About this episode

Matt Arsenault discusses strategies for acquiring companies that are not yet profitable and the complexities involved in valuation and negotiations.

Matt Arsenault, VP of Corporate Development & Strategic Alliances at Jamf Venture-backed companies are priced at their future state, not their current revenue. When growth stalls and another fundraising round stops making sense, the gap between VC valuation and what a strategic buyer will pay becomes the hardest conversation in any deal process. Matt Arsenault, VP of Corporate Development & Strategic Alliances at Jamf, has run this play across hundreds of targets. His work starts before the deal does, with the founder relationship, the cap table, and a clear-eyed conversation about risk tolerance that most corp dev teams never have. What You'll Learn Why a $25M offer today can beat a $125M VC exit three years out How AI is shrinking the moat of wrapper-product startups and changing target screening The seven stakeholder groups in any acquisition and why most founders miss them How liquidation preferences and cap table structure change the math behind any offer Why VC relationships matter as much as founder relationships before a deal starts How to structure deals for underwater targets without losing the team What entrepreneurs should know about VC terms before taking their first…

People in this episode

Host: Kison Patel

Guest: Matt Arsenault

Topics covered

• acquisition strategies
• venture capital
• company valuation
• corporate development
• risk management
• stakeholder engagement

Keywords

• acquisition
• venture capital
• company valuation
• stakeholders
• risk tolerance
• liquidation preferences
• cap table
• strategic buyer
• founder relationships

Sponsors

DealRoom

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Jamf, M&A Science

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