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The Exit - Presented By Flippa

Building a Better system with Patrick Sullivan

The Exit - Presented By Flippa

The Exit - Presented By Flippa

Technology

5.0420 Ratings

🗓️ 28 February 2022

⏱️ 26 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Today on the Exit, presented by Flippa, we are talking with Patrick Sullivan, founder and CEO of Bonsai, an online platform that connects individuals seeking career and business advice. Before founding Bonsai, Patrick had some very successful exits to large companies like Google and Facebook. Today, he shares how those acquisition conversations began and how the process transpired. Small Beginnings, Big Dreams Growing up in the Bronx, Patrick says his parents were 6th grade educated immigrants that didn’t have much to offer in terms of possessions, but were big on dreams. Patrick was taught to shoot for the stars from an early age. He says as a child, he took the idea of creating a lemonade stand very seriously. He’s a firm believer in learning the basics of sales at a young age. Solving A Problem While working in the music industry, digitization of music had taken center stage. Patrick noticed a need for large scale licensing and thought that he could build a better system. That’s when he quit his day job and founded his first company, RightsFlow. Patrick was hyper focused on building something that solved a big problem in the music industry, and that’s exactly what he did. By the time Google acquired them in 2007, RightsFlow had 22,000 customers using their system globally. A Deliberate And Calculate Approach Going through the acquisition with Google was quite the learning experience. Patrick says larger companies usually have an entire department when it comes to onboarding new businesses. He quickly learned the importance of a data center and having all your paperwork organized. The acquiring company will be looking for any holes in your business, mainly your liabilities. Patrick says the whole process consisted of about 60-80 meetings where they were tasked with eliminating any doubt. He says the entire process was very much treated like litigation; everything was very deliberate and calculated. Merger And Acquisition Deal Of The Year While Patrick was selling Google on his company, Google was also trying to sell themselves to Patrick. One main selling point was all the technical and engineering resources Patrick was promised. Patrick says their deal sponsor ended up leaving the deal, and they found themselves now a part of this large company with no resources. Things ended up working themselves out, however, and Patrick says they ended up winning the Merger and Acquisition Deal of the Year award. With a team of 24 people at the time of the acquisition, Patrick was tasked with defending the how and why each person would work within the business. He says not everyone fit Google’s criteria, so not everyone stayed on. Where To Learn More Patrick's newest endeavor is as the Founder and CEO of Bonsai. He encourages anyone that wants to connect with him to do so by visiting www.joinbonsai.co/patrick. As a professional network for career and business advice, they offer one on one video chats. They’ve also just launched a global partnership with Google. -- The Exit—Presented By Flippa: A 30-minute podcast featuring expert entrepreneurs who have been there and done it. The Exit talks to operators who have bought and sold a business. You’ll learn how they did it, why they did it, and get exposure to the world of exits, a world occupied by a small few, but accessible to many. To listen to the podcast or get daily listing updates, click on flippa.com/the-exit-podcast/

Transcript

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0:00.0

Hello and welcome to the exit presented by Flippa, this is a 30 minute podcast featuring

0:16.0

amazing entrepreneurs who have been there and they've done it.

0:18.8

The exit talks to operators who have bought and sold businesses of all, different sizes,

0:22.4

you learn how they did it, why they did it, and get exposure to the world of exits.

0:27.0

It's a world occupied by a small few, but accessible to many.

0:31.3

Now in this episode I sit down with Patrick Sullivan, he's a fantastic entrepreneur who sold

0:35.4

multiple businesses to some of the largest companies on Earth.

0:39.5

He exited his first company to Google and then exited his second company to Facebook.

0:45.7

He talks a lot about the intricacies that go into getting acquired by a large company

0:50.6

when you have a team of 20 to 30 people.

0:54.4

He really does a good job of unpacking how those conversations began, how that process

0:59.7

really transpired.

1:01.9

So without further ado, let's sit down and unpack multiple massive acquisitions with Patrick

1:07.8

Sullivan, the current CEO and founder of Bonsai.

1:11.5

All right everyone, today I am joined by Patrick Sullivan.

1:16.3

He's currently the founder and CEO of Bonsai.

1:19.8

How are you today Patrick?

1:21.6

Good Steve and thank you for having me.

1:23.4

Yeah, excited to have you on.

1:26.2

Before we get into your multiple successful exits, let's talk about your background.

1:31.1

What got you into business and entrepreneurship?

1:34.3

You know I always look back in the early days growing up in the Bronx in New York.

...

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