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Technical.ly
2 days ago
- Business
- Technical.ly
Most companies don't IPO, so here's how to plan for your likely exit
The most important day of an entrepreneur's journey might be the one when it ends. The big question: Will it end on your terms? That's the dilemma behind most startup exits, whether they take place through a merger, acquisition or an initial public offering (IPO). Experts put that distinction front and center during the 2025 Builders Conference session titled 'M&A or IPO: What is Your Company's Destination?' Moderated by Mike Ravenscroft of the University System of Maryland's Maryland Momentum Fund, the conversation featured attorney Kim Klayman of Ballard Spahr and Alexis Grant, founder of the M&A-focused newsletter They Got Acquired. Together, they laid out a candid, often under-explored roadmap of what founders really need to know about exiting — and why waiting until it's too late to plan is a mistake. 'Think about it early,' Grant said. 'Gives you more options.' The numbers are clear, Ravenscroft noted: Only a tiny fraction of companies ever go public, and even among VC-backed firms, IPOs are rare. The vast majority of exits happen via mergers and acquisitions (M&A). The panelists agreed that the perception gap around what makes an exit 'successful' can obscure the reality of its true impact. A $7 million sale might be life-changing for a bootstrapped founder with majority ownership. But if that same company had raised venture capital at a high valuation, the founder might walk away with little or nothing. 'If someone raises $5 million and they sell for $5 million, they probably didn't get any money,' Grant said. That disconnect is even more stark during economic downturns or slower capital markets. Klayman pointed to the increase in smaller companies acquiring other small firms — sometimes simply to pad revenue, not gain technology. But these all-stock or acqui-hire (in which a company gets acquired for their talent) deals can mask another story: Sometimes, the best-case scenario is simply survival. 'The reality is most companies end up in an M&A situation, even if it's a multi-generational business,' Klayman said. 'It does end up a lot of times in an M&A transaction if there is no succession plan.' The hardest parts that too few talk about Asked what founders need to prepare for, both panelists were unequivocal: The due diligence process is brutal. 'For many [founders], due diligence ends up being a second job,' Grant said, adding: 'You also have to keep running the business, and you want to run it in a way that performance does not drop, because that's the worst thing that can happen when you're going through a deal.' That's why both she and Klayman emphasized the need to 'get your house in order' — and do so early. From knowing who owns the IP to having clean cap tables and documented promises of equity shares, small oversights can kill a deal late in the game. 'I have actually seen one deal die because the whole company was built on this one piece of software, and that's what the buyer wanted,' Klayman said. 'And it was like, a software developer did it 25 years earlier, and they didn't paper it because it wasn't that important. And the deal just died.' She advised founders to use tools like Carta or diligence-prep software to identify red flags before a transaction is even on the table. Attorneys can help, but so can platforms that flag missing consents or unsigned option grants. 'Being organized is like 95% of the battle,' Klayman said. The stories behind the headlines Of course, learning these details can be difficult when many companies don't discuss them soon after an M&A takes place. The panel also pulled back the curtain on how mergers and acquisitions are framed in public — and how different the internal reality can be. Grant, whose company profiles founder-led exits, said PR statements often overhype vague synergies and downplay job losses or underwhelming returns. She added that sellers are often far more candid a year or two post-sale. 'Most of the stories we write, they're usually at least six months after the acquisition has taken place,' Grant said. 'The seller is more open to sharing real details at that point.' Klayman agreed: Sometimes the announcements make it seem like someone got a bunch of money, when usually the investors, even if they're paid first, 'are getting like 10 cents on the dollar,' she said. 'I don't think that people want those types of transactions to happen,' she said, 'but when they do happen, it takes effort and, I think, actually responsible founders to make it happen.' All emphasized that outcomes must be evaluated in context. Founders may sell to give their team stability, find a new role or offload a company responsibly instead of shutting down. What matters, they said, is alignment between a founder's goals and their investors' expectations. The closing message to founders was clear: Plan for your endgame from the beginning. Think through potential paths — and not just the flashy ones. Ask investors what their expectations are. Build a network that includes not just mentors and peers, but service providers who understand exits and won't charge you just to ask questions. 'If you don't know what success looks like, you're going to be poor no matter what,' Ravenscroft said, 'because you won't know it if you get it.'
Yahoo
25-04-2025
- General
- Yahoo
PA Local Heroes: Meet the social worker and pastor helping people through ‘all of the human stuff'
PA Local Heroes is a monthly feature sponsored by Ballard Spahr. Installments appear first in PA Local, Spotlight PA's weekly newsletter that takes a fresh, positive look at the incredible people, beautiful places, and delicious food of Pennsylvania. Sign up for free here. For eight years, Mandy Mastros spent her work days surrounded by numbers. But a life in accounting was far from a calling for the lifelong Lancaster County resident. She didn't enjoy 'being in a world where one plus one always equals two.' Instead, Mastros longed for a life where her day-to-day was less clear-cut. One that was centered on people. 'I was really missing that human connection,' she told PA Local. At the same time that she felt disconnected from her career, she felt more in tune with her spiritual journey. Things clicked for her when Mastros learned about a dual Master's of Divinity/Master's of Social Work program through the Moravian Theological Seminary and Marywood University. 'It just gave me goosebumps,' she said. 'I read the description and I'm like, 'That's what I want to do.' That intersection between all of the human stuff that we go through and our faith, because it's all so deeply connected.' Mastros — a member of Lititz Moravian Church since her early 20s — became pastor and licensed social worker at the Moravian Center of Lancaster in 2017, shortly after she completed the dual degree program. These days, instead of numbers and figures, her days revolve around following Jesus Christ's example of serving and supporting those around her, from the older adults who attend a day program affiliated with her church to people experiencing homelessness in downtown Lancaster. The many hats she wears inspired one Spotlight PA reader to nominate her for PA Local Heroes, a monthly series sponsored by Ballard Spahr that profiles community do-gooders and change-makers. Mastros' work — which she describes as 'not what I do' but 'who I am' — involves leading her congregation's Sunday service, various administrative tasks, worship preparation, and leading 'bilingual spirit time' at the Moravian Center's fee-for-service day program for older adults with memory conditions. But the scope of her role also extends far beyond those duties. When she became pastor at Lancaster Moravian, the church had recently moved from the suburbs to the city — four blocks from where Mastros grew up in downtown Lancaster, and a floor above the Red Rose Transit bus station. The Moravian Center's central location meant a lot of people were 'coming to the doors' in need of food, shelter, transportation, addiction support, or other things, Mastros said. That presented a dilemma, she explained: they didn't want to 'just turn people away, but we also know we can't be everything to everybody' given limited resources. So Mastros focused on getting to know other locally available services so she could point folks toward them. Her primary priority, she told PA Local, is to welcome everyone who comes into the center, to get to know them and their needs, and to treat them 'with dignity and respect.' 'Even if we can't meet whatever need they're having, this is going to be a safe space for them to come and talk about that,' Mastros said. 'And I'm gonna do everything in my power to help make the right connections for them, so that they can get the help that they need or to find those resources.' When there's someone with specific needs that 'fall through the cracks' of other programs — she gave the example of someone starting a construction job who may need help affording a neon vest — the church can order that for them, she said. Given its location above the bus station, the Moravian Center also has a program that provides bus passes to people in certain situations, like when they've got a job interview or an appointment at the Social Security office. Mastros also focuses on addressing particular immediate needs of the people who come to talk to her — namely, food and warmth. She keeps shelf-stable items and frozen meals on hand, and the church maintains a closet full of donated socks, blankets, gloves, hats, scarves, and toiletries for people to take, which a previous visitor dubbed 'The Hope Shop.' Something that's absent from all these conversations, Mastros said, is 'proselytizing.' 'If you come into my office, there's a really good chance we are not gonna talk about faith at all,' she said. 'It's not because it's not important to me, and I'm certainly open to talking about it, but it's because I want to respect where every person is coming from.' Mastros also does prison visits once a week with people who were unhoused before being incarcerated, and she advises a body called the Homeless Advocacy Board, a group of five people who've experienced homelessness and are engaged in local advocacy work on the issue. The nature of her work can make her feel overwhelmed at times, and seeing 'stigmas and misperception' toward people who are unhoused or experiencing addiction or other mental health issues can make her feel disheartened. But Mastros said she's got a 'really good support system' to help her along, like her partner and his children and friends who do similar work. Ultimately, she keeps doing what she does 'because in the highs and the lows of it, the highs are so meaningful,' particularly in moments when she notices a way that her work has helped change someone's life for the better. 'The purpose, the meaning, the joy that comes from that,' Mastros said, 'makes those tougher moments … tenable.' Know someone worthy of a PA Local Heroes feature? Let us know! If you learned something from this article, pay it forward and contribute to Spotlight PA at Spotlight PA is funded by foundations and readers like you who are committed to accountability journalism that gets results. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Technical.ly
29-01-2025
- Business
- Technical.ly
This Week in Jobs: Hit a high note in your career with these 24 open roles
Need a quick pick-me-up? Strike a chord. Whether you're a karaoke pro or can't carry a tune, breaking into song boosts your mood, releasing serotonin and oxytocin. The human mind loves music, and it's hard for the brain to feel anything but enthusiasm when you sing a favorite song out loud. While it's no substitute for a healthy mental health regime, breaking out in song can temporarily boost your mood. What's more, joining a choral or singing group can doubly benefit one's mental health, regardless of singing ability, combating loneliness and sadness. So start warming up those vocal chords because we've got opportunities worth singing about below. The News New year, new podcast. Introducing Builders Live, a monthly conversation about tech trends shaping local entrepreneurship hosted by Christopher Wink. Heads up! You can expect more drones flying over NJ, Delaware, and PA this year, thanks partly to agriculture, the military, hobbyists, and more. Here are four ways the new administration could impact the tech world in the first 100 days in office. It's Data Privacy Day. Learn more about protecting your company's online information in the age of AI. Speaking of AI — the new administration may have revoked Biden's AI order, but that doesn't mean the safety consortium will dissolve just yet. The Jobs Client Spotlight For startup founders who are still in school, legal guidance can seem like a luxury, but it can be essential to putting a business on the right path. Law firm Ballard Spahr has resources to help. Through the BASE (Ballard Academy for Student Entrepreneurs) program, the firm works with student entrepreneurs to help them develop their companies and gain leadership skills. Students in the program receive in-kind, pro bono legal assistance from a designated Ballard Spahr attorney team. Philly + Delaware DC + Baltimore Crossover could use a Software Development Engineer, Trilogy. Medifast is on the lookout for a Principal Product Manager – Data. Join T. Rowe Price as a Senior Software Engineer (.Net/C#) or Director of Enterprise Architecture- Governance & Strategy. Georgetown University is keeping an eye out for an HCM Systems Junior Analyst. IRAP (International Refugee Assistance Project) is hiring an . Pittsburgh LTIMindtree is searching for a Specialist- Data Engineering. Carnegie Mellon University could use an Embedded Software Engineer. Robotics company needs a Software Engineer- Perception. Virtusa could use a QA Lead. Remote The End
New York Times
27-01-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
Trump's Suit Against Pulitzer Board Faces a Hurdle: His Previous Arguments
Litigation has long been one of President Trump's favorite weapons against media outlets whose coverage he objects to. But in at least one case, he is encountering an unforeseen obstacle: his previous arguments in court. On Monday, the board that awards the Pulitzer Prizes — which Mr. Trump sued in Florida in 2022 for defamation — said that the case should be put on hold because, as Mr. Trump has argued in two other cases, a state court should not be permitted to exert control over a sitting president. 'Defendants agree,' wrote the law firm representing the board, Ballard Spahr. 'To avoid such constitutional conflicts, the court should stay this case until plaintiff's term in office has concluded.' Mr. Trump's lawsuit accuses the Pulitzer board of defaming him, in essence, by continuing to honor The New York Times and The Washington Post for their coverage of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. A state judge in Florida last year cleared the case to proceed toward trial. The Pulitzer board's filing on Monday leaned heavily on statements the president's legal team had made in other cases. One involved a suit filed in 2017 by Summer Zervos, a former contestant on 'The Apprentice' reality show, who accused the president of unwanted sexual advances. Mr. Trump's team argued that her suit should be thrown out or delayed because dealing with it — including by producing records during discovery or being forced to appear in court — would 'disrupt and impair' Mr. Trump's ability to do his job. (The suit was settled in 2021, after he was out of office.) Mr. Trump's lawyers repeated that argument last week in a different case in Delaware, in which he and his social media company are defendants. R. Quincy Bird, a lawyer for Mr. Trump in the Pulitzer case, did not respond to a request for comment. The Pulitzer board's filing on Monday was the second time since the November election that Mr. Trump's opponents in defamation lawsuits have sought to turn his arguments in other cases against him. The previous time came last month, and it involved a different set of legal issues than those at play in the Pulitzer suit. Mr. Trump is being sued for defamation by the men known as the Central Park Five, who were wrongly convicted and later exonerated in the rape and assault of a jogger in 1989, but whom Mr. Trump described as killers during the presidential debate last September. Mr. Trump sought to have that lawsuit dismissed, arguing that his comments in the debate were largely true. Last month, Shanin Specter, the lead lawyer for the five men, argued that was a matter for a jury to decide. To support this reasoning, Mr. Specter pointed to Mr. Trump's line of argument in a defamation lawsuit he brought against ABC News and the anchor George Stephanopoulos. When ABC noted that Mr. Stephanopoulos had been largely correct in saying Mr. Trump had been found liable for rape — in fact, he had been found liable for sexual abuse — Mr. Trump's lawyers successfully argued that should be left to a jury. The case was moving toward trial when ABC agreed to pay $15 million to settle the lawsuit last month.
