PartnerHacker Daily #109: Partnerships Are Now Step One for an M&A

Partnerships are M&A step one

The market is souring, companies are cutting expenses, and VCs are telling founders selling might be their most strategic play.

What’s interesting is that potential acquirers aren’t jumping straight into M&A. Instead, many want to try out strategic partnerships first.

If the startup's product cross-sells to the larger company's customers, then there will be greater acquisition interest.

Now partnerships aren’t just table-stakes for building a great company. They're also becoming important for selling a company.

‘Put up the for-sale sign,’ more VCs tell founders as market sours | PitchBook

After years of telling their portfolio companies to grow at all costs, some investors are urging startups to sell to a strategic buyer at a discount rather than risk going out of business.

PitchBookMarina Temkin

There's an opportunity here

Cassidy Shield, Chief Growth Officer at Refine Labs laid out the problems with traditional sales and marketing.

The dominant B2B GTM strategy we see day-in-day-out with prospects and customers is the following:

=> Heavy Outbound Sales Led - Sales drive ~65-80% of demand.
=> Marketing skewed to paid search supplemented by paid social driving e-books/gated content.

No matter the size of the company, or the number of MQLs, the data turns out to almost be the same.

Amidst this, he sees opportunity.

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