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A secret to selling any business is to identify the company’s true value to potential buyers. Sharon Gillenwater learned that lesson during the buildup of her own business and used it to negotiate a $25 million cash buyout in 2025, five times the company’s ARR in that same year. Here are some lessons she learned that you can use for your own business.
Building Strategic Value Through Differentiation
The story of Boardroom Insiders is a powerful example of identifying a need others are unwilling to meet and using it to build a reputation with loyal customers and differentiated services. The company, founded by Sharon Gillenwater around 2008 – 2010, was meant to solve a problem that larger data companies had failed to address. While data scraping was being used to populate databases for sales teams to leverage in making inroads with potential customers, Boardroom Insiders saw an opportunity to dig deeper. They used open web searches, SEC filings, LinkedIn profiles, and more to meticulously dig for information on the decision-makers at hundreds of businesses, including Fortune 500 companies.
These curated executive profiles were detailed enough to provide real insight for salespeople to make inroads and see results. The service was a SaaS, but it was more than just a subscription business model. Boardroom Insiders allowed for customizable reports to be created. This type of customization won sales, which in turn won new customers for the business. While the process was highly manual and limited in scalability, it offered depth of work that no one else was providing, immediately allowing BI to stand out among its competitors. The complexity made it unique, enhancing its value through results and customer loyalty.
Creating Value Beyond Revenue
As Boardroom Insiders (BI) got off the ground, it wasn’t easy going. Gillenwater bootstrapped the initial investments to get the business up and running, with $275K coming from three investors. Sometimes she had to work as a consultant to help ensure payroll was met. As traction grew and the business scaled, Boardroom Insiders reached $5M in annual recurring revenue, delivering strong financial results through subscription revenue and by serving enterprise-level companies, resulting in long-term contracts. All of this made BI a valuable acquisition target.
In order to make the type of return that Gillenwater knew the company was worth, she knew she would need to focus on strategic buyers, companies who could see how the company strengthened its own market position, expanded its product offering, and created additional value for existing customers. A purely financial buyer would focus solely on the current annual financials. A strategic buyer would also focus on the potential to expand their own interests.
Strategic Buyers Shape the Sale
A private equity firm first approached Boardroom Insiders with an offer, putting the potential valuation at $48M. Perhaps the significant amount was meant to elicit a quick reaction or to swoop in and acquire a company before it could understand its own value. Whatever the reason for the initial valuation, Gillenwater and her fellow investors recognized an opportunity to get more parties interested and create a bidding war. To do that, the decision was made to hire an M&A advisor to conduct a competitive sale process, which would prove critical to the overall process.
Creating a competitive process meant not relying on a single offer. Flexibility provided the leverage to secure the desired terms for Boardroom Insiders. Multiple suitors meant multiple valuations, allowing the market to see BI’s potential value, and it led to a $25M cash offer from London-based Euromoney. While the final price was not as high as the earlier valuation, the multiple suitors allowed for the owners of Boardroom Insiders to dictate terms and get the payout in the format they desired.
Key Takeaways
The sale of Boardroom Insiders demonstrates that premium valuations are rarely driven by revenue alone:
- Build strengths through differentiation rather than relying solely on financials to achieve the greatest payout.
- Create competition among buyers to maximize negotiating leverage.
- Understand which type of deal matters most to you, and make sure the deal structure aligns with what you are looking to receive.
Ultimately, Boardroom Insiders achieved its $25M payout because the business had become strategically valuable to the right buyer, at the right time, and through a competitive process. They used expert guidance to manage the process and walked away satisfied.
If you need a team to help you get buyers for your business, let us help.