Program Archives

COVID-19 did more than distort valuations, it shifted buyer/seller priorities within deal terms and normal course due diligence activities.  Opportunities exist, of course, and in this session you’ll hear from two CEOs who managed to close strategic tuck-in acquisitions during the pandemic, while navigating and protecting their new-found asset after the deals closed.   

You’ll hear:    

• How these deals were progressing before and after the pandemic     
• How these acquisitions are impacting perceived valuations for the acquirers    
• Stories about post-merger integration and challenges so that you can prioritize buyside strategies and protect the value of your new asset    
• About culture navigation in a remote-office world

So…. you need cash for growth, or share currency to make acquisitions down the road – but you want to maintain control. How does a Reverse Takeover work?  What considerations or qualifications should you take into account? Is it achievable in a ‘Covid’ reality?       

This session will explore first-hand what steps owners took on their road to RTO and share their reflections now that they are on the other side.       

You will learn:       

• How a reverse takeover works and the keys to preparing for it    
• Why a reverse takeover might be the best (or worst) option for your business and how to make this decision    
• Lessons (and mistakes) from those who’ve chosen this option

In every acquisition, there are a number of key terms (including price but much more) that are at stake. As a seller, your bargaining power diminishes when you go “exclusive” with a prospective buyer – hence it is important for you to be well prepared and know in advance what are your desired outcomes on a number of fronts. This session will explore if the current climate can actually help you to gain leverage in the negotiation process.       

You will learn:    

• What “market” is for terms these days and how deal terms have changed during COVID    Considerations if you’re pursuing a sale and running out of cash     
• How to maximize leverage and bargaining power while you have it    
• Common terms included in transaction structures    
• Do terms correlate to the type of tech company? (eg: services companies vs software companies vs MSPs, etc)    
• Earn-outs – how to make them more favourable

So….someone wants to acquire your company, and you’ve signed an LOI – now what? Will uncertainty in the market slow the process down (or speed it up?)  Negotiating the sale of your business requires providing unfettered access to some of the most confidential aspects of your business – sharing that information can be scary.    

As a seller, what will buyers be looking for in a post-pandemic world? How can you prepare?  The challenges that are inevitable to this phase must be carefully navigated to avoid the collapse of the deal.    

You Will Learn:       

• Why so many acquisitions fail during the due diligence phase    
• Areas that buyers will focus on that you may not have thought about    
• Negotiation tactics used by savvy buyers and their acquisition teams    
• Tactics to avoid major post-sale surprises.

This candid discussion features conference MC Robert Antoniades with three entrepreneurs that achieved tremendous success in their exits.  You’ll hear their behind-the-scenes learnings on what worked, what didn’t and what they would do differently if they went through their acquisitions again.

Watch out! Canadian technology companies are becoming more and more acquisitive. Including FinTech startup PureFacts Financial Solutions, which closed a $37 million strategic financing round to pursue more acquisitions to fuel their growth. Purefacts acquired K2 Digital in 2017, Electric Brain Software Corporation in 2019, and most recently acquired CRM consulting firm, VennScience and Quartal Financial Solutions, Europe’s leading provider of fee billing and commission solutions for the financial and insurance industries in 2020. And they have plans for more. 

Join PureFacts CEO & Founder, Robert Madej and PureFacts President, Rajini McRae as they sit down with April Fong, Executive Editor at The Logic to talk about how 35% of Purefact’s total growth will come from M&A.  

Two years into the global COVID-19 pandemic, large numbers of tech companies have benefitted from the drive towards digital transformation. It’s accelerated growth in almost every sector. But after a period of rapid growth, the market has slowed down, we’re seeing mass layoffs across the industry and a recession looms (if not, is already here). 

In this conversation, Brent Holliday, Founder & CEO of Garibaldi Capital and Margaret Wu, Lead Investor at Georgian will discuss the changing market dynamics and what it means for fundraising dynamics, M&A and your business.

Acquisitions can generate tremendous value (and can add to your capabilities). But this approach to growth can be risky and if done poorly it can have huge negative consequences. Join this dynamic discussion and get a behind-the-scenes look at companies making acquisitions to fuel their growth: 

You’ll learn: 

• Challenges of integrating products, companies, teams and cultures (and how to overcome them) 
• What it took to close the deal 
• Protecting and growing your asset after the deals close   
• How these acquisitions are impacting perceived valuations for the acquirers 

In M&A, nothing quite beats experience. To help demystify the deal-making process we’ve brought together a panel of 3 longtime M&A experts, with hundreds of acquisitions under their belt, to cover topics like: 

• What buyers look for when assessing a potential acquisition 
• The metrics that matter most  
• What works and what doesn’t  
• Hard earned lessons  
• The process successful acquirers go through before making an offer 

The first one hundred days after an acquisition are critical. You need to grow revenue faster, be more profitable, and integrate additional companies. In this environment, ramping up your sales pipeline is a major component of meeting board expectations.  

In this session, you’ll learn: 

• Which marketing metrics actually matter for revenue growth
• How to profitably ramp up demand gen
• How to build the marketing team you really need

Do you know what your business is worth? This session will explore how to enhance the value of your business from the get-go and what levers you need to “push or pull” in order to optimize the results you are looking for. These experts have acquired and advised acquisitions and will teach you: 

• The mechanisms that buyers use to evaluate growth and retention.  
• How buyers will predict the future growth of your business and the value of your business.  
• Valuation techniques 
• What steps you can take to increase your value 
• What drives exit value 

The discipline of M&A is a complex and labyrinthine one, peppered with its share of false starts, thrilling chases, and heartbreaking shortfalls. This panel of experienced lawyers, investment bankers and serial acquirers discuss why deals are falling apart in 2022 from both the buyer and seller perspective.   

You will Learn:        

• Why so many acquisitions fail during the due diligence phase 
• Areas that buyers will focus on that you may not have thought about     
• Negotiation strategies used by savvy buyers and their acquisition teams     
• Tactics to avoid major post-sale surprises. 

Hear and learn from the very active, global PE players that write the big checks. What’s happening, the dry powder, the deals and more. 

IP strategy involves a range of topics including management of employees, contractors and suppliers; dealing with NDAs and other contracts; branding; and building a patent portfolio. In this session, IP experts, Jim Hinton, Natalie Raffoul and Jean-Nicolas Delage will discuss IP management focused on the guiding question, “Will this increase the valuation of my company when I exit?”  
‍ 

You’ll learn: 

• The importance of developing a continuous IP process 
• Asset value-based IP strategy 
• IP pitfalls to avoid 

A behind-the-scenes tell-all from tech entrepreneur, Latif Nanji. You’ll hear Latif’s behind-the-scenes learnings on what worked, what didn’t and what he would do differently if he’d go through an acquisition again. 

You’ve taken a lot of risk in putting your time, energy and often equity into your company. But the path to liquidity is years away.  This session will help you seek solutions to eliminate distractions, alleviates the financial pressures of being a founder and reduce the appeal of exiting early — a win for you as a founder and your investors — while still allowing you to focus on the long-term growth of the company 

In this session, learn about recapitalizations and other liquidity options allowing you to take some chips off the table, while you still grow your business and play the long game. If it can destress your life, and help you go long — it’s a win-win-win. 

What do buyers look for when assessing a potential acquisition? Growth prospects, financial health, management team and strategic fit are just a few of the considerations.   

In this panel, buyers will discuss the metrics that matter most to them, lessons they have learned along the way and what to consider if you are just looking for liquidity options. 

Hear from a panel of CEOs + Founders who have recently exited and now can reflect on the process in the rear-view mirror. Let them help you build and broaden your frame of reference by sharing their own tales from the trenches. 

You’ll hear: 

• What goes into selling your company 
• How and why founders decided to do it 
• What they wish they had known, their key learnings and what they would change. 
• If you join another team, what it’s like to go from being in charge to being an employee? 
• The emotional side of selling and what it’s like to walk away from something you put so much time and energy into building.  
• What each founder learned from that experience of selling the company, how it helped them grow, and what you can learn looking at your own company’s journey. 

In November 2021, Wisconsin-based Generac Holdings acquired Toronto smart thermostat startup Ecobee for $770 million USD. To grow ecobee, CEO Stuart Lombard, considered all the options: venture funding, SPAC, IPO, and acquisition. In this talk, Stuart shares how he landed a $770 million dollar deal that worked for his fast-growing company.