Dear SaaStr: What is the typical timeline for selling a company?
For both my start-ups as a founder, the timeline was 5 years. And also … 60 days.
What I mean is, in both cases, we “met” the acquirer (public companies) about 5 years before we were acquired. That gave them a chance to meet up, learn about us, and see us grow into the valuations.
And when the timing was right (for different reasons) — the actual transactions took about 60 days from “We’d interested in build / buy / partner” to a signed purchase agreement. (Note: closing takes longer because you need government approvals, etc.).
And the very first time I went through it as a start-up exec, it was 3 years (from when we knew each other) and 30 days (from Let’s Buy You to Signed Deal). So a bit faster, but same chronology.
If it doesn’t happen in 60 days from “We’re Really Interested” to Signed Acquisition Docs, there’s usually an issue. It’s usually not actually time.
…
For a bigger example, take a watch of my deep dive with Mailchimp’s co-founder here:
The $12B+ deal with Intuit took a year from start to finish. And it only happened after another deal fell apart.
The “let’s finally do it” part happened fast. But the whole process from getting to know you to closing? A year or so.
