They Got Acquired - With no employees, a 7-figure sale

Sept. 24, 2024
​Read on web​

When founder Mike Belasco was ready to step out of the agency-life grind after 17 years, he sought out the perfect buyer — and found one inside his own company, custom digital marketing agency Inflow.

He believed their vice president of operations would make the ideal successor, so he took a leap of faith and asked her.

“I really felt like she could do it all, if she was put in that position,” he said, adding that a takeover by his VP of ops meant he could have the benefits of getting acquired while leaving his employees and clients in trusted hands. “Both were really important to me,” he said.

The leap of faith paid off. Belasco was able to pass off their 50 clients and 21 employees to Holzman in May 2023.

“There wasn’t the stress of showing all your cards to a total stranger,” he said. After all, from her position running operations, Holzman already knew how Belasco managed the organization and how the finances worked.

“It really made due diligence sort of a non-event,” he said. “It happened, but there weren’t any surprises.”

Here’s our full story:

​This founder sold his marketing agency to his own VP of operations​

Belasco is now sharing his learnings around how to exit well with a free Agency Exit Plan template.

More on that next...

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With no employees, a 7-figure sale

Silicon Valley wisdom measures success, in part, by headcount.

But PsychCentral, a digital publication about mental health, sold for millions — without a single full-time employee.

An early web pioneer, PsychCentral was started by psychologist John Grohol in the Boston area in 1995. The site was one of the first to offer mental health information online.

Eventually Grohol grew PsychCentral to 7 million unique visitors a month, 250,000 email subscribers, and about $2 million in annual revenue.

In August 2020, he sold the business to digital health publisher HealthLine Media in a 7-figure deal.

Here’s how he did it:

​How PsychCentral sold for 7 figures without a single full-time employee​

A founder came to us last week looking for info on a buyer that had approached them about a possibly acquiring them.

This is exactly what our M&A platform is for! 👏👏👏

(Can you see me in my office squealing with delight when we can give founders insight that HELPS THEM SELL THEIR BUSINESS FOR MORE?! This is exactly why They Got Acquired exists! This is our mission!)

We pointed them to:

🤓 That buyer's profile, which shows all the deals that buyer has done, plus details on those deals.

🤓 Profiles on all the companies that buyer has acquired, including metrics and context around those deals.

The founder was able to look at this information, and with one quick glance, notice something surprising that informed whether they should move forward.

👉🏽 Want insights on buyers for your business? Give us a shout!

See you next time,

Lexi Grant
Founder & CEO
​They Got Acquired​