Season A - Ep. 13: Michael Lyon, Founder & MD at Vista Point Advisors on Selling your SaaS company

SaaShimi

Michael Lyon, is a Founder and Managing Director of Vista Point Advisors, an investment bank exclusively focused on Software and internet. In this episode, he discussed main drivers of SaaS valuation and how revenue models may influence it, Private Equity funds that are active in the space, what founders need to fix prior to selling SaaS companies, how they should handle inbound calls from potential investors, and many other things.

BIO

Michael Lyon is the Founder and Managing Director of Vista Point Advisors. Michael has spent 24 years as a technology investment banker and chemical engineer. Prior to founding Vista Point Advisors, Michael worked at Citigroup where he was a senior member of the technology M&A team. Prior to Citigroup Michael was an engineer for ExxonMobil and BP where he managed chemical plant operations.

TIMESTAMPS

01:00 Vista Point Advisors and Mike's background

02:00 Vista Points deal sourcing

03:05 SaaS market activity

05:00 Main drivers of SaaS valuation

12:50 Revenue models and how they influence valuations

16:00 Selling On-Premise software companies

18:35 Earn-outs or not Earn-outs

19:55 Bringing house in order before selling the business

23:00 Choosing a buyer and length of the sales process

27:15 Private Equity funds active in the SaaS space

28:45 Handling inbound calls from Private Equity funds

29:45 When to call an Investment Banker

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