Photobox and Moonpig: Selling to your competitor and the art of the exit

Ever wonder what goes on behind the scenes when one well-known start up buys another well-known start up? 
Well, wonder no more. 
You’ve heard us talk to both Nick Jenkins (founder of Moonpig) and Graham Hobson (founder of Photobox) in Series One. But we thought it would be fun to bring them together and have a Q&A with them, side by side. 
So that’s just what we did. 
Because you normally only hear the side of the story from the founder who sold their company. You rarely, if ever, hear the story from the founder who bought the company being sold. In this case the wildly successful personalised e-card company, Moonpig.com, that sold for £120m to photo printing giants, Photobox in 2011, which then itself went onto sell for a reported £400m+.

You’re in for a treat today - you get to hear from both sides - the good, the bad and the ugly of what happens during a M&A. That and you get a bucket load of advice from two Angel investors who between them have sunk a lot of money into the next generation of start ups. 
So grab a cuppa and sit down to hear not one, but two entrepreneurial powerhouses talk about how they started and how they became millionaires. Listen out, there are tips aplenty. 
We chat about:

The 4 crap ideas that came before Moonpig

What happened when Nick and Graham first met 

Selling your business to your main rival

Top tips on securing an exit 

The dribble and shake theory

Negotiating the deal, going through M&A

The importance of culture integration

What it’s like to actually buy a company

The pros and cons of being a Dragon

The art of Angel investing

Links:

Nick Jenkins - Moonpig

Graham Hobson - Photobox

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Ever wonder what goes on behind the scenes when one well-known start up buys another well-known start up? 

Well, wonder no more. 

You’ve heard us talk to both Nick Jenkins (founder of Moonpig) and Graham Hobson (founder of Photobox) in Series One. But we thought it would be fun to bring them together and have a Q&A with them, side by side. 

So that’s just what we did. 

Because you normally only hear the side of the story from the founder who sold their company. You rarely, if ever, hear the story from the founder who bought the company being sold. In this case the wildly successful personalised e-card company, Moonpig.com, that sold for £120m to photo printing giants, Photobox in 2011, which then itself went onto sell for a reported £400m+.

You’re in for a treat today - you get to hear from both sides - the good, the bad and the ugly of what happens during a M&A. That and you get a bucket load of advice from two Angel investors who between them have sunk a lot of money into the next generation of start ups. 

So grab a cuppa and sit down to hear not one, but two entrepreneurial powerhouses talk about how they started and how they became millionaires. Listen out, there are tips aplenty. 

We chat about:

The 4 crap ideas that came before Moonpig
What happened when Nick and Graham first met 
Selling your business to your main rival
Top tips on securing an exit 
The dribble and shake theory
Negotiating the deal, going through M&A
The importance of culture integration
What it’s like to actually buy a company
The pros and cons of being a Dragon
The art of Angel investing

Links:

Nick Jenkins - Moonpig
Graham Hobson - Photobox

--

Sponsors

Vorboss - get better internet: https://vorboss.com/secretleaders

Vanta - get 20% off security certifications like ISO27001 and SOC2: https://vanta.com/secretleaders

Vertice - save on your SaaS or cloud spend ($5k off or a free benchmark) using the code secretleaders: https://www.vertice.one/l/secretleaders

--

Newsletter

Sign up here: https://secretleaders.email/

You can find our historic newsletters here: https://www.secretleaders.com/episodes