M&A Science

Kison Patel

M&A Science, hosted by Kison Patel (Founder & CEO of DealRoom), is your go-to podcast for mastering the art of mergers and acquisitions. Each week, Kison and his expert guests from leading brands like Xerox, FastLap, and Cisco dig deep into real-world M&A strategies, offering actionable insights to optimize your M&A practice. Whether you're an experienced practitioner or new to the field, M&A Science provides practical advice on key topics like sourcing, due diligence, integration, divestitures, and more. With over 300 episodes, this podcast is the premier thought leadership resource designed to streamline your deal-making process. Start listening today and visit mascience.com/podcast to access over 300 episodes. Brought to you by DealRoom, the leading M&A optimization platform used by the best M&A teams around the world

  1. 1d ago

    220 Deals. One Playbook. How to Scale M&A Without Losing Control

    Shawn Rodricks, Head of M&A - Independent Consultant If you scale the deal flow without the operating infrastructure to match it, things break fast. The playbook is a document nobody opens, closing weeks turn into fire drills, and the returns you modeled start to slip. Shawn Rodricks, Head of M&A - Independent Consultant, built the infrastructure before the volume hit. He closed 220 acquisitions across two organizations, 37 at Rexall in pharmacy and 183 at Amerivet Veterinary Partners, by wiring in the operating system from the start. What You'll Learn The five-part operating model behind 220 acquisitions How to hire for biz dev vs. corp dev roles in a lean M&A team How to build a closing-week SWAT team and keep finance aligned on timing Why qualitative diligence feeds directly into your forecast and purchase price The pre-close vs. post-close integration framework Why roll-ups that confuse acquisition with strategy fail What Shawn got wrong in year one and how it shaped every program since If you're scaling a deal function and want the operating framework behind Shawn's approach, DealPilot, powered by M&A Science, has the Buyer-Led M&A™ Certification, built from 400+ practitioner interviews into a framework you can actually run. ____________________ This episode of M&A Science is presented by DealRoom. DealRoom just automated Pipeline Management with AI so you can spend less time updating deals, and more time working them. Automatically push deal context from Outlook to DealRoom Pipeline and use AI to keep deal target data and tasks updated, so follow-ups never slip through the cracks. No manual logging. No stale pipeline data. See for yourself: https://hubs.ly/Q045fXp50 ____________________ Episode Chapters [00:00] Intro [03:33] From Biochemistry to 220 Acquisitions [06:02] The Operating Model for Serial Acquisitions [09:40] Hiring: Biz Dev vs. Corp Dev [13:03] Staffing as Deal Volume Scales [15:08] What a Playbook Actually Is [18:43] Managing Ebbs and Flows in Deal Volume [22:12] Cash Flow and Finance Partnership [23:44] The Underestimated Side of Diligence [27:25] Key Person Risk and Pre-Close Retention [31:41] Post-Close Monitoring and the First 90 Days [35:17] Pre- vs. Post-Close Integration Priorities [37:53] What Roll-Ups Mistake for Strategy [39:21] Integration as the Conversion Engine [42:48] The Year One Mistake That Bit Us [44:12] When Deals Get Strange

  2. Jul 9

    How to Build a Deal Model That Beats PE on Price

    Jeremy Segal, Executive Vice President of Corporate Development, Progress (NASDAQ: PRGS) Buyers who mistake a high LOI bid for a winning strategy are easy prey for sellers who know the growth equity playbook. Jeremy Segal's position: precision at the LOI stage is a stronger differentiator than price. Jeremy Segal is EVP of Corporate Development at Progress (NASDAQ: PRGS), a publicly traded software company that has nearly doubled revenue through M&A, from under $400 million to nearly $1 billion. He has closed roughly 50 acquisitions across his career at Progress, LogMeIn, and Akamai. How do you build a cost-optimization model before LOI for lines you know you can execute? How do you win a competitive process against PE without the highest headline number? When a seller restricts access during the announce-to-close window, how do you decide whether to escalate or walk? And how do you handle a workforce that expected an IPO and got an acquisition instead? Jeremy answers each one. What You'll Learn Building a pre-LOI cost optimization model on what you can actually execute How to use existing infrastructure to outbid PE on price Escalating diligence friction before it kills a deal Why a no-retrade commitment builds trust with sellers Structuring retention pools when a target's IPO falls through What target profile actually fits a disciplined buyer Why private valuations haven't caught up to public markets If you're building deal models before LOI and want a framework for translating those assumptions into an operational plan you can actually execute, DealPilot, powered by M&A Science, has Buyer-Led M&A™ frameworks to help you close the gap between what you modeled and what you deliver. ____________________ This episode of M&A Science is presented by DealRoom. DealRoom just launched the only MCP server built for Buyer-Led M&A™ — so your AI and your deal data finally work together. Connect Claude, ChatGPT, or Copilot directly to DealRoom and let your AI read your pipeline, analyze due diligence documents, and automatically write findings back.  See for yourself: dealroom.net/mcp ____________________ Episode Chapters [00:00] Intro [05:07] Why M&A has to be the growth engine [07:36] Deal cadence and financial discipline [09:42] Pipeline strategy and the five-year roadmap [12:46] How the synergy model works before LOI [17:15] The no-retrade commitment [17:48] Chef: beating PE on a competitive deal [24:56] ShareFile: carve-out from Cloud Software Group [28:07] What to look for in a carve-out diligence [33:48] MarkLogic: when the seller restricts access [38:48] When seller motivation becomes an orange flag [40:09] What counts as a material change warranting a retrade [41:12] How public market cycles affect the deal pipeline [48:09] Advice for a first-time acquirer [49:46] The craziest thing in M&A [53:02] Early Warning Signs in Diligence

  3. Jul 2

    The People You Lose in M&A: Key Talent Retention Before Close

    Haseeb Jawad, VP and Head of Corporate Development, Commvault (NASDAQ: CVLT) The people who leave post-close are usually the ones the deal depended on. Which means the problem starts with how you read culture before LOI and whether financial incentives are the only retention tool you are building with. Haseeb Jawad heads corporate development at Commvault, running a lean team with full accountability from sourcing through integration. He has led two to three acquisitions per year across multiple companies, sat on both sides of a transaction, and serves as his own IMO lead. The signals that tell you a deal will lose people are visible from the first founder conversation, if you know what to look for. What You'll Learn The three signals to read in every founder conversation before LOI How the TRUST framework applies across the full deal lifecycle Why retention runs heart, brain, pocket and what breaks when you invert it How to run employee-by-employee diligence without treating people as a cost line Why owning both deal and integration makes business case assumptions honest What one payroll timing issue did to months of trust-building after close If you're managing a post-close retention risk and financial incentives are the only lever you're pulling, DealPilot, powered by M&A Science, has Buyer-Led M&A™ frameworks to help you build the full retention model. ____________________ This episode of M&A Science is presented by DealRoom. DealRoom is the AI-powered operating system for Buyer-Led M&A™ — one connected system for pipeline, diligence, integration, and reporting. No tool-switching, no manual updates, no data gaps. See how it works: https://hubs.ly/Q04mcGKy0 ____________________ Episode Chapters [00:00] Intro [03:05] Engineer Turned Corp Dev Leader [07:45] How to Pick the Right M&A Deals [10:26] What Most Buyers Miss in Deal Criteria [15:44] Getting Founders to the Table [20:18] AI Washing and Valuation Reality [23:09] The TRUST Framework Explained [26:19] When Leadership Alignment Breaks Down [32:03] 3 Tiers of Culture Diligence Before LOI [35:40] The Retention Framework [38:31] Why Money Alone Won't Keep Your Key Talent [41:13] Structuring Retention Plans by Person [43:02] Why the Deal Team Should Stay [49:32] Making Minority Investments Work [51:57] Preserving Culture After Close [53:02] Early Warning Signs in Diligence [53:37] What Breaks First at High Deal Volume [54:02] Walking Away Post-LOI

  4. Jun 25

    How to Buy Companies That Aren't Profitable Yet

    Matt Arsenault, VP of Corporate Development & Strategic Alliances at Jamf Venture-backed companies are priced at their future state, not their current revenue. When growth stalls and another fundraising round stops making sense, the gap between VC valuation and what a strategic buyer will pay becomes the hardest conversation in any deal process. Matt Arsenault, VP of Corporate Development & Strategic Alliances at Jamf, has run this play across hundreds of targets. His work starts before the deal does, with the founder relationship, the cap table, and a clear-eyed conversation about risk tolerance that most corp dev teams never have.  What You'll Learn Why a $25M offer today can beat a $125M VC exit three years out How AI is shrinking the moat of wrapper-product startups and changing target screening The seven stakeholder groups in any acquisition and why most founders miss them How liquidation preferences and cap table structure change the math behind any offer Why VC relationships matter as much as founder relationships before a deal starts How to structure deals for underwater targets without losing the team What entrepreneurs should know about VC terms before taking their first check If you're working a deal where the founder's VC valuation is the first thing they said and the last thing they'll let go of, DealPilot, powered by M&A Science, gives you the guidance to close the gap without overpaying. ____________________ This episode of M&A Science is presented by DealRoom. DealRoom just launched the only MCP server built for Buyer-Led M&A™ — so your AI and your deal data finally work together. Connect Claude, ChatGPT, or Copilot directly to DealRoom and let your AI read your pipeline, analyze due diligence documents, and automatically write findings back.  See for yourself: dealroom.net/mcp ____________________ Episode Chapters [00:01:14] Introduction and Kison's overview [00:03:32] Matt Arsenault's background and path into M&A [00:05:17] How VCs actually value companies: the two major components [00:06:52] Where VC and strategic buyer valuations diverge, and why [00:09:29] The current market for VC-backed acquisition targets [00:10:39] Rule of 40, profitable growth, and what AI is changing [00:25:01] The liquidation preference math: $25M today vs. $125M later [00:31:38] Cap table dynamics, voting power, and co-founder alignment [00:33:10] How to have the valuation conversation with a founder [00:35:35] How to structure deals when a company is underwater [00:36:45] Stakeholder management: severance, retention, and employee equity [00:44:03] Structural tools for bridging valuation gaps [00:49:21] What entrepreneurs should know before taking their first VC check [00:51:03] Due diligence war stories: what a code scan revealed

  5. Jun 18

    When Deals Get Weird: Stories You Don't See in the CIM

    Nathan Rust, Lutz Lehmann, Troy Pospisil, Jeremy Segal, Patrick Mumman, Tej Brahmbhatt, George Helock, and Angie Astle Eight deal professionals share the M&A moments that never make the CIM. A birthday cake in a management presentation that confirmed a culture fit and influenced a bid. A buyer who died before close, forcing a nine-month restart from scratch. Eight years of customer revenue data on a 1980s IBM that management claimed did not exist. A target quietly heading toward Chapter 11 while diligence was underway. Unexpected events mid-deal are not exceptions. They are the deal. How you read them is what separates experienced practitioners from everyone else. What You'll Learn: How cultural signals in a management presentation can influence a bid decision What to do when a buyer dies before close and the sell process has to restart How to find data that management says does not exist Why late-stage valuation surprises from founders are a signal you could have caught earlier How to take a bankrupt target through Chapter 11 and still close the deal Why experienced advisors document every surprise the moment a deal closes If you're running deals and want pattern recognition built from thousands of real M&A situations to back your judgment, DealPilot, powered by M&A Science, gives you the deal guidance and advisor access to know which surprises you push through and which ones mean walk away. ____________________ This episode of M&A Science is presented by DealRoom. DealRoom just automated Pipeline Management with AI so you can spend less time updating deals, and more time working them.  Automatically push deal context from Outlook to DealRoom Pipeline and use AI to keep deal target data and tasks updated, so follow-ups never slip through the cracks. No manual logging. No stale pipeline data. See for yourself: https://hubs.ly/Q045fXp50 ____________________ Episode Chapters [00:00] Intro [04:11] Birthday cake in the management presentation [07:10] Recruiting bankers from the sell side [09:04] Culture fit as a bid decision factor [10:03] When the buyer dies before close [11:46] Nine-month restart from scratch [17:04] Management says the data does not exist [18:39] Finding Susie and the 1980s IBM [22:25] IP ownership surprise at signing [24:43] Bootstrap founders and commitment signals [27:43] When bankers favor PE over strategics [30:40] 78-year-old seller, a fistfight, and an earn-out [32:25] The 12-year sales cycle [35:23] Teaching a CEO to speak like an investor [43:14] Aviation IPO pulled mid-road show [45:52] Background check kills the deal a week before close [50:03] Forever corporation: how Chugach approaches M&A [54:47] HVAC target heads toward bankruptcy mid-diligence [55:59] Becoming the secured creditor to save the deal

  6. Jun 11

    The Real Work Behind the Close: When Judgment Beats the Checklist

    Brent Baxter, Sam Delestienne, Steve Hoffman, John Strenger, and Matt Melsen Winning a banker-run auction at 5% under the highest bid. Closing a deal when co-sellers have not spoken in months. Getting through 22 countries of employment complexity with a client who refused to work with EOR providers. Acquiring a Netherlands-based public company and discovering the due diligence documents were in Dutch. These are the problems that no playbook prepares you for. Four corp dev professionals share how they handled them, and what it cost when they got it wrong. What You'll Learn  How to win a competitive auction when you're not the highest bidder What seller conflict at the closing table looks like (and how to get a deal back on track) When an employer of record works in a cross-border carve-out and when it creates permanent establishment risk Why management trust in the buyer can outweigh the highest bid number What a first European acquisition actually costs in compliance, legal, and cultural surprises If you're running deals where the numbers are right but the relationship isn't, or you're in a market you haven't operated in before, DealPilot, powered by M&A Science, connects you with advisors who have closed deals in exactly that situation. ____________________ This episode of M&A Science is presented by DealRoom. DealRoom just launched the only MCP server built for Buyer-Led M&A™ — so your AI and your deal data finally work together. Connect Claude, ChatGPT, or Copilot directly to DealRoom and let your AI read your pipeline, analyze due diligence documents, and automatically write findings back.  See for yourself: dealroom.net/mcp ____________________ Episode Chapters [00:00] Intro [03:12] Partners who came to blows over valuation [03:37] The closing table walkout [05:47] Every deal craters on Friday [07:54] Why managing emotions is the hardest job after LOI [13:30] A door blows off an Alaska Airlines jet mid-process [16:00] Winning at $15M under the highest bid [18:23] Trust and reputation as deal currency [23:09] The "baby ugly" lesson [25:06] Preempting banker processes [32:14] What EOR is and when it works [33:52] Permanent establishment risk with C-level hires [34:48] CBA compliance across 22 countries [40:38] First European cross-border acquisition [42:38] Dutch documents and data residency surprises [46:20] Why in-person matters more in Europe [50:38] The $100M tax exposure that was not real [55:57] Outro

  7. Jun 4

    The Nordic Compounder Playbook: How Jörgen Wigh Runs 85 Companies With 22 HQ Staff and No Integration

    Jörgen Wigh, CEO of Lagercrantz Group Lagercrantz Group has completed 90+ acquisitions over 20 years and never sold one. CEO Jörgen Wigh runs 85 niche B2B companies under a 22-person headquarters with no integration, no exits, and no value realization targets. This is Part 2 of 2. Part 1 covers the deal model, while Part 2 is the operating culture. Jörgen gets into how 85 autonomous companies are governed without a matrix structure, why this model exists almost exclusively in the Nordics, what makes a founder walk away from a signed deal twice, why Lagercrantz deliberately targets a 10% failure rate, and what he would do differently starting from scratch today. What You'll Learn How Lagercrantz governs 85 autonomous companies with 22 people at headquarters Why the person who sources the deal always stays on the board post-close Why the Nordic compounder model exists here and almost nowhere else What makes a founder walk away from a signed deal twice What a 10% deal failure rate looks like when it's working as intended Why building this from scratch today takes at least a decade How cross-border deals get done when the legal contracts run 30 pages instead of 300 If you want to know how your team stacks up against the discipline Jörgen described across both episodes, take the M&A Competency Assessment. ____________________ This episode of M&A Science is presented by DealRoom. DealRoom just launched the only MCP server built for Buyer-Led M&A™ — so your AI and your deal data finally work together. Connect Claude, ChatGPT, or Copilot directly to DealRoom and let your AI read your pipeline, analyze due diligence documents, and automatically write findings back.  See for yourself: dealroom.net/mcp ____________________ Episode Chapters [01:14] Introduction and Part 1 recap [03:54] Deal governance: go/no-go process and board sign-off [04:31] No handoffs: why the deal sourcer stays on the board post-close [04:59] HQ structure: 22 people distributed across geographies [07:05] Why so many compounder platforms come from the Nordics [07:23] The cultural reasons: flat hierarchy, financial transparency, equality [09:19] Nordic management style versus US hierarchy [13:53] Cross-border deal friction: SPA length and legal complexity [24:43] Programmatic serial acquirer versus roll-up [25:18] The 100-day plan question: when Lagercrantz uses one and when it doesn't [25:59] The Bergman & Beving spinout ecosystem: six listed companies [26:45] Jörgen's role at Bergman & Beving and how conflicts are managed [29:57] Geographic expansion: Germany, Netherlands, DACH, Northern Italy [31:30] Starting from scratch today: why programmatic takes 10 years [33:01] EPS as the true long-term performance driver, not stock price [33:52] The perpetual ownership model and why it attracts certain sellers [34:17] The founder who backed out twice, patience won the deal [35:36] Failure rate: targeting 10%, what drives deals off course

  8. May 28

    The Nordic Compounder Playbook: How Lagercrantz Bought 90 Companies and Never Sold One

    Jörgen Wigh, CEO of Lagercrantz Group Jörgen Wigh has been CEO of Lagercrantz Group (STO: LAGR-B) for over 20 years. In that time he completed 90+ acquisitions, built a portfolio of 85 niche B2B companies, and delivered 15 consecutive years of record earnings per share. No capital raises. No forced integration. No exits. The Nordic compounder model has quietly outperformed global markets for decades, and Lagercrantz is one of the longest-running, most disciplined examples of it in operation. In Part 1 of 2, Jörgen walks through the deal model behind that track record.   What You'll Learn How Lagercrantz finds companies that are not for sale, and why the first call almost never closes a deal How Jörgen pushes for exclusivity in weeks when most sellers are running a banker-led process The earnout structure Jörgen uses to keep founders motivated for three years after signing What he says when PE shows up at 11x and the seller is tempted to take the bigger check Why founders walk away from more money for legacy preservation, and the conversation that earns it How to close 8 to 12 deals a year without breaking pricing discipline If you are holding pricing discipline against private equity and want to know whether your team would do the same, DealPilot, powered by M&A Science, runs the M&A Competency Assessment so you can benchmark deal judgment before the next term sheet. ____________________ This episode of M&A Science is presented by DealRoom. DealRoom just automated Pipeline Management with AI so you can spend less time updating deals, and more time working them.  Automatically push deal context from Outlook to DealRoom Pipeline and use AI to keep deal target data and tasks updated, so follow-ups never slip through the cracks. No manual logging. No stale pipeline data. See for yourself at dealroom.net/pipelineai ____________________ Episode Chapters [00:00] Introduction [05:48] Jörgen's path: analyst, McKinsey, and the Bergman & Beving spinout [07:00] Coming back as CEO in 2006 and rebuilding from scratch [09:21] Buy and hold, forever: how the model actually works [11:21] What makes a company worth buying (and what kills it) [12:28] A real deal: helicopter deck safety systems [13:52] Who sells to Lagercrantz, and why [15:44] The only two things Lagercrantz adds: energy and structure [20:17] Finding companies that are not for sale [22:36] When the banker shows up: getting exclusivity early [23:55] Holding the line at 4-8x EBITDA when PE bids 11x [25:09] The legacy preservation pitch that wins without matching price [33:38] Earnouts that keep founders motivated for three years [36:17] Running 85 companies with 22 people at HQ [36:46] The only three functions Lagercrantz centralizes [37:57] The annual MD conference and the peer network behind it [40:13] 8 to 12 deals a year, one a month

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4.9
out of 5
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About

M&A Science, hosted by Kison Patel (Founder & CEO of DealRoom), is your go-to podcast for mastering the art of mergers and acquisitions. Each week, Kison and his expert guests from leading brands like Xerox, FastLap, and Cisco dig deep into real-world M&A strategies, offering actionable insights to optimize your M&A practice. Whether you're an experienced practitioner or new to the field, M&A Science provides practical advice on key topics like sourcing, due diligence, integration, divestitures, and more. With over 300 episodes, this podcast is the premier thought leadership resource designed to streamline your deal-making process. Start listening today and visit mascience.com/podcast to access over 300 episodes. Brought to you by DealRoom, the leading M&A optimization platform used by the best M&A teams around the world

Information

  • Creator
    Kison Patel
  • Years Active
    2017 - 2026
  • Episodes
    424
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Show Website
    M&A Science

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