Hello and welcome to the exit presented by flippa.com the number one platform to buy and sell online businesses flippa manages over a billion in deal value annually and combines expert buy and sell side advisory with its market leading valuation tool deal room off market offering market insights and AI based deal by deal matching engine now for the exit the exit is a 30 minute podcast featuring amazing entrepreneurs who have been there and they have done it.

The exit talks to operators who have bought and sold businesses of all different sizes you learn how they did it why they did it and get exposure to the world of exits.

It's a world occupied by a small few but accessible to many now in this special episode I sit down with Adam Martell is currently the CEO and founder of give see a give now pay later model that's really brilliant and we had a lot of fun talking about his previous company gravity.

And just going through the whole process of changing where his customers were getting his product is a slight nuance from being a platform where people were not really logging in and identifying that to pushing that same data that they were getting from the dashboard on their platform to their email.

Change their business to the point where they did a million dollar quarter and exit into a private equity company called K one so really great story from start to finish scaling is company to 50 people going through this exit and we also connected a lot on bapson college in Boston I spent a lot of time in Boston over the years.

And it's a really great conversation without further ado let's sit down and have our conversation here on the exit with Adam Martell.

All right I am here with Adam Martell the CEO and founder of give see how's it going Adam.

Hey Steve it's going to be all right all right I'm excited to unpack your exit and your successes that you've had but before we get there.

Let's talk about your background how did you get into business and entrepreneurship.

Yeah my so my dad was an entrepreneur and growing up I just sort of saw the highs and lows of entrepreneurship.

My mother worked in in fundraising and I was just always the kid that was inventing something I was the lemonade stand kid I was the kid in school that just you know I get assignment and I would just start dreaming and I remember there's one year.

It was 56th grade I got an assignment to create like a new sport in my mind just like I just I went nuts I got a bunch of kids together we were testing different things and looking back it was like early MVP stuff that was just so much fun and I just I loved inventing it after college I started a in advertising agency.

It's called arm advertising which we sold and then try to start a set of healthy communion stores failed with those and along that path I was a men's and women's volleyball coach for a long time.

Got in fundraising was in banking for a little while and I was just trying a bunch of different things and I loved coaching was trying to supplement my my coaching income with with businesses that I started and just love entrepreneurship the love starting businesses and I took a job at Babson and I met my co founder there that I started gravity with and it just started to take off and we really really really had a good run with that company learn to law and sort of let us to give see.

Nice nice and a fun story about Babson because we were talking about this before in Boston I knew a lot of Babson students and it was like the back in late like 2013 2014 time frames people were all eager to drop out of Babson like say that you got in and then drop out to start a business it was like this whole pitch to start up and was at the case.

And was that the case did you did you guys drop out did you finish or was it a job as like a teacher what was the relationship at Babson yeah no so I know I I just finished my my coaching career I was working in fundraising at the time and advancement took a job in advancement my my co founder rich he he was on a full scholarship for the two year full time program I was I was nice and weekends so I was working full time job trying to start my next business and just but I went to Babson to find a co founder to really be part of.

I ended up dropping out of the NBA program midway through because we raised money and you know I I was the CEO and I just you know you can't raise money and commit to certain things have a family and and also you know go to school and think so I I dropped out midway but even to this day my dad says hey you know you might want to consider just going back and finishing I you know so I I don't think I ever will but that's changed over the years but yeah I think I I was never one to idolize.

I was dropping out I just I was always the goal was to start another company and to sort of be part of the right culture and I got that so I I'd love to go back eventually but the goal was never to drop out but I remember that time where everyone was a I think Peter Teo was was paying where they were he was paying people to drop out of college and now the NBA program and you know teach their own but you know I think it's case by case I I never idolize dropping out I just I just didn't finish.

Yeah yeah and that's right Peter Teo like the Teo Fellowship and all that was was really gaining gaining momentum so I would assume that Babson sort of embraced it after a while saying like hey guys these two two people started a company they raised the money and go do your thing you know it's it's like a I would assume that they embrace it and then we're supportive eventually after so many people were we're really following that path.

Yeah it was it was an interesting trajectory because I was working during the day and lunch I would I would take a class the classes about some of your program about some is I always rank number one and should be ranked number one I mean Babson is the very best entrepreneurship school in the world in terms of the professors but also the culture that they sort of create.

And when you're working there it's a little bit different because you have your job you know in fundraising and you know I think the expectations that you're going to sort of work for the college and be part of the college second but no I was always supported as an entrepreneur there and I was always really grateful for my time and I you know it was definitely there were a couple hiccups around around just you know can you balance everything can you can you hit your goals and luckily I was I was a good fundraiser so I was hitting my goals so I think I got a lot of leeway but the other component was that the company I was starting was directly.

So it was a company that was that was to support frontline fundraiser so I was literally building the company while I was fundraising and the company was helping me fundraise more efficiently so it also worked out but yeah they were super supportive and and I love my time at Pampson.

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