What Buyers Want from Bankers and Founders

Andrew Morbitzer, VP of Corporate Development, Life360 (ASX: 360)

Your standard teaser tells a buyer everything about your company and nothing about why you fit their strategy right now. When sellers expect the buyer to figure out that alignment, the deal dies on the desk.

Andrew Morbitzer has led more than $2 billion in acquisitions at Intuit and GoDaddy, worked on the sell-side as an M&A advisor, and returned to the buy-side as VP of Corporate Development at Life360.

What You'll Learn

• Why do corp dev teams default to no on inbound deals before the first conversation
• How banker incentives and buyer incentives point in opposite directions
• How to research a buyer's strategy and priorities using only public information
• What a realistic projection signals to a corp dev leader versus what a hockey stick signals
• How to apply Buyer-Led M&A™ thinking from the sell side

If you're advising on deals and want a framework for how buyers actually evaluate fit, DealPilot, powered by M&A Science, has Buyer-Led M&A™ frameworks to help you pitch into the buyer's strategy instead of handing them a data sheet.

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This episode of M&A Science is presented by DealRoom.

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Episode Chapters

[00:00] Introduction

[07:12] Why Inbound Deals Rarely Fit

[09:40] Rationalization Over Strategy

[10:01] The Inbound Problem Is Not Just About Bankers

[15:43] When a Bank Actually Does the Work

[18:12] The Banker's Incentive Problem

[20:51] How to Actually Land the Pitch

[22:12] Cash Flow and Finance Partnership

[24:53] First-Hand Research on the Buyer

[29:42] How Detailed to Get on Value Creation

[34:30] What a Misaligned Banker Actually Costs You

[37:50] Cold Outreach vs. Warm Relationships

[40:45] Moves That Accelerate Trust

[43:07] Applying Buyer-Led M&A on the Sell Side

[42:48] The Year One Mistake That Bit Us

[46:12] Assessing Culture Fit Before Close