Aaron Bird: Getting Acquired 2x [Built in Seattle Ep. #13]
Former Bizible CEO & co-founder and Marketo/Adobe VP, Aaron Bird goes inside the deal process from Bizible to Marketo to Adobe, tactics, negotiating, and managing emotions.
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You might have seen Marketo acquire Bizible in 2018.
Then you probably saw Adobe acquire Marketo 6 months later.
Aaron Bird was part of both. First as CEO at Bizible, then as VP Product at Marketo.
Bizible had 8 years of grinding, $20M in funding, and 1000s of customers. Then a successful acquisition by Marketo. 6 months later Marketo gets acquired by Adobe for $4.7B.
Aaron shared his story and lessons on this episode of The Built in Seattle Podcast.
Episode Highlights
- The long engagement that led to a fast acquisition.
- Why he broke the rules of negotiating and gave a number.
- How talks started, stopped, and started again much later.
- What is "the best kind of intro" to another CEO.
- The hidden upside of dealing with Private Equity buyers.
- The emotional cases for/against selling.
- How a $4.7B acquisition is similar to a smaller startup acquisition.