This Man Speaks Truth! Time Kills Deals

June 12, 2015
Exit Planning
1 min read

Hayes Bryant  from First Avenue Partners wrote a great piece over on Linkedin today about how “Time Kills Deals.”  Gosh, if that’s not the truth.  As a recovering investment banker I still intimately remember how accurate that old saw is.

As a practicing valuation guru, I now get to see those same train wrecks unfold in sloooooow motion from the outside.   Hayes lays out four steps, which I’ll blatantly steal here:

  1. Make a “working Group” list (i.e. all those involved in the deal)
  2. Make a timeline + responsibilities schedule
  3. Schedule an Organizational Meeting
  4. Schedule the next deadline

I’m a huge fan of #4: if you aren’t pulling out your calendar and scheduling your next milestone at the end of the meeting, you’re unncessarily extending the timeline. And in a world where closing means getting paid… why delay?

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Dan is the Founder of Quantive and Value Scout. He has two decades of experience in leading M&A transactions. Additionally oversees Quantive's valuation practice and has performed thousands of business valuations.

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