity firm decided to close down. Now with a second chance to rebuild more sustainably, Cathryn is applying what she learned from her first go-around and taking notes on what the private equity firm did well and where they fell short to fix the mistakes she’s inherited. Was it worth it? Here’s the full scoop. View the transcript for this episode at: https://otter.ai/u/7q9URJWpWve5ZPDkpQJML7VBe-E?utm_source=copy_url Thank you to our sponsor! Uplevel your healthy habits with Soursop's Cell + Immunity gummies and shakes! Get 20% when you use code 'CEO20' at https://www.soursopnutrition.com/ Connect with Cathryn: Use code 'CEO' for a discount at https://bestself.co/ https://www.littlemight.com/ IG: @bestselfco X: @cathrynlavery Make QR codes like Cathryn with https://joyqr.com/ Iconic business leaders all have their own unique genius. Take this quick 10 question quiz to uncover your specific CEO style advantage: https://ellenyin.com/quiz If you enjoyed today's episode, please: Post a screenshot & key takeaway on your IG story and tag me @missellenyin & @cubicletoceo so we can repost you. Leave a positive review or rating at www.ratethispodcast.com/cubicletoceo Subscribe for new episodes every Monday. Join our C-Suite membership to get bonus episodes! Check out everything our members get at https://ellenyin.com/csuite Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	You're listening to Kupicle to CEO, Episode 267. We've had a few guests on the show who have sold
0:05.8	their businesses, but this case study is the first time we've explored what it looks like to
0:10.3	buy your business back post-exit. After building Best Self-Co to $45 million in sales,
0:17.2	Catherine Lavery sold her company to private equity in 2022 for seven figures.
0:22.3	She remained involved in the company as a brand ambassador, but watched as they made big changes that did little to grow the business.
0:28.7	Then last year, she was given the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to buy the business back for pennies on the dollar, a six-figure sum, when the private equity firm decided to
0:38.4	close down. Now with the second chance to rebuild more sustainably, Catherine is applying what she
0:43.8	learned from her first go-around and taking notes on what the private equity firm did well
0:48.4	and where they fell short to fix the mistakes she's inherited. Was it worth it? Here's the full
0:53.8	scoop.
0:58.0	Welcome to Cubicle to CEO, the podcast where we ask successful founders and CEOs,
1:03.7	the business questions you can't Google. I'm your host, Ellen Yin. Every Monday, go behind
1:09.4	the business in a case study style interview with a leading
1:12.1	entrepreneur who shares one specific growth strategy they've tested in their own business,
1:17.5	exactly how they implemented it, and what the results and revenue were. You'll also hear
1:23.2	financially transparent insights from my own journey bootstrapping our media company from a
1:28.2	$300 freelance project into millions in revenue.
1:39.8	Hey everyone. Welcome back to the show. Today I have with me, Catherine Lavery. And I'm so excited to
1:46.2	dig into this case study because it's the first time we've ever had this particular situation
1:51.4	come across our show, someone selling their company exiting and then actually buying it back.
1:56.7	And in my personal life, Catherine, actually, I only know one other person that's done this.
2:00.5	So I'm super fascinated by your journey there and back.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Ellen Yin, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Ellen Yin and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.