Episode Length: 32 minutes

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Laura Roeder didn’t use a broker, M&A advisor, or marketplace to sell the social media scheduling tool, MeetEdgar.

She found her buyer the same way she’d found success throughout her career: with a gutsy cold pitch.

Learn how she and her husband, Chris Williams, built and sold the platform for seven figures — and how they did it without sacrificing all their time to the business.

Quote from Laura Roeder on building MeetEdgar

Here’s what you’ll learn:

[2:45] How Laura and her co-founder husband prefer to split up tasks within the business

[3:42] The chance meeting in Buenos Aires that led to a match made in heaven

[5:48] How Laura first discovered the power of a good cold pitch, and used it to win customers and awards

[9:13] The million dollar business that Laura walked away from

[12:00] Why Laura and Chris named their social media scheduling tool MeetEdgar

[13:17] The advantage that helped MeetEdgar generate more than $100,000 in monthly revenue and nearly 3,000 customers

[17:30] How Laura and Chris designed MeetEdgar to function without them

[18:32] Why competition from Buffer and Hootsuite helped MeetEdgar succeed

[21:39] The 2018 Twitter change that caused a drop in revenue, and how the MeetEdgar team rallied

[22:01] Why Laura and Chris raised $300,000, only to give it back to investors

[26:06] How Laura cold pitched and negotiated her way to a 7-figure deal for MeetEdgar

[30:08] What’s next for Laura and Chris (and what she’s most proud of looking back)

We’re so grateful to Laura for sharing her story and expertise. You can connect with Laura on Twitter @lkr, her website, and her next startup, Paperbell.

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How Laura Roeder sold MeetEdgar

The 100-hour workweek is a badge of honor in startup culture. But MeetEdgar co-founders Laura Roeder and her husband, Chris Williams, are proof you can build a successful business and still have a life. In fact, structuring the business to run on its own helped them sell it for seven figures in 2021.

Both Roeder and Williams valued time freedom when they met at a party in Buenos Aires in 2012. She was a freelance graphic designer-turned-online course creator who prioritized a “chill stress-free life.” Williams, an app builder, “had been living four-hour workweek, like since before the four-hour workweek,” Roeder said on the They Got Acquired podcast, referring to Tim Ferris’ popular book, The 4-Hour Workweek, which was released in 2009..

When the couple launched social media scheduling platform MeetEdgar in 2014, Roeder was pregnant. With the birth of their first child just six months away, the couple became pros right from the start at delegating tasks.

“For any business, lots of things have to be done,” Roeder said. “But the variables that can be changed are who does those things and over what time period.”

After moving to the U.K., where Williams is originally from, before the birth of their second child, the co-founders became even more hands-off with the business due to the time difference between them and their U.S.-based team.

Over seven years, Roeder and Williams grew MeetEdgar’s annual recurring revenue (ARR) to “a few million dollars” and built an email list of 150,000. But after several years with little growth, they finally decided to sell in 2021.

How Roeder sold MeetEdgar using cold outreach

One non-negotiable for Roeder: She wasn’t sticking around when the company got acquired. One of the reasons she wanted to sell was so she could focus on her next company, a support software for coaches called Paperbell.

To find a buyer for MeetEdgar, Roeder made a list of companies that had purchased SaaS (Software as a Service) businesses similar to MeetEdgar. She then cold-pitched them via email. Ultimately, she negotiated a seven-figure cash sale to SureSwift Capital, a Saas-focused private equity firm, without a broker or listing on a marketplace. Having a strong team in place allowed her to reach a deal that didn’t require her or Williams to stay for the transition.

Roeder’s advice for other entrepreneurs eying acquisition: “Even if you’re still involved in your business, it’s important to get really clear on the jobs that you are doing. Do you have primarily a sales role? Do you have a head of product role? [Think] about what kind of talent that you’re filling in, so you can at least be clear about who will be needed to replace you.”