Buying & Selling a Business w/ Jim Suprenant

People Business w/ O'Brien McMahon

Jim Suprenant is the Senior Managing Partner at Guggenheim Partners. A career investment banker, Jim joins the show to discuss the ins and outs of buying and selling businesses.

Mentioned in this Episode:

• Guggenheim Partners: https://www.guggenheimpartners.com/
• Go Big or Go Home (book): https://www.amazon.com/Go-Big-Home-Customer-Experience/dp/1544536364

Time Codes

(1:48) - Welcoming Jim.
(2:12) - What is an investment banker?
(6:41) - If I want to sell my business where would I go to find buyers?
(10:34) - How do I think about pricing my company?
(13:01) - What is an example of constraints an investor would put in to make it harder to turn a profit?
(14:21) - How much does the people side of a business weigh into what the price will be for that business?
(18:19) - How should sellers think about cutting as much from the business as they can and how do buyers vet to make sure the business they’re buying hasn’t just been gutted?
(22:01) - How many companies understand this before you work with them and how many default to a scarcity mindset?
(33:02) - How do you manage the human side of a transaction?
(35:10) - How do you evaluate a leadership team?
(38:21) - How can HR become stronger in these transactions?
(39:55) - How often do you see HR having a prominent seat at the table?
(42:40) - What are the best practices for making sure from that date forward you have the best odds for success?
(48:45) - What are the things that kill deals right at the end?
(51:22) - Do you see management teams when they’re closer to the finish line manage their business ‘not to lose’?
(52:59) - What are you sick of talking about?
(53:40) - What are you hoping to hear more talk about?
(56:18) - What is the purpose of business?