They Got Acquired - Private peer group for founders

Nov. 28, 2022
​Read on web​

When Australian tech developer Jeremy Nagel sold his text messaging app in early 2022, it was a full-circle moment.

Nagel, a self-taught full-stack developer, discovered Zoho Creator, a low-code tool for building software, when working his first gigs out of college.

Four years later, an app he built on the platform was acquired.

Smooth Messenger was a side project right up until when he sold it. By then, the app had 500 customers, and it was the the second most downloaded SMS extension application on Zoho.

As part of the sale, Nagel joined MessageMedia, the company that purchased his app.

“It’s nice to be able to focus full time on the parts of the business that I enjoy: building new features and talking to customers,” Nagel said. “I no longer have to worry about accounts payable or managing cash flow and have a big team to work with.”

More on how Nagel got there 👇

📱 A self-taught developer used a low-code tool to build this text messaging app​

Sponsored by

A private peer group for founders with $1M+ in annual revenue

Imagine having a group of fellow founders to lean on as you build your company, friends who are going through similar challenges.

A place where you can openly discuss sensitive topics like how much salary to pay yourself or how to be happy even when things are chaotic.

That’s Hampton: a new community that puts high-earning founders into small groups to meet with one another and an executive coach.

It’s highly vetted, only for leaders of fast-growing, tech-savvy startups with at least $1M in annual revenue. And it’s already full of unapologetically ambitious entrepreneurs.

When you apply, tell them you heard about it from They Got Acquired.

Behind the business

I'm trying a big experiment this December and January:

📵 Declaring a moratorium on calls.

That's right, for two months, I'm not taking calls.

Here's why...

I've met some fantastic people through calls over the last few months, and those relationships have led to opportunities: podcast appearances, referral revenue, sponsorships and more. This kind of networking is so important in the early days of a business.

But when I thought hard about what I want the next few months to look like, I realized I was desperate for more focused execution time.

I tend to think of my work in two phases:

• Looking up = Talking to people, making connections, getting ideas
• Looking down = Executing & making things happen

Often I can do some of both at once. But we're hitting what feels like an inflection point with the business, ten months after launch. We have traction and momentum. Our flywheel is beginning to spin. And our audience is asking for more.

It's time to clear space to deliver.

I'll use this heads-down time to execute on priorities, including our database of acquisitions. We have collected thousands of deals in the 6, 7 and 8-figure range, and now we'll figure out how to make those accessible to the M&A community.

Since two months is a relatively long time frame, I'm allowing for two exceptions to this no-call rule:

• Mentor calls with students (a responsibility tied to my NU fellowship)
• ​Chats with founders who need support selling their business

Sticking to these calls alone will open up so much execution space on my calendar.

Anyone else doing something similar as we approach the end of the year?

See you next time,

Lexi Grant
Founder & CEO
​They Got Acquired​
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P.S. As we think through what our database product should look like, I'm curious to talk to customers of similar products: PitchBook, GS Data and CB Insights.

If your company uses one of those, would you be willing to press "reply" and answer a few questions?

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