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Inc Founder News
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In 2018, when Jerry Jao’s A.I. marketing firm, Retention Science, made the Inc. 5000 for the first time, offers began rolling in to purchase the business. Jao, the company’s co-founder and CEO and an Inc.com columnist, wasn’t ready to sell, but he knew there would be more offers. In January 2020, a few months after Retention Science made the Inc. 5000 for a second time, the team started discussing an offer in earnest, from Constant Contact. Then the world closed down as the pandemic raged, complicating the sale and giving the buyer a temporary case of cold feet.
At the time, Jao writes, he often heard from bankers that companies aren't sold, they're bought. Meaning, when you sell your business, there's little you can control. The acquiring company determines the timeline, the price, and the terms, and it draws up the legal documents. That's all true, he writes, but there are rules any seller should observe to encourage a positive outcome. Read Jao’s column to learn the three things every founder should know about selling a business.
When Phyllis Newhouse’s company Athena Technology Acquisition Corp. listed on the New York Stock Exchange earlier this year, she became the only Black female CEO of an NYSE-listed special purpose acquisition company (SPAC). In 2002, when she launched Xtreme Solutions, she became the only Black woman CEO of a cybersecurity company. And before that, she spent 22 years in the Army, including three stints at the Pentagon, where she was often the only Black woman in the room when crucial decisions were being made.
Being "the only" in any situation can be lonely for some, but it doesn't bother Newhouse. “There have been more than 820 SPAC IPOs since 2009, but Athena is the only one with a Black woman as CEO--so everybody knows who I am,” she writes in a column in the September issue of Inc. “I embrace the opportunity to share a perspective others don't have.”
As a founder, Newhouse has always wanted to be the greatest of all time--the GOAT--in her field. If you're aiming to be anything other than the GOAT, she writes, you're less likely to be around to make the decisions that count. Read Newhouse’s column to learn the advantages of being an “Only”--and how to become a GOAT yourself.
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