My 9-Figure Exit to Autotrader | Matt Watson

The Wise Exit

E25: On today's episode, we have tech expert, entrepreneur and founder of three successful tech companies, Matt Watson. As a technical and product-focused founder, Matt has a unique talent for balancing technology and business goals and knows what it takes to sell his business when the time is right.

Matt built the largest automotive focused CRM platform in North America called VinSolutions, and he sold it to Autotrader for $150 million in 2011.

After selling his second technology company, Stackify, Matt is now focused on building out his current software development firm Full Scale, leveraging all of his experiences and expertise. Matt is also the host of the Startup Hustle Podcast, where he shares insights, tips and stories from his own entrepreneurial journey and from some of the most successful business leaders in the world.

In today's conversation, we talk about being open minded to either raising capital or selling your business to enable the next stage of growth. Matt also shares how important it is to understand how your transaction earnout is achieved when you are no longer making all the decisions.

A few episode highlights:

4:38 - A car dealer walks into Sears to buy a computer...

7:15 - I'm your Zuckerberg to your Winklevoss

8:21 - The hustle to get VinSolutions off the ground

12:17 - The strategic advantage that created a SaaS rocket ship
18:10 - The pros and cons of taking venture investment to handle exponential growth

22:14 - The Autotrader acquisition, and how it almost didn't happen

26:44 - The "Rule of 40" in valuing the business

39:05 - The potential pitfall of selling to the wrong Private Equity group

I hope you enjoy my conversation with Matt Watson.