#281 The Worst Acquisition I Ever Did and What It Cost Me, Jeremy Earnshaw, GrowCFO Mentor

Episode notes

.entry-img img{ display:none !important; } .single .hentry .entry-img{ display:none !important; } In this GrowCFO Show episode, Kevin Appleby sits down with Jeremy Earnshaw , GrowCFO Mentor, to unpack one of the most painful but instructive topics in corporate life. Rather than celebrating a headline-grabbing success, Jeremy walks through a deal that went badly wrong—financially, culturally, and strategically. The episode emphasizes why leaders often learn far more from failures than from smooth, textbook transactions, and why understanding what not to do in M&A can be a powerful competitive advantage. Drawing on more than 20 M&A deals across his career, Jeremy dissects an acquisition from 30 years ago where he joined mid-transaction, found due diligence to be dangerously superficial, and discovered too late that the target’s core direct-to-consumer channel was fundamentally unprofitable. He and Kevin explore how poor diligence, misaligned incentives, cultural blind spots, and weak integration planning combined to destroy value.