Strategic Spin-Outs: Donald Thompson's Series of Successful Exits

The Exit - Presented By Flippa

Technology

5 • 2K Ratings

🗓️ 10 June 2024

⏱️ 31 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This week on The Exit: Donald Thompson, founder and CEO of The Diversity Movement, shares insights from his numerous successful business exits, starting from his role in iCubed, which was acquired by Adobe, to leading multiple spin-outs and acquisitions. Donald recounts how his team at iCubed, post-acquisition, bought back the company, grew it, and later sold it again. This became a foundational strategy over his career and led to multiple large-scale exits. He attributes his success in these endeavors to cohesive entrepreneurial-minded teams and emphasizes the value of delayed gratification by taking equity over only a salary. For those looking to exit, while it’s important to be prepared to answer questions about your business for due diligence, deeply understanding the buyer's growth strategy and how your business fits into that can significantly enhance negotiation outcomes. Donald Thompson has built an extraordinary career spanning diverse industries from tech sales and IT leadership, to digital marketing and pioneering DEI programming while serving on more than a dozen advisory boards. Through unparalleled experience particularly in creating companies, leading startups and growing them to over a $1 million revenue milestone. Donald has positioned himself as a sought-after executive coach and advisor. LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/donaldthompsonjr/ The Inclusive Leadership Handbook - https://thediversitymovement.com/product/the-inclusive-leadership-handbook/ For a Free Flippa Business Valuation: https://flippa.com/exit -- 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 Flip Up the number one platform to buy and sell online businesses
0:05.9	Flipa manages over a billion in deal value annually and combines expert buy and sell side Advisory with its market leading valuation tool,
0:14.2	Deal Room, Off Market Offering, Market Insights,
0:17.3	an AI-based deal-by-deal matching engine.
0:20.7	Now for the exit.
0:22.0	The exit is a 30 minute podcast featuring awesome
0:24.4	entrepreneurs who have been there and they have done it. The exit talks to
0:27.6	operators who have bought and sold businesses of all different sizes. You learn
0:31.5	how they did it, why they did it and get
0:33.8	exposure to the world of exits it's a world occupied by a small few but
0:38.2	accessible to many on this episode the exit I sit down with Donald Thompson and this is a very special episode.
0:46.1	I had so much fun talking to Donald.
0:48.6	Not only did he go to the same college that I went to, but I was so eager to learn from him about how his
0:56.8	multiple exits happened.
0:59.7	And just listening to the details of how Donald describes these multiple exits is really remarkable.
1:06.7	If you have not listened to many of the episodes in the past, you're definitely going to want to sit
1:10.4	through this entire one because there is some incredible wisdom here.
1:14.0	Donald walks through the story about how his company that he was at, he was
1:18.7	employee seven, goes in, gets acquired by Adobe, and they proceed to basically get the company back from the owner
1:29.5	and effectively supercharge it all the way to another exit and then spin out and
1:35.4	do it again and it is an incredible story about having people in your corner
1:40.4	that are entrepreneurial and they're warriors and they are with you to just go and
	...

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