How Hampus Jakobsson Sold His Tech Startup for $150M

Hosted by Simon Bedard, founder and managing director of Exit Advisory Group and author of Exit Like an Expert. Buy Grow Sell EP93. Published July 2023.

The short answer

Hampus Jakobsson shares how he built and sold a tech startup for $150M, including the passion and culture decisions that shaped the business and the complex, multi-attempt deal journey that ultimately got it across the line.

Key takeaways

Why acquisitions fail: the Maverick VS the Financier
Three key qualities to hiring the right employees
The different types of entrepreneurs and how that translates to the company you build
How to appeal to the technical buyer, user buyer, and financial buyer

Listen to the podcast

1 hr 6 min

Watch the full interview

About this episode

Back in university, Hampus Jakobsson and his friends didn’t want to work for “the man” - the big tech giants that dictated what resources you could access, what you could build, and all the hoops you had to jump through to be able to do it.

Instead, they built businesses out of passion. And had fun doing it.

One of these businesses included licensing a mobile product to Sony-Ericsson. This kickstarted a whirlwind journey and eight years later, over a cup of coffee, a $150M acquisition offer from Blackberry was on the table.

Hampus shares his story on how he helped build a team of people who prioritised passion and fun while still managing to double down year-over-year. His motivation around working with the right people to building the right product is a blueprint for others to follow.

Chapters

5:42Six friends who wanted to avoid working for a big tech company ended up with a business that caught the eye of one of those very tech giants - Sony-Ericsson
13:38The startup doubled their headcount every year. By 2010, Hampus’s team was sitting at 90 employees and $10M euros in revenue
16:38The recipe for successful culture is hiring great people who, fundamentally, like what they do and enjoyable to work with
33:21Going into the Blackberry meeting, Hampus thought they’d end up as customers after a typical nine-month enterprise sales process. But after a meeting and a fateful coffee, Blackberry offered to acquire The Astonishing Tribe for $150M which was 4x multiple of next year’s revenue
49:37The acquisition on both ends was not about the number. This astonishing six-week acquisition was about building long-term loyalty with Hampus and his co-workers

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About Hampus Jakobsson

Hampus Jakobsson was the CEO of Brisk, which finds the fastest paths to sales for companies like Evernote, Hootsuite and Zendesk.

In 2002, Hampus co-founded pioneering mobile UI firm The Astonishing Tribe, which was acquired by Blackberry in 2010 for $150 million. Hampus is also an angel investor in over 40 startups.

Connect with Hampus Jakobsson

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.