Horizon Partners- M&A for bootstrapped technology companies

Sandy Kory is a Managing Director and co-founder of  Horizon Partners; and most recently announced a new Seed Stage Venture Capital Fund HorizonVC, where he is a General Partner.  Sandy has been advising bootstrapped technology companies for over 15 years and co-leads every client engagement. HIs approach is informed by actively investing in technology startups such as Palantir, Canva, and Zoox that went on to become unicorns. This episode is going to be an M&A 101 class for startups. Show notes: - Horizon Partners: https://horizonpartners.com; Horizon VC: https://horizon.vc - High-touch, "Artisanal M&A" model - Working with bootstrapped companies - How should startups think about M&A in their early stages- Understand negotiations? - Interests, options, criteria (Book referral: Getting to yes by Roger Fisher, William Ury, Bruce Patton) - Psychology of buyers and sellers- how they think and act - Signaling - Obvious, but never look desperate to sell - Game theory dynamics - Common mistakes that sellers make - What should a startup do when a buyer knocks at their door? - Tough and relatively easier negotiations- what was involved - How not to learn from past deals? - Role of relationships- past and present - How to pick an M&A firm? - Investment thesis at Horizon VC