Buyer-Led vs. Seller-Led M&A with Matthew Person

Mathew Person, Senior Vice President of Corporate Development at Quikbase In this episode of the M&A Science Podcast, Kison Patel interviews Mathew Person, Senior Vice President of Corporate Development at Quickbase. Mathew brings a unique blend of operator, banker, and corp dev experience, making him a strategic leader in buyer-led M&A. Together, they dive deep into how to proactively structure acquisitions, align internal stakeholders, avoid over-rationalization, and ensure integration success. Things You Will Learn: How to design and align around a box of preference (quant + qual criteria) Tactics for proactively sourcing and assessing cultural fit How to structure your corp dev team for scale and deal velocity ________________________ Sponsored by DealRoom—where M&A chaos meets its match. Still stuck in spreadsheet hell? DealRoom helps corporate development teams take control—streamlining diligence, syncing integration, and eliminating the back-and-forth. 👉 Learn how you can run a repeatable, buyer-led process   _______________ Episode Timestamps [00:01:30] Mathew's unique background: sports operator, banker, corp dev [00:03:30] Quickbase's carveout history and PE backing [00:04:00] What buyer-led M&A means and why it matters [00:05:00] Box of preference: building deal criteria with stakeholders [00:07:30] Market mapping and capability-driven strategy [00:09:30] Scorecards, deal screening, and qualitative diligence [00:15:30] Identifying and quantifying culture fit [00:19:30] Modeling dis-synergies and avoiding over-rationalization [00:23:30] Structuring corp dev teams for stakeholder alignment [00:30:00] Managing negotiations and bid-ask spread with trust [00:33:30] The ROI of being known as a "good home" [00:42:30] Integration success: same team from diligence to execution [00:47:00] Culture as a deal breaker or driver [00:52:30] Why stakeholder consensus is the hardest part of M&A Questions, comments, concerns?Follow Kison Patel for behind-the-scenes insights on modern M&A.