The short answer
How Geoff Green sold Fliteboard is a study in preparing early and choosing the right owner. He was the first external investor in founder David Trewern's Byron Bay eFoil company, sat on the board from the outset, and helped scale it to around $145 to 150 million in revenue over four years before it sold to NYSE-listed Brunswick in 2023. The board kept returning to one question: who should own this business at this point in time.
Key takeaways
- The right-owner question. Asking who should own the business at this point in time reframes the whole exit and strips out some of the emotion.
- Fund growth without heavy dilution. Fliteboard borrowed from its own shareholders at a good rate rather than raising more equity.
- A growth story has to be real. A serious buyer sees through a dressed-up story, so the track record has to carry it.
- Even experts use an adviser. A board full of deal experience still brought in a corporate adviser for the sale itself.
- Life after the exit deserves planning. The shift from a hundred-hour week to nothing is a real identity change.
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1 hr 17 minWatch the full interview
About this episode
This is Geoff Green's first-hand account. Over four decades and around 300 transactions he has worked as a corporate lawyer at MinterEllison, a business adviser, and an investor, and he has sat on every side of the deal table.
Fliteboard started on a Byron Bay beach. Founder David Trewern, a keen kite surfer Geoff had known and worked with for years, was heading out one day when the wind dropped. He looked at his board and wondered whether he could put a motor on it. That idea became the eFoil, an electric flying surfboard.
Geoff came in as the first external investor around 2018 and joined the board. Over the next four years the company sold Fliteboards into more than 90 countries, built a network of about 200 commercial partners, and reached combined revenue of roughly $145 to 150 million. In 2023 it sold to Brunswick, the 180-year-old, NYSE-listed American marine company behind brands such as Mercury and Boston Whaler. Heads of agreement were signed on 31 May 2023, the deal settled on 31 August 2023, and Brunswick announced the acquisition that September.
The value in the conversation is the discipline underneath the deal. The board treated the business as an asset with its own future and kept asking who should own it at this point in time, and Geoff is candid about how much that reframing, and the years of preparation behind it, shaped both the sale and the life that followed.
Chapters
- 00:00Meet Geoff Green: 300-plus deals, and the Fliteboard story
- 03:49From corporate lawyer to adviser and investor
- 05:30How Fliteboard began: a dropped breeze in Byron Bay
- 08:34The first raise, and 300 people paying to hold a place in the queue
- 12:31Attracting talent to Byron Bay, and management equity
- 14:41Debt or equity: funding growth through the shareholders
- 18:09Going global: Europe first, then the US
- 20:44Regulators, safety and battery fires
- 23:37Growth ceilings, and reinventing the company each year
- 25:33Yin and yang: the R&D lab and the assembly line
- 31:56Deciding to sell, and the right-owner question
- 39:53What tipped the decision to exit
- 41:55Meeting Brunswick, a 180-year-old marine company
- 46:07Why an experienced board still hired a corporate adviser
- 52:21Selling a growth story a buyer believes
- 56:33Deal structure: cash, scrip and warranty insurance
- 1:00:02What Geoff would do differently
- 1:04:32The biggest lesson: think about the endgame early
- 1:06:20Life after Fliteboard, and the identity shift
- 1:12:29Closing thoughts
Key moments
Geoff Green, in their own words:
We used to talk in terms of who is the right owner of this business at this point in time. The business is separate from the owner.
Geoff Green
No matter how many Fliteboards we built, there were ten times more people wanting to buy one.
Geoff Green
It's important, but it's not urgent. Everybody's going to be ready to exit in five years' time, except five years just keeps rolling.
Geoff Green
You have to do a lot of work for it to be a real growth story. Savvy buyers just see through it in a heartbeat.
Geoff Green
We all exit our business one day whether we like it or not. And once you accept that as the reality, the way you approach it changes.
Simon Bedard
Frequently asked questions
Who is the right owner for a business, and when should that change?
A useful way to approach an exit is to ask who should own the business at this point in time. It treats the business as an asset with its own future, separate from you as the founder. Geoff Green and the Fliteboard board asked it constantly, which made the timing decision calmer and clearer. Knowing your number and reducing how much the business depends on you are what give you real options when that moment comes.
How do you fund a fast-growing business without giving away too much equity?
You look past the default of raising more equity. Fliteboard had a seasonal cash cycle, so instead of diluting further it borrowed from its own shareholders at a good interest rate, repaying them once the northern-summer sales came in. Geoff Green says they raised five or six million dollars in a couple of days that way. The point for owners is to plan funding early, so growth does not quietly erode your ownership.
Do you need a corporate adviser to sell your business if you already have deal experience?
It usually helps, and Fliteboard is the proof. Geoff Green had worked on around 300 transactions and the board had deep experience, yet they still brought in a corporate adviser to run the sale. The adviser translated the story into terms a large buyer expected, drove a complex deal hard, and added real value. Running the biggest deal of your life yourself is where preparation and representation matter most.
What makes a growth story credible to a buyer?
Evidence. A serious buyer sees through a story that has been dressed up, so the growth has to be real and backed by data. Fliteboard reached around $145 to 150 million in revenue over four years, sold into more than 90 countries, and had demand that ran well ahead of supply. That kind of track record is what lets the right buyer pay well, rather than a forecast that asks them to take it on faith.
How long does it take to sell a business?
Longer than the signing suggests. Fliteboard talked with Brunswick for roughly 18 months to two years before signing heads of agreement on 31 May 2023 and settling on 31 August 2023, about three months later. The relationship and the preparation are what make the final stretch quick. The honest timeline is usually years of readiness, then months of process.
What is life like after you sell your business?
It can be harder than the deal itself. Geoff Green went from working close to a hundred hours a week to very little, almost overnight, and he is candid that there were stretches where he was not happy and few people to talk to about it. The identity shift is real. Planning what you will do and who you will be after the sale deserves as much thought as the numbers.
What is Fliteboard, and what happened to it?
Fliteboard is a Byron Bay company that makes eFoils, electric-powered hydrofoil surfboards that lift the rider above the water. Founder David Trewern started it around 2018, and Geoff Green was the first external investor and a board member. Over four years it grew to roughly $145 to 150 million in revenue and sold into more than 90 countries, then sold to NYSE-listed marine company Brunswick in 2023.
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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.
