Exiting a Marketing-Tech Startup for $20MM with Bob Gilbreath

The Exit - Presented By Flippa

Technology

5 • 2K Ratings

🗓️ 6 March 2023

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This week on The Exit: Bob remembers the very first time he logged into AOL and thinking “I’ve got to be a part of this internet thing”. After Bob cut his professional teeth at Procter & Gamble, one of the world’s largest consumer goods companies, he jumped head first into the startup space. He joined a digital marketing agency and after 6 years, experienced his first exit. The agreement was a five year earn out with 10% of the purchase price up front, something he would not recommend. When it came to his second exit from Ahalogy, a marketing-tech startup, he was prepared. After just 6 months of negotiations, Bob exited Ahalogy for an upfront payment of $20MM, with an earn out of up to $30MM after 18 months. Listen to learn more about being prepared for an exit and how to speed up negotiations. Bob Gilbreath is currently Co-Founder and CEO of Hearty, where they give Access to a community of top-tier engineers vetted by their in-house tech team. This allows them to truly match engineers to the right hiring partners. Bob is a Founder with two strategic exits, and he is currently working on the third. Bob is the author of The Next Evolution of Marketing, amongst other works and information that you can explore through the links below. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bobgilbreath/ Bob’s Substack, with focus on tips for startup success: https://behearty.substack.com/ His company: https://www.hearty.xyz/ For a Free Flippa Business Valuation: flippa.com/freevaluation -- 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.com the number one platform to buy and sell online
0:05.6	businesses flippa manages over a billion in deal value annually and combines expert buy and sell
0:12.3	side advisory with its market leading valuation tool deal room off market offering market insights
0:19.2	and AI based deal by deal matching engine now for the exit the exit is a 30 minute podcast featuring
0:26.0	amazing entrepreneurs who have been there and they have done it the exit talks to operators who
0:31.1	have bought and sold businesses of all different sizes you learn how they did it why they did it
0:36.5	and get exposure to the world of exits it's a world occupied by a small few but accessible to many
0:43.0	now in this episode I sit down with Bob Gilbreath he's a two time exited founder and really just
0:49.9	fantastic guy based in Cincinnati and we unpack his multiple exits on this episode one of the coolest
0:58.6	parts about my conversation here with Bob as we talk about proctor and gamble he spent time there
1:05.1	starting in 1998 to 2004 and just how much data proctor and gamble has is incredible and he goes
1:14.7	on to create a halology that he talks about how they raised 10 million and really made this
1:22.6	incredible profitable turnaround by pivoting when a sales rep came back from a pitch and he closed
1:32.4	a deal on influencer marketing like they were offering Pinterest deep level digital marketing
1:40.0	and this one conversation basically turned the entire company into a more profitable way and
1:47.0	they ended up exiting the company for a really incredible exit of 50 million to quotient to the
1:54.4	publicly traded company now when Bob walks through how that pivot happened and really just the crazy
2:03.7	up and down of that pivot the really cool you know unpacking that we go through in this conversation
2:12.6	is around what it was like internally for the team and he had this life date on the board and this
2:22.0	date basically was transparency to his team saying hey everyone this is when we either sink
2:30.0	or we swim because we're profitable on this date about a year out he said was what it was
2:35.8	and it's really a brilliant way of bringing everyone together he showed everyone the numbers
	...

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