They Got Acquired - An easier way to find buyers

September 12, 2023
​Read on web​

Most founders experience deals that fall through or offers that disappoint.

But once you’re through the heartbreak, there’s a bright side to be had: those experiences position you to make the most out of the right deal when it comes along.

Jenna and Traviz Zigler, two optometrists who founded Eye Love, an e-commerce brand that sold dry-eye products, saw plenty of not-right-fit offers in the years leading up to their sale.

That set them up to spot the right opportunity when it came knocking.

“We knew our number, and we knew that we wanted to be a part of the business post-sale,” Jenna said. “If anyone approached us, and many did, we were able to say, this is what we’re looking for.”

A few interesting parts of their growth story:

🎗️ They launched a Facebook group to validate their idea

😱 They navigated a lawsuit, a cease-and-desist from a big pharmaceutical company, but eventually proved they used the phrase “Eye Love” before their competitor, and convinced them to settle

💟 They used their success to launch a nonprofit, Eye Believe Foundation, and donated some of their profits to the cause

Here’s how the Ziglers landed the deal that was right for them:

​Eyes on the prize: How these e-commerce founders knew when the deal was right​

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Behind the Business: Our buyers database

What if you could search our database for buyers who have a track record of buying businesses like what you're looking to sell?

That's coming soon 🔥

If you want access, I'd love to hear why you want it and how you'd use it.

A few use cases we envision...

Founder looking to sell ➡️ Say you want to sell an agency; you could see which buyers are interested in agencies of your size.

M&A advisor ➡️ Say you help SaaS sellers land buyers; you might find buyers on our list that you could target for your clients.

That's just the tip of this iceberg.

What I've found interesting so far in parsing through the hundreds of buyers in our database:

• Which companies have made the most acquisitions. Some of the buyers in our database have bought 20 or 25 companies in the last few years. Others have bought just one or two.
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• What size businesses each buyer goes after. We track deal size, so we can see trends for each buyer around transactions.
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• What each buyer is looking for. Some buyers list criteria on their website, and when they don't, we reach out to them directly to ask: what do you look for when you buy?

While we've been building this database for about two years now, we're in the early days of making it accessible to you. We'd love to incorporate your feedback as we build the front end, so it meets your needs.

If you see yourself or your firm benefiting from our buyers database, please hit reply and tell me why you want access and how you'd use it.

See you next time,

Lexi Grant
Founder & CEO
​They Got Acquired​