Ep. 270 — Alejandro Cremades: The Beginning Always Has to Start with the End

6 min read

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Episode Summary

In the privately held world, the word “exit” is basically a four-letter curse word. In startup land, it’s the entire point. Investors put money in, you scale, you grow value, you deliver a return, everyone moves on. The whole industry is built around the discipline most owner-operators don’t pick up until something forces them to: a triggering event, a buyer at the door, a podcast that finally lands. By then they’re behind the eight ball. Alejandro Cremades has lived both sides. He built and sold CoFounders Lab, raised from 14 VCs, testified at the US House on the JOBS Act, and now runs Panthera Advisors on deals from $250K seed rounds to $200M transactions. We got into why selling is 10x harder than raising, why whoever talks Milestone 6 — Transaction Value first loses, why VCs invest in people while PE invests in numbers, and the trick of vetting an investor by asking to call the founder of a portfolio company that failed. The throughline: the way you raise money today shapes the exit you can actually run tomorrow.

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## Top 10 Takeaways
  1. Fundraising is networks, not money. Look at who’s writing the check and what door they open next.
  2. Every 18-24 months your company transforms, and so does the kind of investor you actually need.
  3. The way you raise money today shapes the exit you run tomorrow. Beginning starts with end.
  4. On a raise you need everything figured out. On a sale, leave room for the buyer to dream.
  5. Whoever talks Milestone 6 — Transaction Value first loses. Force the buyer to name the number, then negotiate up.
  6. Strategic buyers don’t care about your DCF. They care how you slot into their roadmap.
  7. Your company is not you. Detach your identity, or every deal turn will gut you.
  8. Acting desperate kills the deal. Be the can of soda in the desert: unattached, hard to open, more wanted.
  9. Lawyers don’t get paid to close deals. They get paid to redraft them. Stay out of the terms talk.
  10. VCs invest in people. PE invests in numbers. Pick the one that fits the stage you’re actually in.

Sound Bites

“When people raise money, they don’t realize that when you’re raising money, there’s money in with expectations of money out. So one thing that I really got present to was that the beginning always needs to start with the end.” (@TBD) — Alejandro Cremades

“It’s like being in a desert, and imagine the company that wants to acquire you is someone that is thirsty. Finally, they found a can of soda that is completely unopened. And that’s your company. The more that it takes for them to open that can of soda, the more that they want it.” (@TBD) — Alejandro Cremades

“Lawyers, after you’ve selected the LOI that you’re going with, and you go into the exclusivity period of 60 or 90 days, and they’re drafting the legal documents, it is not in their best interest to get the deal done. Why? Because the minute the deal gets done, they stop billing.” (@TBD) — Alejandro Cremades

“Private equity firms, they go after numbers. Venture capital firms, they go after people.” (@TBD) — Alejandro Cremades

“Regardless of when and how you want to get out of your business, the sooner you can think about your company like a financial asset, the sooner you can focus on growing value with the end in mind.” (@TBD) — Ryan Tansom

About This Episode

Alejandro Cremades is co-founder of Panthera Advisors, a boutique M&A and capital raising firm working on deals from $250K seed rounds up to $200M transactions. Born and raised in Madrid, he came to the US for his master’s at Fordham Law, joined King & Spalding as an attorney on the Chevron vs. Ecuador case ($113B at stake), then walked away to build CoFounders Lab into one of the largest founder communities online before selling it to a California media corporation. He testified at the US House Committee on Small Business during the JOBS Act, hosts the DealMakers podcast (2M+ downloads), and is the author of The Art of Startup Fundraising (foreword by Barbara Corcoran) and Selling Your Startup. He brings the inside view from the startup world, where exit isn’t a curse word, it’s the whole point.

Resources Mentioned

  • The Art of Startup Fundraising by Alejandro Cremades — Foreword by Barbara Corcoran. Available on Amazon.
  • Selling Your Startup by Alejandro Cremades — Released three weeks before recording. Available on Amazon.
  • DealMakers Podcast — Alejandro’s interview show, 2M+ downloads at time of recording.
  • Panthera Advisors — Alejandro’s M&A and capital raising firm. — panteradvisors.com
  • Alejandro Cremades — Articles, books, and resources. — alejandrocremades.com
  • CoFounders Lab — The community Alejandro built and exited. Acquired by a California media corporation.
  • Chevron vs. Ecuador case — $113B investment arbitration case Alejandro worked on at King & Spalding.
  • JOBS Act — US legislation Alejandro testified on at the House Committee on Small Business.
  • Crunchbase / PitchBook — Tools Alejandro recommends for benchmarking competitor valuations.
  • Chris Yeh — Blitzscaling — Referenced by Ryan for hyper-growth playbook.

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