Notes from
the field.

November 6, 2025

AI for Small Business: 5 Steps to Join the 52% Who Are Already Winning (Easy Implementation Guide)

While 48% of small business owners remain skeptical about AI implementation, the other 52% are quietly gaining competitive advantages that compound daily. The gap between AI adopters and holdouts isn't just growing: it's…

June 3, 2025

Absolutes vs. Self-Imposed Limitations in Small Businesses

Who knew that three-year-olds and improv classes could teach so much? When I talk with small business owners, one phrase often comes up: “We can’t do that.” Or, more often, “We don’t do that.” Sometimes there’s a good re…

May 30, 2025

Raph’s Rules: Ballpark Lessons for Entrepreneurs

The journey of life takes some strange turns and one of mine has been my multi decade relationship with my former father-in-law, Raph. For years after my divorce was finalized, he and I would travel across the country to…

June 12, 2024

How Brian Dean Turned SEO Expertise into a $5 Million Exit

Brian Dean is a renowned SEO expert who has achieved significant success with his search engine optimization courses and strategies. His mastery of SEO techniques and ability to drive websites to the top of Google's sear…

June 6, 2024

Why Great Companies are Bought, Not Sold

Seth Godin, a marketing visionary and best-selling author, has a wealth of experience and wisdom to share from his entrepreneurial journey, including the sale of his company, Yoyodyne, to Yahoo!. With 21 acclaimed books …

May 29, 2024

Sticky People

Jordan van Schyndel: Building a Winning Culture and Selling with Upside Jordan van Schyndel is a remarkable entrepreneur who built a thriving service business with a strong emphasis on cultivating a unique and engaging c…

May 24, 2024

From Freelance Consult to 8-Figure Exit in Seven Years With Ned MacPherson

Ned MacPherson's entrepreneurial journey began in 2016 when he started helping clients optimize their websites. Little did he know that the demand for his services would quickly outpace his capacity as a solo freelancer.…

May 16, 2024

At the Negotiating Table with William Ury, Co-Founder of the Harvard Negotiation Program

In this week's captivating episode of Built to Sell Radio, listeners are treated to invaluable insights from William Ury, a renowned negotiation expert and co-founder of the prestigious Harvard Program on Negotiation and…

May 9, 2024

The Million Dollar Call

In 2015, Alexx Leyva's life took an unexpected turn when a shocking phone call summoned him back to the United States from his travels in Thailand. At just 25 years old, Leyva found himself tasked with taking over his fa…

May 1, 2024

Acquiring Existing Businesses: The Rise of Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition

In recent years, there has been a surge in popularity for "Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition" courses at prestigious Ivy League MBA programs, surpassing traditional classes in marketing or corporate finance. This tren…

April 24, 2024

Wealth vs. Legacy

When considering an exit strategy for your business, one important factor is determining your highest priority - maximizing personal wealth, keeping some ownership stake, or protecting the company culture and legacy you'…

April 17, 2024

Building a Life After a 9-Figure Exit

Anastasia Koroleva is an experienced and accomplished entrepreneur who has successfully navigated the journey of building and selling technology companies. After her first major business exit, in which she sold a company…

February 21, 2024

Small but Mighty

Michael Lieberman is an entrepreneur who founded Datastay, a software company that developed an application to help brake manufacturers and distributors catalog their models. Lieberman was able to create a very successfu…

February 14, 2024

Thinking About Your Exit Clearly

Negotiating the sale of a business is an intense and emotional experience for founders. Maintaining clear thinking throughout the process is vital to achieving the best outcome. In this expert series installment, we hear…

February 7, 2024

Inside the Mind of an Acquirer With Valsoft’s Joe Khoubbieh

Joe Khoubbieh is the Chief Investment Officer at Valsoft, one of the most prolific acquirers of software companies in recent years. Valsoft, founded in 2015, has acquired 95 companies across various industries and geogra…

January 31, 2024

Basem Hanna on Getting $25 Million for TerrAscend

Artificial intelligence may dominate headlines today, but several years ago it was the cannabis industry that was seeing massive growth and investment. Basem Hanna recognized the potential early on and positioned himself…

January 17, 2024

How This 15-Employee Company Got Acquired for $15 Million

Aaron Leibtag is an experienced entrepreneur, having previously cofounded and served as CEO of a healthcare technology company focused on medication management called TAKE2 Health. After selling TAKE2 Health, Leibtag's t…

January 16, 2024

Succeeding as a Business Consultant

Many aspire to become a successful business consultant, but few truly thrive in this demanding yet rewarding profession. So what does it really take? In a recent interview, experienced management consultant David Chaumet…

January 10, 2024

10 Strategies for Building (and Harvesting) the Value of Your Company

We're going over the best ideas from the 10 most-listened-to shows of 2023 this week on Built to Sell Radio. You'll learn how to: in this show - Add more people to your email list. - Take on the big players in your field…

January 1, 2024

Avoiding the Lifestyle Company Trap

Greg Romanzo and his friends built a freight forwarding business over 17 years. As the business grew to 200 workers, the partners realized that the choices they made now affected 200 families. They chose to sell because …

December 20, 2023

Working Together: Avoiding Annoying Behavior as a Small Business Team

Operating a small business requires teamwork – everyone depends on one another. When problems arise, it impacts the whole group. In Glamour's recent piece, consultant David Chaumette shares a top annoyance is “reverse de…

December 15, 2023

Chris Voss on How to Negotiate the Sale of Your Business

Chris Voss, the best-selling author of Never Split the Difference, will be talking to us about how to negotiate the sale of your business this week. Chris came up with a unique way to handle foreign crises and high-stake…

December 6, 2023

The $8k Snub

Kiran Merchant worked as an aviation expert for many years. When his boss wouldn't give him a $8,000 raise, he quit and started his own aviation consulting business. After 18 months, he gave Merchant Aviation to Aeroport…

November 15, 2023

What Jason Cohen Has Learned From Starting Two Unicorns

"Unicorns" in Silicon Valley speak for companies that are worth more than $1 billion. Jason Cohen started both SmartBear and WP Engine. This is the first article in a series we're calling "Legends of the Deal." The serie…

November 8, 2023

Lessons From 3 Failed Attempts to Sell

GreenPath Energy was started by Josh Anhalt in 2007 to help oil and gas companies find methane leaks in their pipes. Josh tried three times over the years to sell his business, but each time the deals fell through for a …

November 3, 2023

How Core Values Helped J.B. Sauceda Build and Sell a $14 Million Business

A man named J.B. Sauceda started a business that helped brands like Howler Brothers ship online sales. At its peak, Sauceda's business had a 150,000-square-foot warehouse, 150 workers, and was on track to make $14 millio…

October 19, 2023

The Acquisition Entrepreneur

We'll keep going with our series called "Inside the Mind of an Acquirer" this week. Our goal with this special series of conversations with buyers is to help you understand the point of view of the person negotiating to …

October 11, 2023

How Mark Ferrier Grew His Marketing Agency to $2M EBITDA and Scored an 8-Figure Exit

Mark Ferrier started the marketing firm TRAFFIKGROUP and saw it grow to over $2M in EBITDA before deciding to be bought out by the private equity firm Onex for an eight-figure sum.A friend told Mark that most founders wi…

October 4, 2023

3 (Creative) Ways to Get Your Business to Run Without You

If you want to build a useful business, it's important to make sure your business can run without you being there all the time. However, starting this journey can be scary. In this piece, we'll talk about three simple, l…

September 27, 2023

Thompson Reuters Acquires Pondera in 9-Figure Deal

When Jon Coss started Pondera Solutions in 2011, his goal was to cut down on fraud in government programs like Medicaid and jobless insurance. By 2020, Coss and his partners had built Pondera into a business that made mo…

September 19, 2023

How Lloyed Lobo Bootstrapped His Way to a $23 Million Exit

In 2017 Lloyed Lobo and Alex Popa started Boast. It is a piece of software that makes it easier to apply for tax credits for research and development. Customers who found it hard to apply for R&D tax credits liked that t…

September 6, 2023

Betting It All to Build a $100 Million Outdoor Luxury Empire

Sarah Dusek and her husband started Under Canvass, which offered large-scale tent hotels (called "glamping") near U.S. national parks. The business got off to a good start, and within five years, Dusek had four sites tha…

August 31, 2023

Small Company, Big Valuation

Michia Rohrssen helped start a software-as-a-service (SaaS) company called Prodigy in 2015 to help car shops sell online. When he had to make a hard choice, the company was making $3.3 million a year in sales. Rohrssen t…

August 23, 2023

Should You Hire a COO?

Casey Cavell has a lot of party stories: he dropped out of college to become a professional poker player, tried (and was successful at) buying self-storage facilities and apartment complexes, and finally found his way in…

August 23, 2023

Fetching an 8-Figure Exit

In 2017, Amman Ahmed created MusicForPets, which launched the YouTube channels "RelaxMyDog" and "RelaxMyCat." These channels aim to alleviate pets' anxiety, whether due to stress or their owners' absence. Under Ahmed's l…

August 9, 2023

Capitalizing on the Shift from Bricks to Clicks

In 2006, Chad Rubin made Skubana, a tool that was made to make his online store run more smoothly across different platforms. Rubin saw how useful the software could be and chose to sell it to other online store owners. …

August 2, 2023

How Alex Macdonald Sold Velocity Black to Capital One for a Reported $297 Million

Alex Macdonald co-founded the international digital concierge business Velocity Black in 2014. Unlike the generic concierge services offered by some credit cards, Velocity Black uses cutting-edge tools and industry exper…

July 25, 2023

David Chaumette interviewed about Diamond Days

Back in 2018, I had the pleasure of being interviewed by Susan Brender for her podcast today. It was a delightful conversation and I hope that you enjoy it. AI for Small Business: 5 Steps to Join the 52% Who Are Already …

July 3, 2023

Making Plans at Midyear, Even From the Start

In the world of small business, it is not uncommon for plans made earlier in the year to be forgotten or overlooked. At the halfway mark of 2023, small business owners may find themselves facing a crucial, but perhaps un…

June 26, 2023

Creating a Culture of Continuous Improvement in Your Organization

To maintain a competitive advantage in today's fast-paced and consistently shifting business environment, companies need to continuously adapt to new circumstances and advance their strategies. Establishing a culture of …

June 25, 2023

The Importance of Performance Evaluation in Business Growth

When it comes to driving business growth, one crucial aspect that often gets overlooked is performance evaluation. It's easy to get caught up in day-to-day operations and overlook the need for systematic analysis of your…