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Clarity

Mathieu Guerville

Chicago, IL

VP Business Development at Tradespace.io, leading IP platform for licensing and commercialization. Ex Corporate Venture Capital at UL. From a career in Strategy, M&A and Business Development with background in market intelligence, consulting and international trade.

Led development of a new business unit from 0 to 300 employees in first 3 years though a mix of acquisitions, open innovation and organic initiatives. Leading strategy, deals and integration and CEO/board level reporting.

Specialties: Strategy, M&A (pre/post transaction), Business Development, Innovation/NPD, Competitive Intelligence

500 Startups batch 25 | www.tradespace.io | www.valutico.com | www.m-guerville.com

$2.50/min

Mathieu donates to charity: water ($1,354.38)

31 Calls

13 Reviews

29 minutes
Avg. call

Venture Capital Business Strategy Business Valuation Mergers & Acquisitions Patent Strategy Corporate Venture Capital Technology Scouting M&A due diligence M&A execution

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Venture Capital

Started a $10m / year corporate venture fund

Intellectual Property Analytics & Licensing

Business Development @ Tradespace.io, leading IP marketplace

I Can Answer Questions on M&A and Help You Sell or Acquire Successfully

I lead corporate development for a division of a billion dollar company. I've bought 4 small companies ($3m - $30m in revenue) and bid on many more small (incl. pre-revenue) and large. I can shed insights on the process, how to handle bankers and intermediaries, and how to increase the odds of a deal being successful, whether buying or selling. I've also led post-deal integration and can share learnings on best practices.

Innovation

Innovation professor at top 25 Global MBA program
Innovation director who led digital transformation of 100+ year old company
Open Innovation consultant and speaker

Answers 9
Reviews 13

Answers

Mathieu Guerville answered

What is the best way to reduce personal and parent company tax liability when starting multiple companies?

Some states in the US allow for what's called a Series LLC, where multiple companies are under a single entity

If you're the sole member of the LLC (Series or traditional) you may also be able to be a LLC for legal reason (liability protection) but a treated as a S-Corp for tax reason (more advantageous in many case)

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Accounting

Financial Accounting

Business Strategy

Mathieu Guerville answered

Google for Online Shopping: How do I calculate market size and TAM, SOM and SAM? Do the three have to be different? (Please refer to details)

TAM, SAM and SOM are nice terms to put on a powerpoint deck but ultimately they're not useful for you to run your company

Your TAM is huge, that's great, but target a segment where you can make a difference and make that your SAM. Amazon started with books and then expanded, if you start with everything but you only have a handful of SKUs per category you'll get nowhere on revenue, have larger costs, and customer experience will be terrible. Uber started with black car (premium) service only before expanding, amazon books only, Tesla with just one model.

So pick a segment to focus on, do a swag of your TAM, SAM etc... and focus on execution of the business rather than the pitch deck

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Business Strategy

Funding

Market Research

Mathieu Guerville answered

How can I learn more about selling companies?

"Flipping" companies is a very rare activity, Private Equity firms are among the very few specialists of that trade.
Some stints in i-banking, PE, or Corp Dev would help, but so some P&L experience, especially in turnaround scenario.

Short of having massive personal wealth, a leveraged buy out would be the only option and that raise the bar even more in terms of the type of performance needed to make it worthwhile.

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Brokers

Mergers & Acquisitions

Entrepreneurship

Mathieu Guerville answered

What is a normal churn rate for b2b saas company with an average monthly revenue of $850 per customer? Is 10% of the total monthly sales high or low?

anything >10% a YEAR would already be somewhat a concern for me (I do M&A of B2B SaaS companies)

10% a month is a big issue, either the product disappoints, the price is too high, or the engagement model isn't suited for SaaS and should be a one time purchase.

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Revenue & Profit Growth

Start-ups

SASS

Mathieu Guerville answered

I want customers to reach out to my potential suitor to buy us. How can I encourage my customers to do so?

With all due respect, that isn't a good idea. If you do feel that you'd be better off bought by this competitor it's completely OK, but having customers be matchmakers is a big no-no.

The message to both parties would be harmful to you. Customers would see this as a sign of potential abandonment of your product and therefore avoid buying it for fear of discontinued support. The acquirer-to-be would see this as an odd and unprofessional approach, either negatively affecting their potential desire to buy, or simply the valuation based on this showing of limited business acumen.

You can reach out yourself or use an advisor (independent or investment bank, depending on deal size)

Good luck, happy to help if needed

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Mergers & Acquisitions

Mergers

Mathieu Guerville answered

What is the best way to develop a clear business plan for a tech startup?

Templates can help a bit, but in reality some business models are best explained in their own ways, and business plans will contain the same headers but wildly different content from one industry to the next.

Talk to people about your business, when you've found the simple and repeatable ways to explain what it is, why it's compelling to some people, and how it could grow and be profitable, you have the building blocks for the business plan.

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Business planning

New Business Development

Tech Startups

Mathieu Guerville answered

How do you sell a business without looking 'desperate'?

There are plenty of ways to present yourself that won't seem desperate, such as saying that you feel that your original vision could be better realized as part of a larger organization (either because more resources or complementary offerings) or the perfectly acceptable "founder wants to move on to other things"

Any buyer will be more interested in the potential post-close than in why you sell. Appease their fears about the quality of the business and the transition (retention of talent and management is often the #1 risk when buying a small business)

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Exit Strategies

M&A experience

Strategic M&A

Mathieu Guerville answered

How to demonstrate leadership when you are not the boss and the company is not a traditional startup?

I think you may be using the word "leadership" with a different meaning. You seem like a go-getter and a potential high performer (do more, do it very well, do things beyond what's expected of you), but these are different than a leader (inspire other people, set direction and governance) or a manager (optimize resources use, human or otherwise)

A low-risk, good way to grow and stretch your talent, comfort zone and how people perceive you is to take on special projects. Ideally special projects that will lead to new products and new roles down the line, that way if you perform there is a natural transition towards the new role.

The reality though is that a company of 25 employees and a culture such as the one you describe may simply not be one where growth opportunities abound.

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Leadership Development

Career Development

Mathieu Guerville answered

What does it mean when a VC asks you, “what cap are you raising at?”

"Cap" is applicable only if you are raising via a convertible note. If you are doing an equity round (issuing new stock (called a primary, is most normal) or selling existing stock (called a secondary) then you wouldn't talk about a cap but a "valuation" instead (pre or post money).

In that context a cap is short for a valuation cap, meaning the highest possible valuation that will be used to calculate the conversion of the note to stock during the next fundraise in which stock is issued.

A note is like a promise to give you stock in the future in exchange for your money now.

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Seed Capital

Venture Capital

Raising Venture Capital

Reviews

Our call with Mathieu was extremely productive and helped us clarify a strategic direction. Mathieu engaged us before the call to understand our problem and asked for details. He then came to the call well prepared with a well thought out diagram of our options which then formed the basis of discussion. He was also very knowledgeable across a range of issues around our tech strategy but was honest to stay away from areas outside his core domain. We will defiantly be engaging with Mathieu again.

Ross Baker Source: Clarity

Mathieu's advice is outstanding, and he is an absolute pleasure to speak to.

Darryl Bull Source: Clarity

Very knowledgeable with great practical advice. Thank you Mathieu.

Miron Derchansky Source: Clarity

Excellent conversation and a tremendous perspective. I was also very pleasantly surprised by Mathieu's level of preparedness for our call. Thank you so much, Mathieu!

AT Ellis Source: Clarity

Great call, great information, thank you!

Igor Papirov Source: Clarity

Mathieu was very insightful and provided a very strategic viewpoint for my specific situation. I highly recommend him if you need M&A advice.

Paul Champaneria Source: Clarity

Had Mathieu on a 15 mins call, rushing, and he managed to got me a few answers i needed to be confirmed. Pleasant and professional talk, i would definitely go back seeking his advices if needed.

Francesco Consiglio Source: Clarity

Mathieu is very knowledgeable, helped a lot on specific questions we had, nice guy too!

Michael Hardenbrook Source: Clarity

We didn't have much time but during our short call Mathieu was able to address the most fundamental concern I have in approaching my first liquidity event. That interaction alone was incredibly helpful, as I now have more confidence in one path over another. Thanks a bunch!

James Maher Source: Clarity

Very good insights.

Pietari Grohn Source: Clarity

Great insights, straight to the point replies, actionable and practical advise. Highly recommended!

Matas J Source: Clarity

Member since December 2015