E151: Alexis Grant, Shares Insights on Building and Selling Online Businesses

[00:00:00] Della Kirkman: Until yet, this is not Ron Skelton. I have him tied up out back so I can take over his show with a little girl power. I'm Della K, your friendly neighborhood CPA, and I'm on a mission to help thousand female acquisition entrepreneurs. We can connect later because I am definitely not the star of this show.

[00:00:16] Our special guest today is the media innovator, death row reporter, and audience builder extraordinaire to the tune of tens of millions of readers. You may find her hiking through the hills, hoarding pennies, hint, hint, hint, or mommying her two munchkins. It's the founder of They Got acquired, Alexis Grant.

[00:00:34] Welcome to the show, Alexis. 

[00:00:36] Alexis Grant: Hey, that was a fun intro. Thank you.

[00:00:37] Della Kirkman: Come up a little something to spice it up there. Not that you need any spice, that's for sure. Well, in this chat today, Alexis, I hope to talk about your own exit. How you're leveraging those lessons as you build They Got Acquired. Plus all the amazing eggs that you've been covering and the database you're creating through that process. And the question I always like to start off with is this, were you born an entrepreneur Alexis or did that come to you later in life?

[00:01:02] Alexis Grant: I think I probably was born it, but I did not recognize it when I was younger. So I went to school for journalism and was not interested at all in business. I really shunned all the business courses I could have and probably should have been taking in college and didn't take any of them. 

[00:01:19] And, only realized later that creating a business was a way for me to earn money on my own terms. And I love the autonomy I had to make my own decisions. I'm like a, I'm a type A personality. I'm not very patient. I don't like to wait for other people. I just want to get the stuff done.

[00:01:36] And I just appreciated that with, I had a few reporter jobs in news and newsrooms, which I enjoyed. But I realized after a while that I could move a lot faster on my own and I enjoyed that. 

[00:01:50] Della Kirkman: All right. Excellent. I love combining the art and the business together. And it is sometimes hard to figure out that connection. Initially my daughter's in music, so I'm hoping to help her find that connection as well. So how did you go from journalism in the newsroom into more entrepreneurial activities? 

[00:02:06] Alexis Grant: Well, it was never my plan. I left my job at the Houston Chronicle when I was 27 to travel around, French speaking Africa.

[00:02:16] I took a bit of a sabbatical. And when I got back was looking for a job and living at my parents house and trying to figure out what I was gonna do next. And I started taking on freelance clients. I was helping them with social media. This was in like 2009. And slowly that turned into a content marketing business.

[00:02:39] During that time, I also ended up getting a job. I went and worked at US news and world report, but while I was there, I still kind of had this side thing going on and I got to this intersection where I think a lot of people find themselves when they have to choose, like, do I want to keep growing this side thing or do I want to focus on my day job?

[00:02:56] And I decided to switch over and I keep growing my thing. That was a content marketing agency. We grew blogs for other businesses. Again, this is in like 2010. So it's when businesses were starting to think about wanting to have content and wanting to use content for lead generation.

[00:03:15] So we were helping them do that. 

[00:03:17] Della Kirkman: Okay, excellent. So then what happened to that side gig?

[00:03:21] Alexis Grant: It turned into my full time gig. It was acquired by one of our clients by a media brand called the penny hoarder that focuses on personal finance. So I was the second employee at that company. Myself and a handful of members of my team.

[00:03:37] We all went in house at the penny hoarder. So instead of growing blogs for lots of different businesses, we were part of the penny hoarder in house and worked on the content for that brand. 

[00:03:48] Della Kirkman: So I think they call that aqua hire, right? Was that a smooth transition for you from being so independent and on your own to being part of something that became very large?

[00:03:58] Alexis Grant: It was, like it was kind of an identity shift for me because I never expected to go back to being an employee. And again, it was like a little bit different because I, since I was the second hire, I got to help put the infrastructure in place and figure out what the company, how the company would grow and what our culture would be like.

[00:04:13] But it was certainly a shift from growing my own business. And it was one that I never thought that I would take. But I think the reason why it worked is because, by the time my company was bought, the founder of the penny hoarder, he and I had worked together for about a year and a half because they were one of our clients.

[00:04:34] So I knew by then that I really appreciated his style and his vision. And we got to try on that relationship. So it made for a smooth transition. And I think a lot of Aquahires can be hard because it's, it can be a rocky transition if you're having to integrate culturally. And I think because we had kind of tried that out together we had the benefit of knowing that piece would probably work.

[00:04:57] Della Kirkman: Yeah. So a whole year of building that relationship before the Aquahire came about then, right? Tell us about the right life thing. That was something that you sold a little bit later on then, that was probably not an aqua hire type of transaction? 

[00:05:10] Alexis Grant: No, that was, it was an asset sale. It was a content site and I really just passed it over to someone else who wanted to run it instead.

[00:05:16] I started building that when I had the agency. So because we had all these systems in place to run other business' blogs, and we had a large network of freelancers, we decided to build like our own assets. So I kind of had this epiphany one day that, Hey, what if client A or B, leaves tomorrow and I've built up everything they have, they're paying us, on a monthly basis, which is nice for cashflow through an agency, but we didn't have any equity.

[00:05:47] There was no upside on, on that growth other than maybe them needing us more. And so kind of the light bulb went off that, Hey, we should do this for something that we own for our own asset. So I applied the systems that the people and the systems that we had created to our own site. I had an editor who was in charge of the right life, just like we had an editor in charge of every one of our client blogs.

[00:06:09] And, that's how we built it. So when I went in house with the Penny Hoarder, that was a really crazy time for me. Like the Penny Hoarder grew really fast. We were bootstrapped, but well resourced because the company had done well. So we hired very quickly. And I also had two kids during that time. It was a little bit nuts personally.

[00:06:28] So I certainly did not have time to be focusing on the right life. So I kind of put it to the side and I had an editor who was keeping track of it, kind of in maintenance mode. I just wanted to like make enough money that it could cover its own costs. And so it ran that way for a few years. And then when I left the penny hoarder, I picked it back up and I thought for a while, like, Hey, is this something that I want to spend more time on?

[00:06:49] Would I want to build this site more? And it really felt like it was a project that represented who I had been like a decade prior, and it wasn't like interesting to me anymore. Yeah, I decided to sell then. 

[00:07:01] Della Kirkman: So how long did you work on it before you actually sold it? Or did you go back to it with a plan to grow it into something specific before you sold it? 

[00:07:09] Alexis Grant: I more went back to it trying to think like, would this be the next thing I wanted to do? Like personally, did I want to work on this as my next career move? But what I really spent a lot of time on was SEO during that time, because the site had already done very well SEO wise. Partly just because we had started it years ago. It's one of the premier sites in the writing niche and my background is in content.

[00:07:35] So the content was all high quality. And because of that, it had done really well in SEO. So I kind of latched onto that and just like put gas on it and optimize the site. I enjoyed that and I got to learn a lot about SEO through that too. So I focused a lot on that, managed to increase the SEO traffic pretty significantly.

[00:07:57] And when I sold it, I think it had about half a million page views a month. And that was one of the reasons why some of the buyers were interested. They really wanted the SEO traffic. 

[00:08:06] Della Kirkman: So was it making profit at that point in time, or was it more of traffic, as you said, that the buyers were interested in?

[00:08:13] Alexis Grant: It was more traffic. So earlier, years before, we ran a few different, what we call flash sales, where we would get lots of different products for writers together in a bundle and send it, sell it at a cheap discount for about, for three days. It was like a really short sale. And we monetize the site pretty well that, that way.

[00:08:34] But by the time I sold it, we weren't doing that anymore. We were making some money from like eBooks and affiliates, but that wasn't really the focus. And it certainly didn't, I mean, at the time, I didn't know as much as I know now about M& A. But like looking back, I realized, Oh, wow. Like we didn't even value it on a multiple because it would have been a crazy, it was a mid six figure sale and we weren't really making that much money off of it.

[00:08:57] So it was really like, what is it worth to the buyer? And what can they, how can they use that traffic to sell whatever they're selling. 

[00:09:04] Della Kirkman: So what revenue model were you using at that point in time? 

[00:09:08] Alexis Grant: Yeah, again, I think it was mostly affiliates and eBooks. So like digital products. I think those are the two primary ones for that site. We didn't do any display ads and I wasn't selling sponsorships or anything. It wasn't really like well monetized, I see a lot of content sites and that's, now I know that's kind of typical. And I mean, that was because that wasn't, that was never my primary income.

[00:09:31] So it was like a side project. So I wasn't relying on it for income. And I didn't have much time and energy, honestly to focus on it. But I do see that it's a trend with content sites that they're often under monetized because a lot of times people who are running them are really good at the content side.

[00:09:47] But, I haven't thought as much about the business. Yeah. 

[00:09:50] Della Kirkman: Business side. Sure. So what kind of a team structure did you have then with the right life? Did you mention contractors? Was it all contractors? 

[00:09:57] Alexis Grant: Yep. Yep. Just all contractors. Really, it was like very much a side project when I sold it. it wasn't like a fleshed out big business or anything. 

[00:10:05] My preference typically is I like businesses that are small on people and big on revenue. So even right now, running They Got Acquired, I have a team of contractors. I'm the only person working on it full time. I'd like to hire maybe two employees, but need our revenue to get where it needs to be before I can do that.

[00:10:23] Della Kirkman: Small on people, big on revenue. That's a good quote. Did you negotiate in the sale of the right life? What was that actual process about? Did you just get approached out of the blue? Did you go looking for your buyer? 

[00:10:35] Alexis Grant: Yeah, I had a few different buyers who were interested, approached me. Which was kind of what got my brain spinning in the direction of like, maybe I should do this.

[00:10:45] And then when it came time to sell and I decided I was ready, I put a bidding process in place. So I let the people know who were interested that I was going to, take bids basically. And then I also reached out to an additional folks who I thought might be interested. And I ran that process myself.

[00:11:03] Again, at this time I didn't know that much about M& A. I did a call with someone on, on like an advice website who had experience selling content sites and kind of like ran my plan by him. And I said, Hey, can you poke any holes in this? Or what should I do differently here? So I kind of had a little bit of advice there, but, I didn't have an advisor I was working with.

[00:11:24] My lawyer, who I feel like so grateful with that I got connected to, cause I really, this is one of the reasons I started They Get Acquired is when I sold my sites, I didn't know who to go to for help. And like, who are the service providers out there who would do a sale? That's not a huge, huge sale.

[00:11:42] Like who's going to do a six or seven or low eight figure sale. Now, I know there's lots of people who focus on that, but I didn't know that. I didn't know how to find them at the time. And I ended up with a lawyer who was excellent and he really straddled, like he, he was more than a lawyer. He really advocated for me and almost served a little bit in an advisor role, as we were navigating some of those conversations.

[00:12:04] Della Kirkman: Oh, that's excellent. So I bet you learned so much though by doing it yourself. Do you regret that? Do you wish you had a deal team on that particular transaction? 

[00:12:13] Alexis Grant: No, I think that was, because I had a number of buyers who were interested. I think it's harder if you have to drum up the interest, but because I had that and because I did have a lawyer who was really helpful. It went pretty smoothly.

[00:12:26] Della Kirkman: And did you have a valuation in mind going into that bidding process that you created? Or were you kind of playing off of what people, the numbers that people had brought to you originally? 

[00:12:36] Alexis Grant: Yeah, I was playing off the numbers people had brought to me. I wouldn't even have known how to value a website.

[00:12:41] And again, we weren't making that much revenue. So it wasn't like a multiple type situation, but for example, like I think a year before I sold, someone who was interested in coming to me and offered like 250. So that was my low starting point. And I was able to increase it significantly from there.

[00:12:59] But I kind of used that to say, here's the low bar, the threshold for what I'm going for. 

[00:13:06] Della Kirkman: And so what did you end up selling that for? Are you able to share that price? 

[00:13:10] Alexis Grant: I'm allowed to say it was mid six figures.

[00:13:12] Della Kirkman: And that was mostly, mostly based on traffic. I think you had said, was there any seller financing involved? Was it a cash out deal? 

[00:13:20] Alexis Grant: Yeah, it was a cash out deal. Yep. No seller financing. 

[00:13:23] Della Kirkman: Any kind of non compete in place that would have prevented you? 

[00:13:26] Alexis Grant: There was a non compete, which I was really careful about because, for example, I, like I had my own email list and there are some people who, like many of the people who are on the right, I mean, the right life list that was like maybe 50, 000 people, in my own list was like 5, 000 or something at that point.

[00:13:43] So small, but I wanted to make sure that I wasn't breaking any rules in terms of like having overlap on those lists. And knowing that like, what I was doing at the time as a consultant was helping companies hire writers and build writing teams. And so I needed the non compete to be written in a way that allowed me to continue to do that work.

[00:14:01] And also like, I didn't know what I was going to do next. I might have an idea for a tool for writers or something in the writing space. So, we worked on my non compete to make sure that it carved out, that space for me to do that. 

[00:14:16] Della Kirkman: So how long was your non compete or what are some of the more specific details if you can share with us?

[00:14:20] I mean, did it cover an industry that you could or could not write in? A timeframe? Or was that more about the crossover in your list?

[00:14:28] Alexis Grant: That is a good question. I honestly have no idea what the timeframe was. I think it just was specific that like, I couldn't start another site in that niche. Which I had no intention of doing anyways. I was done with it. So that wasn't a problem for me. 

[00:14:43] Della Kirkman: And then what was the transition of this business like? 

[00:14:47] Alexis Grant: It was really a handover and honestly it was pretty smooth, but it's partly because I was, I'm very organized and I like to keep a lot of processes in place. I had a whole checklist of things that we needed to transfer.

[00:15:00] And what I did with the website specifically and the host is,like many entrepreneurs, I have a website host where I have a million things in there because I have all these different projects. And my husband's an entrepreneur and he has his projects in there. So I, rather than having to transfer the site to someone else, to their host, I created a new account under my same host.

[00:15:24] And then I just gave them that whole account. So they ended up transferring away from that host after they had the site. But it meant that at the transfer point, like, because otherwise I would have to say, hey, they'll give me the money when they receive the site.

[00:15:37] And instead I just said, Here's your logins to your, to the site and the host, and you can have this and do whatever you want with it. And that made it easier. 

[00:15:45] Della Kirkman: Is that part of what you did to prepare for the sale? Or did you make that split, as part of the actual transition after you had your buyer? 

[00:15:52] Alexis Grant: No, I did that in preparation.

[00:15:54] Della Kirkman: Any other bumps that you encountered or anything interesting about that particular deal? 

[00:15:59] Alexis Grant: Well, there were a couple of interesting things. One is I had like one of the buyers I did not end up selling to, but was a serious contender initially, was kind of a jerk in some of our initial calls. And that really turned me off from working with them.

[00:16:14] So like looking back, I see that as a turning point. I ended up going with somebody else because I just didn't like the people and how they were treating me. And my lawyer was like a real support during that time. The other interesting thing was, the company that I did sell to, they ended up selling the business to somebody else, like two months after I sold it to them.

[00:16:38] Della Kirkman: Wow. That's pretty fast. 

[00:16:39] Alexis Grant: Yeah, it was crazy. And I did not expect that. And quite frankly, it was disappointing to me. Cause they, you know, they didn't hold to what they had said they were going to do when we were discussing. But at that point it's like, hey, once you've sold something, it's not yours anymore. You got to let go. 

[00:16:56] Della Kirkman: Yeah. Some of those legacy issues are kind of a pull at your heartstrings, right?

[00:17:00] Alexis Grant: I think that's a good lesson though, that I always tell founders I talk to. It's like, no matter how much you like your buyer, no matter what they say, there's probably going to be some things that don't go the way you're hoping after you transfer the site. So you've got to prepare yourself for that mentally.

[00:17:14] Della Kirkman: Did they make money off of it? I mean, do you feel like you missed out on some of the financial gain when they sold it so quickly? 

[00:17:21] Alexis Grant: Not really. I mean, maybe I did, but for me, I was happy with, it was important to me that it went to a good home and I know I got, especially now that I understand the land of multiples, like I know that I got a good amount of money for what I had built.

[00:17:35] So I kind of focused on that. Like I, I was happy with the outcome for me and my family.

[00:17:40] Della Kirkman: That's perfect. So back to your failed buyer was, kind of a jerk and through the whole process. I mean, how did you separate this pile of money that you're about ready to get your hands on from this jerky person that's, considering buying your business?

[00:17:54] And how did you really have the guts to walk away from that? 

[00:17:57] Alexis Grant: Well, I was lucky that I had other options. Maybe if I hadn't had other options, it would have been a harder decision, but I will say that it took my lawyer flagging that for me because I kind of, I mean, they were very, patronizing in our discussion and, you know what it's like as being a woman in a male dominated industry, like it's not uncommon.

[00:18:17] So I kind of like let it go. And my lawyer was like, Hmm, that wasn't cool. 

[00:18:22] Della Kirkman: I'm curious, was your attorney male or female? 

[00:18:26] Alexis Grant: He's a male. Yeah. So I actually like really appreciated that and reflecting on the, on that. That was, I was really grateful that he was the one who was there and saying, Hey, that wasn't cool.

[00:18:35] And I can't remember how the conversation went after that, but he kind of made me realize like, no, that's not normal. Like you shouldn't have to deal with that. And you have other choices. 

[00:18:46] Della Kirkman: Excellent. Okay. So then let's get to the, the big story here. They Got Acquired. I mean, why did you pick this particular industry of exits? I mean, is it from your own experience in the exits and wanting to help other people? 

[00:19:00] Alexis Grant: Yeah. So when I was trying to figure out what to do next, I knew I wanted to start another niche media brand. And I was looking for something that would challenge me and cause like I already done media. So I want it to be a little bit different.

[00:19:13] And I identified acquisitions as, first of all, I knew the pain points as a founder, because I'd gone through it and realized, like, I didn't know what I was doing. I didn't know how to find the help that I needed. And I felt like there was a real lack of coverage of deals in the six, seven and low eight figure range.

[00:19:31] Like we all hear about the huge, all the huge things that happen in the media, right? We hear about all the big, big, big sales, but you don't hear about the smaller ones. Which is ironic because in truth, there's actually way more smaller ones than there are big ones. And on top of that, like another data point for me was after I left the penny hoarder, the founder of the penny hoarder, he sold that business for a hundred million dollars.

[00:19:53] And it was a bootstrap business. It was a fantastic win. And it got very little coverage. And part of that was because he wasn't pushing for it. I believe that another piece of that was that it wasn't VC backed and we, there's like so many outlets that cover VC backed. Companies, partly because there's, this whole slew of people who want the information on it.

[00:20:15] They also want to get kudos when they've invested in something that's done well. So that they can show, that they continue to do their job well. And because, like when that doesn't happen, sometimes deals just aren't covered. So that said to me like, Hey, there's a big opportunity here to cover smaller deals and also bootstrapped ones, and they got acquired.

[00:20:38] We do cover some VC backed companies, but we don't do solely bootstrapped, but because of the size of the deal, the vast majority of the ones that we cover are bootstrapped. So yeah, my goal is to both like address my own pain points, but also help all these other founders who I know are out there and have no one to talk to about this, or have no idea where to go.

[00:20:56] And I hear from them every day. So it's like really gratifying, gratifying work. 

[00:21:01] Della Kirkman: Well, I found that nobody wants to talk about the small deals either. And my deals have all been, relatively small, but still absolutely life changing for me and a great stepping stone into, something bigger, hopefully. Which is I'm sure what you're working on, with they got acquired as well.

[00:21:15] So tell us about starting another media company after you've already had so much experience. And what did you do? What have you done differently this time with They Got Acquired? 

[00:21:24] Alexis Grant: Oh, gosh. I mean, there's different challenges every single time. Even though this is actually the fourth media company I've worked on, and I feel like it's a totally new experience.

[00:21:32] Some of the pieces are similar. So, for example, my own personal strength is building writing teams and putting the infrastructure in place to create content at scale. And that's what, I like doing that part. And you know, we're in a good place. We're a year and a half in now. 

[00:21:48] With They Got Acquired we're in a good place with that. But all the other pieces, of growing a media company change, like how you grow an audience changes. The things that worked five years ago, even two years ago, sometimes don't work now. So you have to really stay up on top of like, what is working now and figure out what's going to work for the particular niche that I'm in.

[00:22:10] And there's like all sorts of different challenges with this niche that I haven't had with other companies I've built. So for example, some of our content is not as shareable as other brands I've worked on because a lot of founders that are thinking about selling don't want everyone else to know that they want to sell. Which makes sense for a lot of reasons, right? But that kind of handcuffs me in terms of thinking about audience growth. 

[00:22:36] Maybe not handcuffs, maybe it's, actually maybe it's a good thing, 'cause it helps me say, okay, here's what's not gonna work. I have to think a little differently about what is going to work. But that's an example of what's, what's been different. 

[00:22:45] Della Kirkman: Okay. So how are you handling that challenge with so much confidential information at your fingertips? 

[00:22:50] Alexis Grant: Well, I mean, I think a lot of it is about being a trusted source of information.

[00:22:55] My background's in journalism. We have a team of reporters slash analysts who are working on all these stories. And we make a huge effort to make sure that everything is accurate. We do a lot of citations. So like we say where we got the information from. Often we get like whenever possible, we get the information directly from the founder.

[00:23:14] So we might reach out and say, Hey, we saw that you sold this company. Can you share any information with us? And what people can share really, really varies widely. Like often right off the bat, people are like, Oh, I can't share anything. I have an NDA. But it's like, Hey, okay. I know maybe you can't share the exact price that you sold for, but there are lots of other things that are interesting and helpful to other founders who might want to sell that often people can share.

[00:23:39] So for example, a seller might be able to say, I sold for six or seven or a low eight figures. I think that's a question we ask. And that at least helps us kind of put it in a box like, where were they, they might be able to share revenue at sale and maybe able to share the size of their team or, sometimes they can share the multiple they sold for.

[00:23:58] There's all sorts of data points that we collect. So we have a database that we built that tracks all of this stuff. And as much as possible 

[00:24:06] Della Kirkman: Going to get to that database soon. I want to hear all about that. Okay. So a year and a half into it, at this point Alexis, now are you building for an exit at this point in time? Probably, it doesn't sound like an exit was on your mind necessarily as you were building your other companies.

[00:24:21] But now that you're such a pro at it, are you building toward exit now with They Got Acquired? 

[00:24:28] Alexis Grant: I mean, I don't have any plans to exit the business anytime soon. I, what my real goal is to build a business that I enjoy running that doesn't take up too much of my time and brings in enough money for my family. 

[00:24:42] But I, I'm realistic enough to know at this point that like, my interests change over time and I'm probably not going to want to do, one any company forever. So I think it makes sense to build from the beginning. Like I might exit one day so that it's ready if, if I want to do that.

[00:24:59] And I mean, the cool thing is I always tell founders, it's like, anything that you can do to build your company towards an exit is actually going to make the company a better company to run. It's a win-win, no matter what you end up doing. 

[00:25:10] Della Kirkman: Yeah. I always tell people they should really be working towards two exits, regardless of what their future plans are.

[00:25:16] And the first exit is to get them out of the day to day operations of the business. And then of course the second exit would actually for, a traditional sale and walk away. 

[00:25:24] Alexis Grant: You know it's funny, I feel like you can think about it too early though. Cause everyone's like, Oh yeah. Think about, how to exit like right from the beginning of your business. 

[00:25:31] And I understand like the philosophy behind that, but I find myself sometimes, especially cause like I'm a systems oriented person, is going to like put a system in place when I actually haven't figured out the thing yet. And I think it's possible to get ahead of yourself in that way.

[00:25:45] And we really are right now in the figuring it out phase. So I want to be like realistic about that and like, let myself enjoy that without thinking about like, is everything perfectly the way that it would need to be if I want to exit in five years. 

[00:25:58] Della Kirkman: Well, what are the couple of things, the big things that you're trying to figure out with They Got Acquired right now, your biggest challenges with growing the business?

[00:26:06] Alexis Grant: So we really have what I would call product market fit in terms of the content. It's resonates, we hear from a lot of people who enjoy it, it's growing. And that part of the business is, pretty seamless right now for us. Which makes sense since that's like where my, my background is. We're still figuring out how to monetize.

[00:26:24] We've had a few channels that have worked for us. One is sponsorships. We have a lot of sponsors who want to reach people who are thinking about selling. And that's, that's been good for us and good for cashflow, especially cause we're bootstrapping in the early days, it covers expenses.

[00:26:38] We also make referrals to, usually to brokers or advisors. Sometimes to other service providers as well. But then what I am hoping will be like our longterm, biggest form of revenue is our database. And this was kind of like the original vision that I had for the company. And for the last year and a half, we've been putting the pieces in place to make this brand run.

[00:27:03] And just now we're kind of circling back to that and thinking about, how can we make this work? 

[00:27:08] Della Kirkman: Well, tell us what this database involves and what your monetization plans are for it. 

[00:27:13] Alexis Grant: Yeah. So from the beginning, we've been building a database of deals. We've collected thousands of deals that fit the criteria that we cover, which is, well, we say it's between a hundred thousand dollars and 50 million in terms of deal size, which is like a huge window. Really our sweet spot is really six, seven, low eight figures, but it's nice to have a box to say, Hey, if it's above 50 million, we don't touch it.

[00:27:35] And then we also focus on online companies. So of course there's lots of hybrids these days, but we wouldn't cover, for example, like a brick and mortar yoga studio, or a mom and pop on main street. We really focus on like the online businesses or businesses that are heavily online. So that can be like e commerce, agencies, SaaS, media, marketplaces, those types of companies.

[00:28:04] So what we're doing with the database now is, basically putting a front end on it so everyone else can access it. Because I think, what's most useful to folks is if they can look in there themselves and pull the information that they need. So for example, you can come at it from like the buyers, like I want a list of buyers, or you can come at it from like, I want a list of deals or comps. 

[00:28:25] But if, if I am a seller or a buyer who is interested in SaaS businesses, I could pull a list of comps that are, of SaaS businesses that have sold in the last couple of years that are around the size that I'm interested in.

[00:28:38] Or I could pull a list of buyers that have bought SAS businesses in the last few years.

[00:28:45] Della Kirkman: So how are you balancing that with the confidentiality that you referred to earlier?

[00:28:51] Alexis Grant: I mean, everything we get, we get either from the founder or from public record. I mean, sometimes founders say to me, I'll tell you what it is, but you can't print it, then it's not going to be anything that anyone else can access.

[00:29:03] But when we interview founders, they know that we're going to use that information for the story that's on our website and also for, the database. 

[00:29:12] Della Kirkman: So is the database still a work in process? Or is it something that can be accessed now? Are you in a beta stage? 

[00:29:19] Alexis Grant: We're not in beta yet. We do have a homepage live. It's at data. theygotacquired. com. But you can't get in there yet. But I am hoping to start onboarding beta users and testers in the next few months. So, that hopefully come next year, 2024. It'll be something that people could actually pay to access. 

[00:29:37] Della Kirkman: And what exactly type of information? I mean, can I go in there and see all of the prices that you referred to SaaS business? I can see all the prices that have, uh, those companies have sold for. 

[00:29:48] Alexis Grant: Yeah, exactly. So if you want it, if you're like looking to buy, say you wanted to buy an agency, you could go in and pull a list of agencies that have sold and what they've sold for.

[00:29:57] And again, like we won't have every data point for every deal, but usually we have enough that it can paint all together. It can paint a picture and make you more informed. Like platforms like this exist for much bigger deals. So for example, people might use PitchBook, but they're not covering the small scale companies that, that we are in.

[00:30:19] Many of them are not, are focusing on VC backed companies. Whereas we also cover bootstrapped ones. 

[00:30:25] Della Kirkman: And, are revenue is going to be shared in this database? 

[00:30:29] Alexis Grant: We have it, it's in there. Yeah. I mean, we have a list of like 20 data points that we try to get for every company and then whatever we get, we publish and whatever we can't get, we don't have.

[00:30:40] Della Kirkman: And then how exactly do you hope to monetize this?

[00:30:43] Alexis Grant: Probably an annual subscription, where you could access, you know, all the new stuff as we put it in there. 

[00:30:48] Della Kirkman: So with all of that data that you have, the database and all of the, um, companies that you've interviewed, I mean, what are some of the big lessons that you're learning or taking away from these deals that we could utilize?

[00:30:59] Alexis Grant: Hmm. From a buyer perspective, let's see.

[00:31:03] I mean, I think the biggest one for a buyers, especially like, buyers that aren't massive companies that are going after acquisitions, that are like either individuals or smaller businesses is, thinking about your seller as a person, because like for these small deals, often it's run by a founder who it's like their passion, or they got into it cause they loved doing it. They loved helping people in this space. And it's not a transaction to them. Like it is, and they want, they want to make money for their family, but it's so much more than that.

[00:31:37] And I think like for many of the founders I've talked to, they want to see that a buyer understands that and gets that and is going to keep that in mind, both through the transaction and also when they continue to run the business afterwards. 

[00:31:51] Della Kirkman: Which kind of goes back to when the business that you sold got sold immediately, that tugged on your heartstring.

[00:31:56] Alexis Grant: Yeah, exactly. And like, I think we always kind of like treat that as an afterthought. It's like... It's a business and then, Oh, there's a little bit of an emotional component. But the truth is like, especially for deals of the size. Many of the founders have like poured their heart into it, and their sweat and tears, and they've built it for years and they care.

[00:32:13] So I think coming, like acknowledging that from the other side, could help you, find a better fit. 

[00:32:20] Della Kirkman: And build that rapport, which is a big, a big component of deal making that people don't always pay enough attention to. 

[00:32:26] So I'm curious, we've talked a little bit about, women at the deal table and the fact that you're focusing on smaller deals, is there a coordination there? Are the smaller deals, the female owned deals by any chance? Or how is that correlating for you?

[00:32:41] Alexis Grant: I never heard anyone say it that way. I do make a huge effort to feature female founders who have sold. We actually just published a report that you may want to put in the show notes, uh, 53 female founders who sold a business. we have lots of reports by the way, like covering agencies that have sold e comm that have sold.

[00:32:58] This is the first one where it's like gender based. So I think it's like maybe less helpful to someone who has a specific type of business that I want to sell, but can be super helpful for, if you want some inspiration. And especially like, if you want to, bring a woman on stage to speak at your event, or you want a woman for your podcast.

[00:33:15] Like here's a list of 53 really accomplished badass women that you should get on there. One of my own personal like missions in is to lift up other women in business. And I consider myself doing that through They Got Acquired because we make a real effort to feature a lot of women. So you'll see a lot of stories on our site that you've not seen anywhere else, that has not been covered anywhere else.

[00:33:36] I don't really think of it as like, they're small because they're women led. We have covered women led businesses that sold for six figures and we've covered women led businesses that have sold for eight figures. Likewise, we've covered, male led businesses that have sold for six and then have sold for eight.

[00:33:52] I think the bigger question is like, for me is how do we get, how do we showcase more women? Because there are fewer of them in the space, so they're harder to find. So it takes a little bit of less, more effort. And in my own personal experience, anecdotally, they are less willing to shout about accomplishments. 

[00:34:12] And some men are this way too, where they don't, they don't want to be showcased. They don't want the spotlight for lots of different reasons. But I find that it's more common for women to say, eh, thanks. I don't really want a feature.

[00:34:23] Della Kirkman: So, you're talking about founders specifically, the startup path is long and hard and there isn't necessarily VC money available, especially for women led businesses. 

[00:34:35] Do you focus on women that have bought and then resold businesses? Is that on your, on your trajectory? 

[00:34:42] Alexis Grant: Yeah, so we, we say founders. But we, we do, we basically cover sellers. I think founders don't think of themselves as a seller until later. And even then, like don't really use that language, which is why we don't use it. But we have done stories of people, not just women, but anybody who has bought a business and then sold it. 

[00:35:00] So they're a seller. They're not really the founder of that business, but they still sold the business. So it's like a slight distinction. But yeah, we do have some of those on the site. 

[00:35:09] Della Kirkman: So do you have acquisition on your path to help grow They Got Acquired? Or is this going to be completely the startup path for you, or do you consider growth through acquisition?

[00:35:19] Alexis Grant: I'm interested in growth through acquisition as it pertains to like newsletters specifically, because I think that's a great way to acquire an audience. But I can't see us doing that. I mean, partly because the demographic that we're serving is so specific. And honestly, there's nobody else who is creating content for founders who want to sell, from a third party perspective.

[00:35:40] There might be like in a broker and advisor doing it, but there's not, another media outlet that's focusing on that demo. So I think it'd be hard to buy a list that did that. But, you know, never say never. Maybe when we're bigger and a few years from now it'll, it'll make more sense. 

[00:35:54] Della Kirkman: Well, do you want to wrap this up with a few rapid fire questions in? Are you game for that? 

[00:35:59] Alexis Grant: I'll try. 

[00:36:00] Della Kirkman: All right. What content are you consuming right now? 

[00:36:03] Alexis Grant: I like to listen to podcasts, when I'm driving, especially just yesterday I was listening to, I will teach you to be rich by Ramit Sethi. Love his stuff. His podcast is very good. 

[00:36:15] Della Kirkman: All right. Is that the one where he goes and speaks to families? 

[00:36:18] Alexis Grant: Yeah. He talks to couples who are navigating.

[00:36:20] So it's kind of like, like it's education, but then you know it's also entertainment. Cause you're like, oh, and how are these people functioning, you know, in their own relationship. It's almost like a drama, it's like really dramatic sometimes. 

[00:36:31] Della Kirkman: Yeah. I caught a little bit of his Amazon show, which I think follows a lot of the same premise.

[00:36:36] Okay. What is one thing on your professional bucket list?

[00:36:39] Alexis Grant: Honestly, I feel like I've crossed off like a lot of the things that matter to me. Like what my goal, one goal is to get this brand to a place where it's profitable. We're like just barely covering our expenses now, but have a long way to go in terms of having it bring in the revenue that I would like it to bring in and also having the impact that I would like it to have.

[00:37:00] So my main big goal right now is growth with the business. But I really just, I find myself like more and more why it's hard to answer this question is like, I don't think of my bucket list is like being strictly professional. It's like, what do I want to do with my family? And what adventures do I want to have my kids and my husband?

[00:37:20] And how do I build a business that supports our lifestyle every day. so I'd say like more of my goals are kind of around that than strictly professional.

[00:37:30] Della Kirkman: Share one of your family adventure bucket list items. 

[00:37:34] Alexis Grant: Well, I'd like to travel more now that my kids are a bit older, they're six and eight now.

[00:37:38] A couple of years ago, we moved to a mountain town in West Virginia. And we were able to do that because both my husband and I both work for ourselves. And like, our goal is always really to just, how can you create this life where we have full autonomy. And abundance of, whatever we need and ease.

[00:37:55] It's been a challenge, like juggling professional ambition with having kids to take care of. Especially since like, I feel like I tried to compare myself to many of the men that I see in the space who have someone at home. Who's like taking care of everything at home and like, I feel sometimes like those people have one job and I have two. And like, I just can't give as much of myself to my professional job when I have another job.

[00:38:23] But my husband and I have really found a balance that works for us. Like he also is ambitious at work, but does also care about our family. And we truly split that stuff and work on it together. So I'm like, so grateful for that. 

[00:38:35] Della Kirkman: I think you're very lucky in that arena. I've seen you post some.

[00:38:38] Alexis Grant: I really am.

[00:38:40] Yeah. But I mean, it took us a long time. Like we've worked really hard and also my husband knows how important that is to me. And so he's, he's made the effort to, we call him CLL. He's our chief laundry officer cause he does all the laundry. But like, it took us a while to figure out what is a balance that works for us.

[00:38:55] And it's like constantly having to recalibrate, right? Cause like whatever the solution you figure out one time, like it might not work the next week or the next year. But yeah, we're always just trying to get outside. The two of us took a little hike this morning together. That's how we moved to this place so that we could hike from our door, in the weekday, instead of having to go like on a weekend.

[00:39:13] And like being able to do that is always, that's always my goal. Is like, how can I work enough that I feel like I'm making progress, but not so much that I don't have time to be hiking and biking during the day. 

[00:39:26] Della Kirkman: Yeah. I completely resonate with that. I mean, one of the things that I did when my kids were little, they're grown now, but I would often them. I said, is mommy working too much or too little ?And, you know, do you need more of mommy right now?

[00:39:36] Are you good with the amount of mommy time you're getting? So, I mean, just ask them. Do you want more? Do you want less? 

[00:39:41] Alexis Grant: My kids would always say more. But I mean, they're my kids, are grew up, they were two and four on COVID. So they, for several years, they're used to being home with us all the time. So it's like a new, new world now.

[00:39:53] Della Kirkman: Whole new reality for them. All right. Last question then. What is the one thing that the audience and I can do to help you out, Alexis? 

[00:40:01] Alexis Grant: Oh, thank you for asking that. I mean, the biggest thing we want to do right now is grow our email list.

[00:40:05] So you can join at they got acquired. com slash newsletter. And if there's anyone you want to share that to forwarding it to a friend, showing it with their social network, that's really the biggest thing right now, is just tell people what we're building. 

[00:40:18] Della Kirkman: All right. Excellent. Well, you heard her people go and subscribe to the newsletter. Tell us the address one more time.

[00:40:23] Alexis Grant: They got acquired. com slash newsletter. 

[00:40:26] Della Kirkman: All right. Excellent. Thank you so much, Alexis. I really appreciate your time today and lots of insights that you've shared with us. Somebody go untie Ron in the back and give him his studio back and peace out.