​Getting Your Startup Ready for the Upcoming Merger and Acquisition Trend

Fit into M&A deal flow

​​Getting acquired by the right partner is challenging enough, but if the market doesn’t know both your company and its story, or worse, if the market has the wrong story, a successful M&A process is virtually impossible. Thankfully, there are two tangible things you can do to improve your position. If you’ve avoided the process until now, it’s time to meet and get to know the three to five investment bankers who know your space cold, and participate in the active transaction flow in your industry. Introductory breakfasts and site visits to your office are a good start, followed by regular 60- to 90-minute check-in conversations. Beyond educating potential advisors, these discussions often yield valuable industry insights.  

When you look to hire an advisor, they will need to understand your company, your team and its strengths, and what you’re attempting to accomplish so they’re able to accurately articulate your story to a potential acquirer. This is an exercise in setting your plot line, and while you may never actually activate all these relationships, what you share with a potential financial advisor will likely inform the process later on. Who knows — they may be advising your perfect buyer. This is your opportunity to establish the narrative. A second non-traditional way to enter the M&A stream is through strategic board enhancements. People join boards for many reasons, but one of them is to leverage their networks. Adding board members who operate in adjacent categories or who have recently retired from larger players in your industry is one of the least expensive ways to expand your profile, gaining access to potential business or strategic partners.