The journey from $140M to a $1Bn Valuation and a stage 4 cancer victory

In this powerful episode, Marc Adams shares his remarkable journey from a stage 4 cancer diagnosis to a full recovery—and how that experience inspired him to rethink private equity. Now leading Acquisitions for You, Marc helps business owners double their company’s value and cash out tax-free—without debt, dilution, or outside capital.

With 40+ years in leadership, IPOs, and M&A, Marc discusses his “Double and Keep It” framework, raising over $350M to support non-traditional exits, and how PE firms can create more value by going deeper into operations. He also shares how a question from his 10-year-old son sparked a mission to help business owners keep more of what they’ve built.

⏱️ Timestamps

00:00 – Intro to Marc & his corporate background
01:27 – Life-changing cancer diagnosis during the pandemic
05:34 – A pivotal question from Marc’s son: “Who helps the business owners?”
07:01 – Miraculous recovery and new purpose
09:24 – Writing a bestselling book to help owners increase value
10:16 – The “Double and Keep It” framework explained
11:43 – $350M raised to support exits without debt or dilution
13:08 – How structuring right helps owners keep 70–90% post-sale
15:01 – Helping younger founders take chips off the table
18:52 – From $140M to $1B valuation: how it was done
22:09 – Case study: $0 to $950M in 18 months
23:36 – Why PE must engage with operating teams
25:26 – Reducing founder resistance and aligning incentives
27:49 – Leaving room for buyers’ value creation
30:09 – Example: $6B tech buyer building value via synergy
32:29 – When forced changes from PE go wrong
34:28 – Why personal brand and social media matter more than ever
37:21 – 19-year-old entrepreneur’s turnaround and success
40:38 – Helping overlooked businesses unlock true value
42:02 – How to connect with Marc and access his free resources

📘 Resources

• Contact Marc: marc@acquisitionsforyou.com
• Visit: acquisitionsforyou.com
• Free tools & book via Marc’s Linktree (shared in episode)

Raw Selection partners with Private Equity firms and their portfolio companies to secure exceptional executive talent. We focus on de-risking executive recruitment through meticulous search and selection processes, ensuring top-tier performance and long-term success.

🔗 Connect with Alex Rawlings on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexrawlings/
🌐 Visit Raw Selection: www.raw-selection.com

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Transcript

00:00
Welcome back to the Royal Selection Private Equity Podcast. Joining us today is Mark Adams, Chief Executive of Acquisitions for You.  Something a little bit different with regards to their strategy and their take on private equity and also a hell of a journey to inspire us all from stage four cancer to recovery.  Mark, if you can share a brief insight into you, please.  I'd love to, but first of all, thanks so much for having me on today. I really appreciate it. It's always a privilege to...

00:29
you know, chat with like-minded people.  And I just caveat with what I'm about to say is  this is all relevant as you will hear to my own experience and my journey. It doesn't mean that it's applicable to anyone else, but I hope there's some value that listeners might pick up from little bits of it here and there. But I kind of got into where I am now by accident and I've spent four decades, I'm 63. So in my corporate career, I've done four decades, oh my God, in sales, marketing, management.

00:59
leadership, taking companies from pre IPO through IPO, buying in companies and bolting them all and selling them out. Before I moved to the other side and then moved into the private equity arena.  it while I was there, it's sort of, if I take you back with me to the year of 2020,  as you will remember really, where we were all in the grip of that horrible bloody pandemic. And so we were in lockdown through that year.

01:27
And coming towards the end of 2020, it was  then that we got the opportunity to just step out in little group to fork. And if you remember, all the hospitals  around the world were just chock-a-block with everybody suffering from COVID. And what we were seeing in lockdown at home, you, me and our kids, was just the lead tables of how many deaths and how many new infections there were every single day. And we're all seeing that.

01:52
My kids were at home for them. was a year of Xbox because the schools weren't doing anything. So they were loving it. um, but for me, you know, I was still, we were all trying to do the best we can to run our businesses, but in this new area of running in from home. So as we started to go out in little groups of four in sort of November, December, I just took off to get, um,  um, an overdue medical things hadn't been quite right, but didn't know what was quite not right. And the actual of that, unfortunately, was I sat down with, um,

02:21
with my consultant, with a consultant. And luckily for me in the UK, I was going through the private route. So I was in a hospital just down the bottom of the hill from Windsor Castle. So picture Windsor Castle and the Queen or now the King. And I'm in the hospital in Windsor. And  I walk into this, into this room and  my consultant, who's also called Mark,  sat on one side of the desk, white coat, half room spectacles, balding. You won't thank me for saying that.

02:50
always accolades down one side of his office and the view out through these lovely windows into this privileged view of  the Windsor Hospital car park, you know, which is you'd hope for a man of his 30 years of experience, he'd get a better view, but that's what he's got. And he's perfectly happy. But as I sat down behind the desk, I'm looking for the results of the tests they've just done.  And so there was a prolonged silence, which is never good news.  And so  he opens up with Mark, I'm really sorry, but

03:19
the results we've got indicate that you've got stage four cancer. And we,  there was a bit more dialogue, but basically I had six months to live. So your mind, if you've ever been in that position and I hope that no one ever has, computes really fast. It's like, how do I beat it? Because your survival mode kicks in. And to cut a long story short,  we agreed that if we could find space, given COVID had taken all the spaces,

03:45
that they take out the primary, but there was no guarantee I'd get any more life because the PET scans had showed that I'd got secondaries in a lot of other places. Now PET scans could be false positives, but not with that many was the opinion of the time. So in January, 2021, we're just getting to the point where vaccines are being announced, but they're not in. the of 21, they were beginning to come in, end of January 21, they were beginning to come in for key workers, hospital staff, and so on and so forth.

04:13
So I go into a London hospital to have the cancer removed, but sadly while I was there, I picked up the original strain of COVID. So fast forward a little bit, I'm now back at home  in our family bedroom, a big white bedroom with a black wrought iron bed in the middle and a black TV on the wall and a beautiful view over rolling hills to the right, a dressing area to the left and a door over in the corner.

04:38
And now I've got recovery from major cancer surgery and I've got the original strain of COVID as well. So at that point, not to remind people, but we were all going through 28 days. We didn't know whether we were going to make it or not make it, but 28 days was the cycle. And you'd roughly know where you were going in the first seven to 11 days. And that's, that was my world at that point. But every morning at seven or ish when my 10 year old then Thomas would wake up, he'd open the door, his head in and just see how dad was doing. But he'd it at 11.

05:08
and at lunchtime and at three or four in the afternoon, because we do high tea in the UK, of course, right? And then at tea time,  it would be the same thing. And although he had a year off of school, pretty much, and they didn't do much and he's got Xbox going on, he's trying to teach me all of that stuff.  And it's pretty apparent to him that while I'm recovering that I'm not very, very good with Xbox and he's repeating and repeating and repeating and that's getting boring for him. But on the Thursday,

05:34
Afternoon he popped in to say how it was and I was on the phone to the states looking at a business that we were trying to buy but it was going to be too expensive and sadly in the SME sector, let's call that 75 millionish in revenue or less, so many companies get priced at a point where they won't get bought and there's very good reason for that which we can go into another time. So we were talking about that and I just happened to mention and drop a statistic of eight or nine out of ten of them that get sold and he just asked, so what happens to them?

06:03
And I said, well, they stay there and all the people that own those businesses have to keep working in them into their retirement years. Because I was thinking about the baby boomers on that day because they can't get the price they need.  so he said, so if that money don't sell, what happens  if their moms and dads get COVID  and  they die? Who's going to look after their families? Which kind of stumped me. And let's just reflect on that just just for a minute.

06:33
You know, what happens to those owners, their mums and dads if they get COVID and die? Who's going to look after their families? And a 10 year old said that to me and I had no answer, none at all. Now at the time I wasn't focused on an answer. I was focused on my own challenges, but 10 year olds don't forget. So if you roll forward  three months or you've rolled forward six, eight weeks, not three months,  he's continually asking me what happens, what happens, what happens. And  I'm back.

07:01
with my consultant getting, you know, just understanding where I was after the operation and walk back in the same room, sit at the same desk with the same view. And it was the same drizzly day. But Mark said, we've got good news and bad news, to which I said, OK, let's take the good news, because I'd had enough bad news over the last three months. And  he said, the good news is we can't find any of the secondaries. And my immediate thing was, OK, that's really good news. What does that mean?

07:28
given that you've got bad news. So I went, well, what's the bad news? He said, well, the bad news is we got no idea why. And that wasn't bad news for me. That was bad news for Mark's ego, to be fair, but that wasn't bad news for me. So I said, well, I'll take that because that's good news for me. And I went,  but why do you, you know, how we got into that sort of position? Because I wondered, did I, did I have it? Did I have cancer? And they got the pathology report and absolutely I did. But.

07:56
When I was trying to find out why they thought that he didn't know,  I said, well, give me a guess. And he said, we  now around that time, April 21, there were about a dozen cases around the world being reported in medical journals, the kind of journals that the professionals see, but we don't of people that had a late stage cancer diagnosis and not much chance of survival stage four,  getting the original strain of COVID and they'd survived COVID. But more importantly, they had no sign of the cancer anymore and nobody really understood why.

08:26
and they reckoned that COVID had something to do with it. Subsequently, they think that  I was in pretty good shape when I went in. I was healthy. I was uh not that overweight. I was in gym on a regular basis and I ate the right kind of things. And they think that my immune system, because it was in decent shape, just fought like crazy.  it's not gonna, the immune system's not smart enough to say, I'll deal with the cold and not the flu. It just blitzes everything. And it turns out that for most of us, the immune system is one of the...

08:54
most amazing things that we have to deal with bad things happening and in some cases many forms of secondary cancers. Now I say this to you but I can't prove it and I'm not exactly willing Alex to go back and say give me the cancer and the the COVID again let's run that see if we can do it again I'm you know you're never going to be able to prove that but I'm blessed and privileged and lucky to sort of be here. Now the point of that is that my son is still saying to me what am I doing to help the eight out of ten they need help.

09:24
And that's why I wrote a book which is called The Secrets to 10Xing Your Business and Cashing Out Tax Free. Because in that book there are just 12 chapters that don't include AI. The sort of  couple of chapters for most businesses is all they need to see some improvement in some of the things they're doing inside the business to get more profit and value. And that's what I wanted to do to help people. The book has subsequently become a category bestseller.

09:48
And most recently, as you can see for those people that watching, has appeared at the  billboards at  Times Square, the NASDAQ billboards, which I'm honored and privileged to have happened, wasn't expected or planned. But it changed me from the private equity lens that I had at the time,  much more to sort of what can I do to help businesses get more of what they, know, of their life's work and keep more when they sell. So it's led  on to developing something that we call

10:16
the double and keep it framework. And the double and keep it framework is where we're working with clients to help them double the value of a business in 12 months or less without them having to use any of their own capital, without them having to take on capital from the outside and take some equity dilution, which is the traditional private equity or VC model,  without them having to borrow money from bank or alternative lenders, which they're not necessarily in a position to debt service.

10:46
Now, what do I mean by that? One of our clients is  200 million in top line revenue. They only make six million. And if they wanted to sell, they wouldn't be attractive because their profit is so low compared to their revenue. So private equity is not that keen.  Lenders would lend money if they've got assets to lend against. But what we've been able to do with the Double and Keep It framework is we were lucky enough  to  start.

11:14
to be introduced to a couple of family offices who understood more of what we were trying to do and have come behind us with support with 22 billion between them. And that's more equity based funding. And they're more interested in maybe  acquiring groups that we're working with.  But with the debt funding that we've recently raised and there's been a bunch of press releases talking about 350 million that's been raised in recent weeks. And there's another one coming out today.  That allows us to  use the equity  and cash that we got available,  not

11:43
to dilute an owner's position or not to put debt in their business, but to bring other companies into a group so that we can have a much bigger group. And that makes a much more attractive proposition to a purchaser. And then that purchaser can buy a bigger group. Now, it costs more money for that purchaser to buy that group, but a much bigger group that's worth much more money means there's so much more money that goes back into the pockets of the business owners without them having to take dilution.

12:10
or without them having to take on debt. So what they need to do is keep focusing on making the business as profitable as they can and investing their EBITDA back into growth organically to help support what we're doing externally. So we kind of gravitated towards this accidentally, but I think some of the things I've seen along the way.  what we're doing Alex, I say in the model that we're using is  very unusual.  going to be maybe controversial and I'm going to say to you it's unique.

12:39
I don't know of any other investment firm that's doing it this way because it's too risky for them. But we're very blessed to be sort of supported by the right capital that's allowing us to do this because of the way in which we're doing it. And some of that is proprietary and obviously I wouldn't go into that. But it would really unlock in value and we can get this done in one to two years. If we're doubling the value, we can do that in a year. If we are help, the other challenge that an owner's got is 93 % of business owners, Alex, when they come to sell a business.

13:08
will lose 30 to 50 percent in the sticker price of that business and all the fees that they end up having to pay out to professionals like accountants and lawyers and  so on and so forth. And that does include the tax. Let's not forget that. So and that variation of 30 to 50 percent depends on where you are in the world. You know, if you're in the UK with Rachel Reeves, you'll probably get a blended 28 to 35 percent. You know, you're going to lose in the sticker price.  If you are in the US, New York or California, it'll be up to 50 percent.

13:35
So if we've got a bit more time, though we can double the value in a year with more time, we can also help structure so that they can keep more. So what does that mean? It means that if you're a business that's worth 10 million and you do nothing and you're in California, you might end up keeping five to five and a half after all your fees and taxes have been paid. If you're in the UK, you might keep seven, maybe seven and a half after your fees and taxes. Maybe six and a half to seven is what you're likely to keep. Might be a bit more.

14:03
Might be bit less but that kind of blended right so if we're able to double the value So that you're 18 19 20 and not 10 Then you know you'd still lose if you did nothing else those that fee leakage of between 30 and 50 percent But if we could help you with that as well you may find yourself in a position where you're keeping you know 14 15 of That in in somewhere between one two years, and that's huge now. It doesn't work for everybody

14:32
not a one size fits all, rush everybody, you can all do this. There are individual circumstances and things to consider with each company. So we have to look at them individually and figure out whether we can do it. And we're not greedy. In the way that we work, we keep very low monthly retainer fees to get this done and we gear our rewards to the success of the clients. If we get them a result, we do well as well. But if we don't, then we've not gone very well for them. We don't do well ourselves. But it's really open to a dynamic.

15:01
For all of those people that are not internet entrepreneurs, that are not  digital kings and category kings, that are not making millions a month  at the age of 18, what about all those people that are baby boomers that are going to retire, that can't retire because they're in enough? We've really solved a problem for those. And this is available and can be used and deployed in any non-sanctioned jurisdiction. So that means North America, US, Canada. That means um South America. It means Europe.

15:31
I'm going to say UK because we're not, you know, because of Brexit, but I still think UK is Europe, but UK Europe.  Some parts of Southeast Asia. If it's a sanctioned jurisdiction, Russia, we can't do anything, you know, and other places like that, as you would expect.  But, you know, and so with this, we're continuing to raise capital all the time  so that we can help all those companies that maybe private equity doesn't want to or can't help.  And bank lending or alternative lending can't help. And banks traditionally

16:00
are probably going forward, we predict going to lend less. So alternative credit  lending will grow even more, I believe. That's just my personal view. Now, what we're doing here is based on a personal journey, It's not something that you could plan. I certainly didn't plan it.  I want to be able to say, oh, yeah, I'm a private equity guru and I thought of all this and it's brilliant. It didn't happen like that. It started with the trying to fulfill a profit promise.

16:29
to  a 10 year old. And now that 10 year old's nearly 15 and demanding royalties because he's mentioned in the book and he's really keen in business and has taken this to heart and wants to actually get involved. And this is applicable to people of lots of ages, of course, baby boomers. But what I'm finding also,  having recently embarked on becoming a little bit better known and starting to do a lot more on YouTube and TikTok and places like that, is you've got young people like you, Aled, somebody in their early  30s that maybe is married with young kids.

16:58
and they're working really hard and mortgages are expensive and the cost of living is expensive and they're running a really good business. So some of those guys actually just want to take some money off the table,  some equity off the table, not everything. So they want to bring in a partner, but they just want to get the mortgage down a bit. They just want to get the school fees covered a bit because the cost of living is on through the roof just to take the pressure off. So there's that group of people that are really  interested in this as well.

17:24
In fact, the youngest two people that we're working with are 19 and 24 years old because what they're doing is building their future  more around the creator economy to get to a point in the mid-20s where they want to have made enough money to pay for the house they don't even own and pay for the school fees they haven't got. They haven't even got a girlfriend, either one of them. So, but therefore we're thinking because what they want to do is get to that point and then their plan is to come back and help lots of other businesses through that same circle.

17:53
so that they are then in a position to take a smaller piece of what those other companies are doing but still do very well with it, which is basically our model. They're going to take our model and deploy it. So I've been amazed and surprised at the different kinds of people that we can help and  it's evolved over time and I'm honoured and privileged to even be on the show talking to you, my friend. That was a lot more than you asked for when you said give me an introduction, I didn't bore anybody. Yeah, it's all good. So, to interrupt, just a quick mention of a long-standing partnership with Grata.

18:23
As you all probably know, the private equity scene is constantly evolving and deal flow is moving now to proprietary and data-driven processes. Grata provides you with the data and information of over 7 million private companies. So if you're looking to improve your proprietary deal flow and improve the data access, then reach out to Grata today. Now back to the podcast. So let's dive into the, something we spoke off before we went live with the business, the

18:52
You've grown on valuation 140 million to one billion in valuation. What are the kind of key levels that you did in order to to unlock that  valuation growth? Yeah, it's so it's because of the audience, because we're talking a lot to people that are in private equity. There's a couple of things here that I that I would say have been very similar themes to. 99 % of businesses I look at, and that is  in. So when you look at a billion dollar valuation, you got to.

19:21
You then say, know, what sector are you in? This was a technology software play. So the multiples are really high.  And then when you roll back to the multiples, what you're looking at is how do you drive revenue and profitability? So what we found in that particular business  is that when I went in there as a consultant, I wasn't a mentor then, I was a consultant. There had been  several VPs that had gone before me that hadn't been able to move the needle. So the first thing was to figure out

19:49
what are we doing that needs to be done differently? And what we found were one or two key plays where we could double down and get very focused from a sales and marketing point of view that would extend and that would, in this case, multiply the value proposition of the value of the sale by 100 or more nearly every time. And we doubled down and focused on doing that and  only that.

20:15
which is why within three years we were able to go uh from 140 million in value to over a billion in value. And just focus, now in that scenario, that had another,  I would have said at the time three years to run, in reality that  had another 18 months to run. When you look back, you can see how the other  things were happening around it that I wasn't aware of. But market dynamics then step in to change things as they do with most markets. But a core theme of  how I've looked at it is,

20:44
What can you do in today's world? might say that what they had was a low value proposition at the time. How could you take that low value proposition without incurring a whole lot of cost only by repositioning  what you were offering and the way you're offering it in the marketplace  and turn it into a high value proposition and how would you get behind it with the existing sales and partnership team that you had to exponentially push  your sales forward without the internet?

21:14
Today in the digital economy, everybody understands how creators can do that.  And so today's analogy would be you have a product or you have a skill set and expertise in the digital economy. You turn that into a low ticket item, a book,  a  low value course,  a PDF, and you're leading that to a high ticket sale, which is one-to-one consultancy.  Using that similar model, which many private equity people are listening to,

21:41
to your show would be familiar with and you go back to when we didn't have that, it's a similar concept. How do you take a product that's fairly low value, especially at volume and turn it into a very high ticket item, push it out with the marketing resources you've got without spending extra money and ramp the sales through the bloody roof. That's exactly what we did.  that's a common theme to other valuation  10X jumps that I've done. So there's another one of zero to 950 million.

22:09
in value in 18 months, so in half the time for Thomson Reuters. And so that was taking a theme. And the zero was because that particular one was even more interesting because it was done from the UK into Southeast Asia without a team, without a budget. And I was traveling in fact, but it was in forwards every week. So there was a lot of air miles being ranked up for sure. you then got to take, so that was an established proposition in one area.

22:38
uh in this case the European and  American segments and repackaging that for the Southeast Asia segment so you could take that piece of the business and ramp it to those valuations. But you've got to change the dynamics so that you don't sell in the same way in Southeast Asia or package or market in the same way in Southeast Asia for this kind of product as you do in the European geography or the American geography and they've got subtle differences between them as well. And that was the same thing, it was taking a low value package and turning it into a high value proposition.

23:07
And to do that, you've got to understand a lot more of the market dynamics of  what the value proposition is, what and why, so that you can see what your clients are willing to spend. And most times what I'm finding when I'm deep into a company is they miss that piece.  So my message to answer that question that you've asked me, without giving away the crown jewels for those particular companies, because that's not fair on them, but to private equity is to say, oftentimes when I've been working with private equity, but from the other side, before I got involved in private equity.

23:36
I find the relationship between private equity and the people on the ground hasn't really been there. And private equity could add an awful lot of value because if they just remember that one thing, take the value proposition you've got and explore how you can make that a high ticket item, a much higher ticket value. You will dynamically change the revenue and profitability curve by doing that. But private equity need to go deeper into the business and form genuine relationships with the people in the business to do that.

24:04
uh because  traditionally they just don't. It just doesn't happen. VC the same. They stop at the board level, but they've got the reach, they've got the understanding and the market and dynamics of what works, but what they miss by not getting to know the operational leadership teams  is the quality of that bench. They rely on the leadership team and the management team of the companies they've invested in to have the right quality of bench. And I think in today's world, they've to get a bit deeper and add a bit more value.

24:32
to secure their investments and multiply them. That one thing, if private equity did it, I think would make a massive difference to their seven year typical journey of enhancing and multiplying shareholder value before they sell it out. So in answering your question, the thing I would throw back, hopefully for some private equity people to consider, because it doesn't work for everybody, it's worked for me. It's worked for me all my life, but it doesn't mean it will work for anyone else, is to maybe consider that because I think it would really, based on only my experience,

25:02
give them a significant leg up, secure many of the investments. It won't always work, but then they can take other measures to see how they're going to deal with that. they're in a phase of the market which is cashing out and it's just unimally changing, then that will give them other messages as well. If anybody wants to hear up more on that, they can reach out to me. I'll give you my details so people can reach out to me if they want to.  Just on that, because when you look at...

25:26
Probably on business founder owned, cetera. Typically there's a lot of pushback when private equity made the acquisitions, they want to bring in changes. They want to change,  you know, the business model pricing and  creating that, know, irresistible offers right through to your  high ticket items, as you'd mentioned.  Did you have to do much with regards to change of personnel and people? And  if not, how did you kind of encourage the prior founder owner?

25:55
uh to make those kind of changes and obviously which brought those kinds of results. Yeah. So, so  going back to the two case histories that we were just talking about, um the whole concept of value creation and the higher ticket value propositions was much more of a traditional sales to client B2B environment. And that whole model has changed and people have become much better educated today. But you know,

26:22
But that's the reality of how things have moved forward. Now to bring it back into what you're asking.  A lot of what. So there's always resistance to change. So one of the things from a private equity perspective that you're doing when you're investing is going through that change and you're really sensitive if you're a good PE to not losing the high value players that you've got in the business and not losing any of the players for at least a year because.

26:51
What you can't measure, you can do all the pitch decks that you like. You can do all the due diligence that you want, but it's very difficult to get in the heads and understand all the soft skills of people that are in that business. And if you start losing those soft skills because you go in and you act like a dickhead, then you're running that, you you're minimizing or you're maximizing the opportunity for that investment to screw over. And we've all heard the stories of how that happens. So my  own  process, which is not

27:20
without problems is to try and keep as many people on board as you possibly can. But then try and position value  add, not take over and you will do it like this. Because it's a partnership in my view. And if you lose the people, you've lost the business. Businesses are not businesses, it's people that make businesses. This is just my view. But it's based on my experience of 40 years, it doesn't mean it's anyone else's. And there's lots of other ways of doing it. So now in what we're doing in the approach I'm taking it now,

27:49
actually I've taken a lot of the risk out. So let's just go through that.  Because we're not putting the money into the business, but we're building a bigger group and we're investing in other areas,  then the need for PG's is gone. But I've got to keep, but,  I'm create, I'm encouraging that current leader. Let's  be realistic. If I've got a business that's making a decent profit, however inefficient it is, it's still doing a good job. So.

28:18
There is an argument that I like to say, look, with the future buyer of that business coming in  partnership with the business they're buying, there's an awful lot left for them in the business  to improve upon if you disturb the business as little as you possibly can. So my preferred method is not to disturb the business, but to enhance.

28:42
but to enable it to keep going and keep delivering the at least a profit that it has been delivering, but ideally enable it to deliver more organically using the skills and expertise that it's got while I work outside the business to grow the value exponentially in other ways that the business can't. And so that means I've got to keep the people in. I've got to keep everybody sweet and incentivized and just keep doing what you're doing while we are growing a bigger group around you. And then the bigger group gets sold. Now 50 % of the time,

29:12
A buyer won't want you to package it up and streamline it and be make it hyper efficient. They just won't because they will want to do that themselves because it's actually part of their value creation and justification piece. But 50 % of the time they do want that and you don't know. And so some of the biggest, so we've got  a very significant tech company, can't mention their name. They've got 6 billion of cash. They say Paranum. I don't know if I believe that, but that's what they said.

29:42
to deploy into acquisitions. So they're doing acquisitions at a scale where they can't assimilate all the companies that they're buying in the way that they want them because  they realize that it will destroy all of them. So what they're doing is trying to create synergies in the ecosystem that they're and continue to buy so that they can enhance those companies because what they've got is massive distribution all over the world. So they're constantly bringing stuff in to...

30:09
deploy it through that ecosystem to offer their global enterprise clients more value. And in often the case, they'll make an acquisition that acquisitions pay for itself in a quarter because they're focused on making sure that what they bought, they keep those people happy. And they're much more nimble about flexing what they do to suit the acquisition they've made rather than forcing the acquisition they've made to flex and fit them. And in that way, everybody feels that they're adding value and they feel good about themselves. And it doesn't always work, but that ethos is a massive shift.

30:39
And that's why they're doing as well as they're doing, know, and  but not everybody's like that So I kind of gravitate towards people that people and if you look after people don't look after you if you create value from people that create value for you now the other extreme  One company in our portfolio does have private equity sitting behind it and for the first year They did nothing and for the last two years they've been force fitting what it is that they want  Into that business now. There is some good stuff in there. They've got better financial metrics

31:07
They're running the business in a way now where they they can't take on particular projects unless it meets particular profiles of profitability and operational cash flow input  And so those things are good and it changes the style of relationship they can have with the clients they've got but they have also brought in some  HR and legal and financial process and people stuff, which is just doesn't take into account

31:34
or value the relationship they've got with some of their employees  or some of the partners of that business that have been important in getting them from where they were to where they are. And that's really biting them in the ass at the moment. One of them's going through a significant legal case that they're about to lose. So it's a very individual thing and nothing I say will change anything that everybody does because they're working in a bigger ecosystem. But it doesn't always work. People are people. You're going to get some that are really easy to work with and some that are really difficult.

32:01
they're really difficult and resistive, yeah, you've got to do things about that. But  most of the time we've been really lucky to find a common goal and find the things that turn on those individuals and motivate those individuals to want to do more.  when you, know, it's not as hard as you think, but you'd be surprised at how many people just, we bought you, we're going to do what we're going to do, right? You must see it all the time. Yeah, of course, of course. What do you read, watch?

32:29
listen to the recommend others to check out Mark. Yeah. So it's changed a lot. when I  went the around the time that I had the cancer thing, I realized what an idiot I am because I was uh running a business that is not a big business. It's worth five to eight million. And all of a sudden I got 30 days to live. Maybe. Right. Obviously I've survived.  And in that scenario, I've been preaching private equity and realized that nobody's going to buy a business where I was the figurehead of the business. And it started opening me up to uh

32:58
doing things in a very different way, which I've now accomplished. But it started opening me up to at that point, I was reading 60, 17 books a year. But my way of consuming knowledge now has changed an awful lot. So I would say to a lot of people, YouTube is your biggest and best educator. Now, there's a lot of shit on YouTube. We know all that. But if you want to get really cool, if you if you can find in your niche, the 800 pound gorillas of that niche that are the successes.

33:29
Turn yourself on. You know, I go to the gym every morning and in that hour that I'm in the gym, I'm exercising, but I'm also listening to podcasts and YouTube videos from the people that are proven successes because they're like individual mentors to me personally telling me what's going on in their business right now that I don't have to pay for. So  I would  take on board as many of those people as you possibly can and they'll be different according to the market that you're in.  So that's YouTube and podcasts.

33:58
Now, if you want to learn new things to enhance your business and what's going well, anybody that's not doing social media now  or  really  should start to get over themselves and get to grips with it because  really you could look at it and say, I'm frightened of the camera, but you could also look at it and say  all the channels that you've got, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, not Twitter, sorry, X, showing my age,  they're free distribution.

34:28
free distribution. Now, yeah, you've got to get your message right and you've got to find something that's of interest to people. But  one of the things I think that's really important going forward is that increasingly everyone out there is buying into the personal brand. You, Alex, is a personal brand, me as a personal brand, much more than the companies that are behind us. So  I would encourage people to focus a lot on seeing how that works and get an education on it, watch what other people and get started.

34:57
No one's going to watch what you put out in the first hundred that you do. Nobody will care. But you will learn how to get better. And if you get started, you can pivot and adjust. Too many people wait to get perfect before they do anything and then they don't do anything. So I definitely do that. For me,  reading a book physically is torturous. Audible is brilliant. So subscribe to Audible. Pick the books that are in your niche that interest you, whatever they are.

35:24
and just consume them, just listen to them on one time, 1.25 times is about right for me. Some people can do as much as two and listen to them. And remember, you're going to retain 15 % max of whatever it is you listen to. So when you've listened, give it a break, come back and listen again. Those three things are just, are going to take the blinkers off because actually I thought that I knew everything about what was between the blinkers and that you weren't going to teach me anything. I was an expert in what I did.

35:54
and I realized I knew nothing. And ever since then, I've been a grateful student of what I do and I'm appreciative of any new tips and tricks and knowledge that I can get along the way from everybody. Because  you shouldn't be,  you know,  don't judge a book by the cover. Everybody's got something interesting to share, but if you want to focus in on it, your YouTubes, your um social media channels, Instagram's a brilliant one. So if you want to find out a little bit more about how to do something,

36:24
Go and search that thing up on Instagram and see who the people are that have got the most views that are doing it already and watch what they do because it will just shortcut by three, six, nine months all the pain you'll go through of trying to do it yourself if you stay the course, right? So those are things that I would say today to anybody, whether you're private equity, venture capital, a business owner, a would-be business owner, somebody that's retired, there is something out there that will help you improve and move an awful lot quicker and...

36:51
I think I've gravitated to just reading a book to actually listening to the people that are doing it very successfully. And that probably reflects why university education and university applicants outside of the classics, doctors, nurses, historians, people like that, em their applications are down because YouTube and other social media channels where you can learn so much more from people on the fly that's genuine and real and proven is where people are picking up stuff really, really fast.

37:21
So this 19 year old I was telling you about, um he's quite an interesting character as well as wanting to take some chips off the table. And I don't even know why I'm saying this quietly because I'm here on my own, but move into the microphone listeners, because this is gold. I've got a 19 year old that I'm working with and at 15, he was doing drugs and he was that close to the police taking him down.  Luckily.

37:49
And his parents didn't know what to do. His parents didn't know where to go and get help because there wasn't any help. And when I say doing drugs, he wasn't doing hard drugs like cocaine, he was doing weed, but it was leading in that direction. know, weed and I think they call it skunk and all sorts of stuff like that. And the police were visiting his parents every week. They were on first name terms.  And  what happened was...

38:15
He got pulled in by the police and it was very clear that it was his last chance saloon. The next one would have been on his record, which means he couldn't travel to places like America or do anything else. He was just about to screw his career. 15 years old. It was coming up to that summer uh vacation period. And so his dad had said, we're going away. So they got out of the country for that three months of the summer, the July, the August and the September.

38:43
And while he was away, the people that were supplying him, turned out, got pulled by the police and taken out. In other words, not taken out in bang bang, but taken out, prosecuted, and are now doing jail time. So his access had gone. And don't get me wrong, his parents had him in lockdown, but kids of kids, you know, can't lock them down in the 1 % of time that you weren't looking, they got something. And so fast forward, that trip away opened his eyes up to what, not them, but now what...

39:11
what a different life it would have been. And that 19 year old now is beginning to write a book. And he's writing a book, not because he wants to share with other 15 year olds how cool it is to be  going down the path of drugs or how stupid it would be for them, whatever it is he's going to put in it. He wants to share his journey with other parents uh of 15 year olds that are going through the same thing, because it seems to be a bit of a rite of passage for many of them, because the parents don't know where to get help.  And he's just...

39:40
putting that out there, not because he wants to become a millionaire, but because  it maybe creates enough cash along with some videos it will start to produce. Not for his cohort of friends, but for the parents of those people to just maybe give them one tip or insight that might help them with the struggle of their kids. What a turnaround. What a turnaround. Now that will lead to,  that's led him into other things in the digital economy and that kid  has come around and has passed all his exams.

40:08
and decided not to go to  university and he's now working with a really established uh firm as a setter in the digital economy. You'll know what that is. He's 19, he's making 12 grand a month. So, you you just don't know where things are going to go, but if you keep moving in the right direction, good things start opening up and happening for you. And I've lost the thread of why we got into that subject, Alex. I can't remember what have we got onto that one. And even if that's interesting, but...

40:38
It's amazing to me how I'm able to be part of something and maybe help in a very tiny way, something that I never ever imagined would be part of it. But the main thing for us is, you know, is helping  those business owners that have been in business for quite some time that deserve to keep more, that deserve to get more, find a way of doing it. And we've found a way of doing it. And it's an unusual way of doing it. It's something that private equity can't really do in the businesses we're looking at and banks don't want to do.

41:07
in the businesses that we're looking at. But you know, because they're good businesses, but they've got nowhere to go. So they're to be working in those businesses for a long time. But it's opened up a lot of other opportunities for us that we can work with a of other areas. So we're privileged and blessed. And if anybody wants to know more about it, then they can just reach out to me. I'll give you the details. So you can put it in the show notes if you want to. And if anybody wants to grab a copy of the book, they can. We make no money on the book. We make about 15 cents a copy and we give that to charity.

41:34
But if people wanted to get it, they could. But if they didn't want to do that, they just wanted to get a free copy where they can get a weekly drop on a PDF, an audible format for free.  I'll make all that stuff available to if they want to hear about that. How best does anybody get in touch with you, Mark, if they wish to do so? Yeah, so they can reach out to me at mark, M-A-R-C, at acquisitionsforyou.com. So that's acquisitionsfigure4-Y-O-U.com.

42:02
Just drop me a note there and it will hit me.  Or I'll send you a link tree and they can, if you put that link tree link up, they can click on that and then there's a whole bunch of ways that people can reach me. They can, what's that need? They can give me a call or whatever, know, but they'll come through to me as well because,  you know, there's not, I'm not inundated with thousands and thousands of people per podcast that I'm on. There's  somewhere between 15 and 35 people that just want to follow up with a quick chat and I'm happy to help wherever I can.

42:28
I've just asked people to give me a little bit of time to come back to them. It might be a day before I get back to them,  more than happy to help people move in the right direction. All I'm going to ask them to do is if it helps them, pay it forward and help someone else. Perfect. Well, thank you very much for coming onto the podcast, Mark. Thank you for having me, man. It's been a real privilege for me and I hope it's of adding some value for your listeners. Absolutely. Until the next time, keep smashing it and thank you very much for listening.