Buy Then Build

infrastructure that many startups are trying to build in the first place. should match their resources and talent to transitioning businesses to create significant Fortunately for you, Walker was not content with simply offering up generic advice. Instead, he provides detailed, step-by-step instructions on how to buy, then build your business. He compellingly makes the case that existing businesses offer an inherent advantage because they provide a profit-generating infrastructure, a pool of existing customers, an operational history, and experienced employees. Walker explains how to define your search and excel based on opportunity and discretionary earnings, rather than simply following the herd with business search tools that leave many would-be buyers never reaching success. He shares advice on how to navigate a deal, offers insight into what to expect from the seller, and even provides guidance on what your transition to CEO might look like. Walker is one of the most important influences on my professional life. Through the pages of this superb book, he will enlighten, delight, and inspire you. Buy, Then Build is a blueprint to constructing your own masterpiece, and you might even end up starring in a promotional video for it one day. Part 1 Opportunity No army can withstand the strength of an idea whose time has come. Victor Hugo Chapter 1 Don't Start a Business It's stead! John was the former director of product management for Microsoft Services and now acted as the CEO of our startup, Viewpoint. He was referring to our company. We're out of cash, the product isn't functional, and we don't have any paying customers. It's over! This wasn't my first startup, or even my first startup failure. I understood the risks. Indeed, after having a previous startup fail, I thought I had learned the variables that led to a successful launch. This time was going to be different. We not only had a great product in a fast-growing market, but an all-star team. Our largest investor was a former Fortune 500 CEO. Our own CEO had been the SharePoint consulting executive at Microsoft and worked with customers directly in our target market. Our team of proven, high-revenue generating developers had built successful enterprise software before, and one of our advisors was a CTO of a Fortune 500 company. The equity raise was oversubscribed, and within months of graduating from one of the top 10 startup accelerator programs in the world, we had beta trials inside many recognizable companies. We had all the hallmarks of success, but no actual success. Startups have an inherent flaw. They mostly fail. Even with overwhelming talent, outstanding early product trials, and an all-star team, success is still unlikely. We've all heard the statistic that one out of ten startups make it. It's not a secret. We all go in with two eyes open. It appeared that Viewpoint was no exception. The goal for entrepreneurs is to run and operate a successful business. The goal for investors is to make money by investing in a successful business. There's just one problem. The startup phase is a company killer. Data suggests that, at best, only half of all startups make it past this stage. Those that do often come out not looking like Uber, but more like a small business. As Vern Harnish, author of Scaling Up, observes, only 4% of all companies in the United States ever exceed $1 million in revenue. It's odd to me that, despite the interest in entrepreneurship, we really haven't engineered a better way to avoid the startup runway and build sustainability into startups from the beginning. When we drill down into the numbers on this level, we're left with the stark fact that somewhere well north of 99% of all startups either fail completely or never really amount to much, either financially or impactfully. What if there was a way to establish success from the beginning? An entrepreneurship hack, so to speak. A path that could bypass the startup phase altogether, so entrepreneurs could start operating a successful business as the chief executive officer from day one.