The short answer
Kurt Uhlir draws on 60+ transactions to share practical insights on business growth, acquisitions, and the leadership decisions that determine whether a scaling strategy holds together across multiple deals.
Key takeaways
- Knowing how to evaluate yourself as a business leader
- The unexpected parts of your business that add value to the deal
- How most businesses fail at creating products solving problems
- The one thing that is overlooked the most in successful buyer-seller relationships
- How to spot the best deals during slow economic times
Listen to the podcast
53 minWatch the full interview
About this episode
Some entrepreneurs are mad scientists, cooking up the latest and greatest ideas. Kurt Uhlir is not one of those entrepreneurs. He’s the nuts and bolts guy. The one who analyses, unpacks, and optimises. He is a scaler, and he’s got a proven track record of success.
With over 60 transactions under his belt - most on the acquisition side, Kurt’s skill lies in 10xing and helping companies rapidly scale. He’s been around all facets of business from startups to enterprises with hundreds of millions in annual revenue and has practical take home tips for everything from hiring to problem-solving, to building your worklife to support your homelife.
Chapters
- 6:00Some entrepreneurs are just born with it. When Kurt Uhlir was 14, he had to file two LLCs because he had so many friends working for him
- 14:57Scaling is no easy feat, but in it, Kurt found his niche. He became the granular thinker in the senior leadership team to recognise inefficiencies and optimise every area of the business
- 20:34Kurt has been on over 60 transactions. What he’s realised is that the best asset in an acquisition is the team. Kurt lays out an example of when he acquired traffic.com for $170M back in 2006
- 28:31Looking to grow your business via acquisitions? It starts with being transparent about some of the gaps in your roadmap. By sharing your challenges, you open the door for new opportunities and accelerated growth
- 50:50If you’re an SME looking to scale, you need to get past your inflection point. The easiest way to do this is to build an advisory council of three to five individuals, give them a bit of equity, and listen to them for 12 to 36 months
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About Kurt Uhlir
Kurt Uhlir is a globally recognised marketer, operator, and speaker.
As a dynamic and charismatic speaker on marketing and innovation, Kurt’s speaking experience includes speeches across the United States and Europe in addition to presenting at prominent industry events such as PPAI, GDC, the White House, and private company/team workshops. He advises leaders, from startup founders to private-equity backed CEOs to the President of the United States.
Kurt is a popular and entertaining commentator and has appeared on national television shows and periodicals, including the Wired, TechCrunch, Thrive Global, USA Today, Business 2 Community, WGN Radio, NBC, and ABC.
He has built and run businesses from start-up to over $500M annual revenue, assembled teams across six continents, been part of the small team leading an IPO ($880M), and participated in dozens of acquisitions. He is recognised for his proven ability to develop early-stage initiatives into thriving business enterprises and scale growing organisations through the power of B2B storytelling.
Connect with Kurt Uhlir
About the show
Buy Grow Sell is hosted by Simon Bedard, founder and managing director of Exit Advisory Group, a boutique mergers and acquisitions advisory firm that helps Australian business owners value, prepare for and navigate a sale. Every conversation draws on real deals and the patterns behind them.
