Getting Acquired Quotes

“It’s a simple strategy: instead of talking about services or features, you discuss how to make your customers more successful. Listen more than you talk. Understand their pain points, and be authentic about wanting to help. Agree on what success looks like. Sales is a process of listening and helping the other person solve their problem. Use every available resource to help them achieve their goals, and you’ll mirror their success.”
― Andrew Gazdecki, Getting Acquired: How I Built and Sold My SaaS Startup

“Stay Classy I wrote earlier that customers have the upper hand. A few taps on their smartphone, and they can bring up reviews and alternative vendors. I think the easiest way of dealing with this is to focus on your business, as outlined above. But if you choose to focus on the weaknesses of your competitors, you’re in dangerous territory. There’s nothing against self-improvement through comparison; indeed, you can build businesses from that. But exposing those weaknesses to customers in a bid to win them over is not cool. Badmouthing the competition makes you look weak, desperate, and sloppy. It seldom weakens their business but yours: how you behave toward others in your industry is one of the criteria by which potential partners and customers may judge you. While you might fool a few customers, the majority will see through the trash talk to the pettiness behind it. And once that bridge is burned, there’s little you can do to rebuild it. The competition is composed of people like you—hardworking teams who’ve dedicated their careers to making customers’ lives better. Denigrating them doesn’t make you look better; it makes you look bitter. Not just to customers, but to important people in the market: influencers, leaders, investors, and other people you will increasingly come into contact with and might one day rely on. So no matter how bad the competition gets, no matter how crowded the market, don’t attack your competitors. Stay classy instead.”
― Andrew Gazdecki, Getting Acquired: How I Built and Sold My SaaS Startup

“If you micromanage people, they lose autonomy, and with it, motivation. Why forge ahead when you’ve got someone second-guessing your every move? If you make everyone’s decisions for them, people lose their capacity for independent thought. It belittles their jobs and devalues their input, and they dread coming to work because it’s a tedious slog rather than a stimulating challenge. If you think being CEO is about power, you’ll lose it. Let people do their jobs.”
― Andrew Gazdecki, Getting Acquired: How I Built and Sold My SaaS Startup

“Putting attitude first is crucial because you need these people to help and support each other. Likewise, as CEO, you need to empathize with the people working with you and create the conditions for them to thrive.”
― Andrew Gazdecki, Getting Acquired: How I Built and Sold My SaaS Startup

“I believed a smart, open, and positive person compensated for lack of experience or skills. Neither my VP of Product nor COO had any prior experience, but they were eager to learn, and over time they became world-class leaders in these roles. This approach hasn’t failed me yet.”
― Andrew Gazdecki, Getting Acquired: How I Built and Sold My SaaS Startup

“That said, it wasn’t a case of going out and hiring a bunch of C-suite talent with six-figure salaries. Like pimping out an office, hiring the best of the best is an easy way to burn cash. Instead, I generally looked for three qualities. The first was whether or not the candidate would enjoy working at Bizness Apps. This was the most important, and I’ll explain why in a moment. The second was whether or not I’d enjoy working with them. It was rare for anyone to score low on this one, unless they appeared uninterested, unengaged, or overwhelmingly negative. Finally, could they do the job? Unless the candidate scored poorly on the previous points, this was probably the easiest to pass. I believed a smart, open, and positive person compensated for lack of experience or skills. Neither my VP of Product nor COO had any prior experience, but they were eager to learn, and over time they became world-class leaders in these roles. This approach hasn’t failed me yet.”
― Andrew Gazdecki, Getting Acquired: How I Built and Sold My SaaS Startup