Podcast Episodes

Ep 527 How to Avoid an Earn-Out (Even in a Service Business)

Most business owners hit a fork in the road. 

Stay "on the tools" and keep making great money. Or start feathering back your personal involvement so the business can grow beyond you. 

In this episode…

Published on 12 hours ago

Ep 526 Best of 2025: 4 Moments That Change How You Exit

Built to Sell Radio just dropped a year-end special that pulls the strongest moments from 2025 into one episode.

Across four formats (Exit Story, Inside the Mind of an Acquirer, Mastering the Dea…

Published on 1 week ago

Ep 525 How to Know When to Get Out: What to do when Shopify threatens, Selling vs. hiring a CEO. A controlled process instead of massive auction and getting your cash up front.

If you're feeling a little queasy about the pace of change, you're not alone. AI is accelerating competition in almost every market, and it's making some business models feel irrelevant almost overn…

Published on 2 weeks ago

Ep 524 3 Non-Negotiables to Walk Away Clean, Turn Your Expertise into Recurring Revenue, and Avoiding a Deal-Killing Clause.

Most experts who start a practice or studio end up trapped by their own success. The schedule is packed, the waitlist is long, but every dollar still depends on them showing up. 

In this week's ep…

Published on 3 weeks ago

Ep 523 15 x EBITDA for a Service Firm

In this episode of Built to Sell Radio, John Warrillow sits down with Ujwal Arkalgud, who built the same company twice. Chapter one was a classic problem: a profitable, founder-heavy services firm wi…

Published on 4 weeks ago

Ep 522 The difference between 4x vs.8x EBITDA, Customer Concentration Discounts, PE Re-trades with Eric Wiklendt on this special edition of Inside the Mind of an Acquirer

For many owners, private equity feels like a black box: a buyer shows up with a multiple, some debt, and a term sheet, and it is hard to tell whether you are getting a fair shake or being set up for…

Published on 1 month ago

Ep 521 10x Outcome Selling Tiny to Private Equity and how to make the 'Cruise vs Double Down' Decision

Andrew Roberts spent two decades turning a bootstrapped family company from Brisbane into one of the most widely used text editors on the web, then faced the hardest call of his career: keep a comfor…

Published on 1 month, 1 week ago

Ep 520 How Chris Hutchins convinced Google to buy Milk—and Wealthfront to acquire Grove—despite not generating much revenue (and no EBITDA)

A strategic acquirer is a company buying to advance its own roadmap, distribution, or capabilities—unlike financial buyers (private equity, family offices) who buy primarily for cash flow. To a stra…

Published on 1 month, 2 weeks ago

Ep 519 How to Avoid the Unforced Errors That Can Wipe Out Your Equity

Spencer Dennis was an elite golfer whose playing career ended with spine surgery in his teens. He became a tour-level coach, running high-performance programs for juniors, college players, and pros.…

Published on 1 month, 3 weeks ago

Ep 518 Growth Equity, Control, and When Rolling Equity Fails — John Ruffolo (Inside the Mind of an Acquirer)

If you're considering your endgame, you're probably looking at private equity. Most PE firms use a familiar formula: buy a majority stake and ask the owner to "roll equity"—re-invest part of the pro…

Published on 2 months ago