The short answer
Luke Hohmann shares how he bootstrapped and sold an enterprise SaaS business built around a mission, including his approach to valuation, building buyer relationships, and running a disciplined sale process.
Key takeaways
- The ins and outs of Participatory Budgeting
- Luke’s business gems and mistakes learned along the way
- How the next generation is learning financial literacy
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53 minAbout this episode
Luke Hohmann is a serial entrepreneur that’s planning to disrupt the cycle of business – for better.
After building and selling his last company, Conteneo, an enterprise SaaS company that helped global organisations like BMW, Salesforce, eBay, Transamerica, and many others manage $3 billion through Participatory Budgeting, he shifted gears from the boardroom to the schoolyard.
Using the concept of Participatory Budgeting, Luke is now teaching financial literacy and civics to schoolchildren. This episode has great teachings from one of the “good guys in tech” and includes his secret long term plan that will change the way we do business in the future.
Tune in and find out.
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About Luke Hohmann
Luke Hohmann is a serial entrepreneur with two successful exits. Luke bootstrapped and sold his last company, Conteneo, an enterprise SaaS company that helped global organisations like BMW, Salesforce, eBay, Transamerica, and many others manage $3 billion through Participatory Budgeting.
Participatory Budgeting is a global movement, endorsed by the UN, in which communities decide how to invest real money. Luke has been producing PB events around the world, in both the public and private sector, for more than a decade.
At his last company, Conteneo, he invented Weave, the software platform businesses use for Participatory Budgeting. His clients made over $3 billion in investment decisions using Weave before he sold that company two years ago.
Luke has now founded FirstRoot, a startup devoted to teaching financial literacy and civics through Participatory Budgeting in schools. Their BHAG is to get $1K into 1M schools globally and watch what happens when kids are in control of $1B.
They are offering a family version of their app for free so that parents can work directly with kids doing such things as planning a vacation, choosing charitable donations, or planning a home remodelling project.
In addition to this, Luke has written four books on topics ranging from cognitive psychology and organisational behaviour to software architecture and serious games. He is also a good speaker and has delivered highly acclaimed keynotes around the world.
He is a former United States National Junior Pairs Figure Skating Champion, and he is one of the good people in tech. Instead of building companies to flip, he builds companies that make the world better – something that seems to be quite rare in Silicon Valley these days.
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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.
