Ep 537 Why this $5M Business Sold for $25M
An episode of the Built to Sell Radio podcast, hosted by John Warrillow, titled "Ep 537 Why this $5M Business Sold for $25M" was published on March 13, 2026 and runs 66 minutes.
March 13, 2026 ·66m · Built to Sell Radio
Episode Description
When Sharon Gillenwater built Boardroom Insiders, she was doing something nobody else wanted to do: manually researching the personal work styles, business initiatives, and habits of Fortune 500 executives so that enterprise sales teams could finally get a meeting with the C-suite. It was hard, painstaking work — and that was exactly the point.
After more than a decade of bootstrapping, consulting on the side to fund payroll, and raising just $275,000 from three people she knew personally, Sharon sold Boardroom Insiders to London-based public company EuroMoney for $25 million — all cash at close, no earn-out. In this episode, you discover how to build and sell a business where customers love you so much they follow you from company to company.
You'll learn:
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Why a cold call from a PE firm offering $48 million was actually the worst thing that could have happened to Sharon — and what she did instead
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The one overheard side conversation that changed her negotiation posture entirely and helped her push from a $17–20M offer to $25M
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Why Sharon insisted on all cash at close — and why her angel investor told her a lower number in cash beats a higher number with strings attached
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What convertible notes look like after a decade — and why her investors converted their notes just six months before the sale
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Why Sharon cried on her birthday, the day she was quietly walked out of the company she had spent 13 years building
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How she watched the acquirer run Boardroom Insiders into the ground, tried to buy it back — and then decided to rebuild from scratch anyway
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The land-and-expand growth strategy that took Boardroom Insiders from zero to $5 million ARR without ever cracking the demand generation problem