Running a fast diligence is a feature not a bug. It sharpens the focus. Limiting time ensures the team doesn’t have time to investigate every detail to death.

I don't know a single person who works in tech and hasn't seriously thought about quitting and opening up a coffee shop in a small town in the middle of nowhere

AWS: Market Size Uncapped; Market Growth (still) 30%+ YoY. Worth missing a few bets to hit one of those.

Incentives not aligned between individuals and organizations. Individuals in M&A grow their careers by doing deals. The organization grows by doing the right deals 😄

Common advice is do small deals to build the M&A muscle. Probably as good advice it to start with adjacent spaces. (And you should likely stay there).

Moving out of apartment in c. 1 month. Neighbors baby decided to start crying every night. I guess that's good timing (for us at least 😅)

Not all projects work out. Not all marketing campaigns work out. Not all your acquisitions are going to work out. Invest accordingly!

Once the acquisition close it goes quickly from a party to real work. The real work is done by folks in the business. Always have a business sponsor bought into the deal (he/she will have to do the work 😅)

If you cannot articulate what to measure during integration. Can you really articulate why you’re even buying the company? 🤷‍♂️

↕️ Vertical acquisition : Stay in same industry but go up or down the supply chain. E.g., Shopify buys warehousing startup.

↔️ Horizontal Acquisition: You’re buying a company with similar product. Reducing competition. Adobe anyone?

🌏 Market Extension Acquisition : You’re buying a company to reach more customers. Likely a company with similar offering in new geography.

🛠 Product Extension Acquisition : You’re buying a company with additional product capabilities. Likely something your current customer base would benefit from.

why Harold Hamm is a billionaire: his squeeze out of the 17% of Continental Resources requires $4bn but instead of contributing any of his own money, he’s just gonna grab the company’s cash and leverage capacity:

🏢 Conglomerate Acquisition : You’re buying a company in different market. Goal is to diversify.

💴👨‍💼💴 Concentric Acquisition : You’re buying a company in same industry selling to your customer base.

What companies have successfully acquired at scale? Constellation software comes to mind as the prime example - which other ones?

Read the How to be successful at MrBeast Production. What stood out to me is how good of a writer Jimmy ('MrBest') is.

Lovable just raised $200M at a $1.8B valuation led by Accel. This all started unexpectedly with me calling my friend at 6AM to go for a walk. I've never shared this story before: (thread)

And it's only the beginning. Super excited about what this talented team will ship to our customers!