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Ken Marlin. He\u2019s the founder and managing partner of Marlin and Associates \u2013 an award winning mergers and acquisition business focused on investment banking. They are headquartered in New York city with offices in San Francisco, Washington DC and Toronto. Ken is also the author of The Marine Corps Way to Win on Wall Street: 11 Key Plans From Battlefield to Boardroom which was published in September. From 1971-1981, Ken rose in rank becoming a Marine Captain and Infantry Commander. He\u2019s applied his Marine Corps principles to leading successful businesses.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? \u2013\xa0 In Search of Excellence: Lessons from America\u2019s Best-run Companies
• What CEO do you follow? \u2013 \xa0 Fred Wilson
• Favorite online tool? \u2014 LinkedIn, Salesforce and Morning Star
• Do you get 8 hours of sleep?\u2014 No
• If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? \u2013 Pursue your passion and you\u2019ll do well\u2014play to your strengths and not your weaknesses

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Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:42 \u2013 Nathan introduces Ken Marlin to the show
• 03:00 \u2013 Ken is not doing it for the money
• 03:13 \u2013 Marlin and Associates tries hard to be the trusted advisor to people who want to buy or sell middle-market, technology companies
• 03:26 \u2013 Buyers and sellers pay Marlin and Associates retainers
• • 03:55 \u2013 \u201cThe bigger the deal, the smaller the percentage\u201d
• 04:20 \u2013 Ken shares their success in 2016
• 04:42 \u2013 Marlin and Associates gets 8-10 clients a year
• • 04:58 \u2013 Marlin and Associates is service-oriented
  • 05:45 \u2013 Marlin and Associates negotiate with all phases of the transaction
  • 05:54 \u2013 Marlin and Associates help buyers understand the strengths and weaknesses of the companies they\u2019re planning to buy
• 06:21 \u2013 \u201cWe always try to play the role of the honest broker\u201d
• 07:09 \u2013 There are no risk-free transactions, so the question that should be asked is how much risk is there?
• 07:38 \u2013 The average amount of transactions
• 08:27 \u2013 The types of seller and buyers
• 09:05 \u2013 The #1 reason a deal blows up
• • 09:31 \u2013 From a seller\u2019s perspective, transactions are made from trust
  • 10:00 \u2013 It\u2019s important that they have a set of financial projections they\u2019re going to meet
• 11:25 \u2013 \u201cPerfection is to give people a set of forecasts that you\u2019re going to meet and to meet it\u201d
• 11:52 \u2013 Key principle from Ken\u2019s book is \u201ctake the long view\u201d
• 13:12 \u2013 There are people who buy companies without a clear understanding of how that acquisition helps advance them towards a strategic goal
• 14:30 \u2013 Ken talks about the acquisition of LinkedIn by Microsoft
• 16:41 \u2013 The Famous Five

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3 Key Points:

• There are no such things as risk-free transactions\u2014the question that should be asked is how much risk is there?
• Give your client a set of financial projections that you\u2019re going to meet\u2014and, meet it!
• Work around your strengths, not your weaknesses.

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Resources Mentioned:

• Acuity Scheduling \u2013 Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
• Drip \u2013 Nathan uses Drip\u2019s email automation platform and visual campaign builder to build his sales funnel
• Toptal\xa0\u2013 Nathan found his development team using Toptal for his new business Send Later. He was able to keep 100% equity and didn\u2019t have to hire a co-founder due to the quality of Toptal
• Host Gator\xa0\u2013 The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible.
• Audible\xa0\u2013 Nathan uses Audible when he\u2019s driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5-hour drive) to listen to audio books.
• The Top Inbox\xa0 \u2013 The site Nathan uses to schedule emails to be sent later, set reminders in inbox, track opens, and follow-up with email sequences
• Jamf \u2013 Jamf helped Nathan keep his Macbook Air 11\u201d secure even when he left it in the airplane\u2019s back seat pocket
• Freshbooks \u2013 Nathan doesn\u2019t waste time so he uses Freshbooks to send out invoices and collect his money. Get your free month NOW
• Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives