How to sell a company for 2x its price

We started conceptualizing Slidebean in 2013. I distinctly remember doing some research on 'presentation companies.' Our competitors. What happened to other startups that tried to improve the slide creation process? 

One story that stood out was a company called SlideRocket. They had been acquired by VMWare and then sold to Clearslide, so SlideRocket became a sort of a role model for us. 

While the exit valuation was not disclosed, we pushed this story hard to our investors: a better presentation platform raised a couple of funding rounds. It was acquired within 5-6 years of launching. It was perfect for building a case that we could do something similar! 

In a very unexpected turn of events, I connected with one of the co-founders of that company last week: Mike Lingle. And he agreed to share the whole story.

In a parallel universe where SlideRocket wasn't acquired, or where we had come up with the idea for Slidebean a couple of years earlier, we would have been direct competitors. But lucky for you, that's not the case. 

In this video, we share some of the highlights, but if you want to listen to the whole thing, check out our full conversion on the new Company Forensics podcast, just below. 

More importantly, Mike has agreed to join the new Expert Network at Slidebean. You will now be able to book office hours with him and many other experts across different fields. An office hours slot is also included for free in our Founder's Edition plan.

Listen to the full interview:

Try the Slidebean Expert Network