Why Pendo Buys Startups (And It's Not for Revenue) with Todd Olson

Todd Olson,  CEO and Co-founder, Pendo From buying startups to speed up roadmap execution to preserving founder autonomy post-close, Todd breaks down the real levers behind successful acquisitions. This episode dives into how Pendo thinks about M&A without a corporate development team, why it rarely buys for revenue, and how Todd's team avoids common post-close integration mistakes by keeping culture, product, and people at the center. Things you will learn: Why speed and product alignment—not revenue—drive most of Pendo's acquisitions The cost of delaying integration and how Todd learned to fix it How to retain founder energy post-acquisition without over-relying on cash ________________________ Sponsored by DealRoom—where M&A chaos meets its match. Your M&A process can so much faster... 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 Chapters [00:04:30] – Taking a buyer-led approach from day one [00:05:30] – When is the right time to do M&A as a startup? [00:07:00] – The real reason behind Pendo's first acquisition (spoiler: mobile gap) [00:10:30] – How the team visit to Tel Aviv sealed the deal [00:15:00] – Why preserving a legacy tech stack was a painful mistake [00:19:30] – Walking away from a $1M customer (and why it was worth it) [00:23:00] – Choosing smaller, simpler teams over "obvious" targets [00:27:30] – Why AI startups are attractive—but only with the right integration mindset [00:33:00] – Deal structures that actually retain entrepreneurs [00:50:00] – Post-close surprises, real value creation, and the "pink wash" trap Questions, comments, concerns?Follow Kison Patel for behind-the-scenes insights on modern M&A.