The Emotional Side of Being Acquired with Alex McClafferty

Being acquired may seem like you've struck gold—literally, and figuratively—in your business. What most people don't focus on, though, are the downsides to being acquired. You might be thinking, "there's no way being acquired can have cons," when in actuality the results may surprise you.

My guest today is Alex McClafferty of Productize.co. Alex is sharing his experience of his company, WP Curve, being acquired by GoDaddy, and the emotional results of the process. He shares a deeply personal and honest account of what happened, and what Alex recommends to anyone else who wants to get acquired.

In this episode, we'll be sharing:

In conventional terms, being acquired causes a case for champagne-popping and celebration, but in Alex's case, his company's acquisition didn’t solve everything for him. A sense of emptiness came with the sale. His advice? Close the emotional gap when going through the acquisition process. When you’re spending a lot of time in a company and working on building something, it becomes a part of your identity, and you most certainly don't want to lose that.

At Productize.co, Alex works with individual and group clients. For one-on-one engagements, he recognizes that every founder is different, and tries not to be too directive with how he engages with them. Depending on where the business is at, the context of the conversation changes.

On the group side: it's a bit more structured and defined. There's a hot seat to dig into someone's issues or problems. From there, the group cross-collaborates to find out how they’re serving customers effectively, and wrap it up with a Q&A session to determine next steps.

The biggest lesson Alex learned through his journey is now a major part of his consulting process. He starts with the emotional component when working with clients. They talk about what an acquisition is going to feel like; not what it’ll feel like when the money hits the bank account, but what it’ll feel like when you have to let go of the thing you built and you have no control of it anymore.

Mentioned in this episode:

GoDaddy

Productize.co

Salesforce

Drip

Ep01: How to Get Acquired with Nick Ellsmore

4-Hour Work Week

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