Buy Grow Sell

The episode contains several genuinely useful frameworks - the 3D axes model for mapping strategic acquirers, the four deal-structure buckets, and the three-layer timing model - but these are interspersed with extended analogies (brain surgery, jungle guide, ugly child), significant self-promotion for the host's book and firm, and broad throat-clearing. Roughly 40% of the runtime is substantive; the rest is padding or restatement.

“probably in 90% of the cases, not only are they wrong, but it's often a buyer who they've never heard of before, because when they've got a list of what they think might be 10 or 20 companies that fit broadly on their market map... by the time I've handed over that to our research team... that list might go from 10 to 2 or 300 companies”

“AI is always trying to tell you what you want to hear. It tries to flatter you. And even when you call it out and say, well, that's actually not true, and you give the evidence, what does it do? It says, oh, thanks for pulling me up on that, and let's just keep moving as if that never happened”

The three-dimensional axes model for categorising strategic acquirers (vertical supply chain, horizontal competitors, Z-axis complementary businesses) is a practical and reasonably distinctive framing, and the AI-as-M&A-advisor critique is timely. Most other content - buyer types, valuation methodologies, timing layers - is standard SME M&A advisory material that experienced operators will have encountered before.

“Now I want you to think three dimensionally for a moment on that Z axis, right? That Z axis is what I call all of your complementary buyers. This is your classic cross sell.”

“a 5 multiple implies a 20% return per annum. A 3 multiple implies a 33% return per annum. Without getting more technical than that, I want you to be able to take that little model away and think about what kind of financial return does an investor get”

This is a solo monologue episode from the host, Simon Bedard, who is a legitimate M&A practitioner with real deal experience (he references specific client deals and a structured process). However, there is no guest, which eliminates the possibility of diverse high-calibre perspectives, and he is not a widely recognised industry figure; much of the episode also functions as a promotional vehicle for his book and firm.

“I've got a client that's in the civil construction space. They build roads, they do a range of different things. Great business, very profitable... they were looking for a price of around $40 million”

“the first one that came in was an international group that put an offer of $52 million”

The civil construction deal anecdote ($40M expectation → $52M offer, hostile client reaction) and the worked $5M deal-structure example ($3M cash, $1M vendor finance split over two years, $1M earn out) are genuinely concrete and instructive. However, many claims - such as the 90% figure for buyers coming from unexpected sources, the AI critique, and timing advice - are asserted without data or named sources, limiting overall evidential weight.

“they were looking for a price of around $40 million... the first one that came in was an international group that put an offer of $52 million. Now, one of the things we talk a lot about is that money and terms go hand in hand”

“let's just say for a moment that you sold a business for $5 million... A buyer in that example might say, look, we'll give you $3 million in cash up front... We'll put a million dollars in vendor finance... There might be a million dollars on an earn out”

This is a scripted solo monologue; there is no guest, no dialogue, no follow-up questions, and no possibility of pushback or productive disagreement. The seven questions were pre-selected by the host and answered without challenge. While the questions themselves are reasonably relevant, the format is a FAQ lecture, not a conversation, and the host never stress-tests his own frameworks.

“So the seven core questions we want to cover here are what is my business worth?... can I sell my business without a broker?... can I use AI to sell my business?”

“So let me just say at the outset, like, AI is amazing, right?”