Featured Stories
Selling an Edtech Business: The PositivePsychology.com Exit
PositivePsychology.com, a mission-driven edtech platform used by 19M+ professionals, was acquired in an 8-figure deal advised by FE International. This case study covers their growth, decision to sell, and the exit process.
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Transfer Online Business Ownership: Your Complete Checklist | FE International
If you have advanced along the business acquisition process to the point of contract signing and funding escrow then it’s likely your attention will be focusing upon the practical challenges of transferring an online business. There are many components to an online business and buyers can often be caught off guard by the logistics when the process begins. As with many things in business, preparation is key. Below we summarise the key parts in transferring an online business with best practice guidance on how to smoothly execute on each one.
SurveyMonkey Files for Nasdaq IPO, Google Ads Launches Strength Indicator, Amazon Surpasses $2000 PPS: Newsletter August 31, 2018
SurveyMonkey has this week filed for its IPO on the Nasdaq stock exchange. Documents filed with the SEC listed the fundraising target at $100 million, but the survey SaaS giant has yet to set a share price range. Recent financing from Tiger Global, ICONIQ and Social+Capital Partnership valued the company at $2 billion, despite 1H’18 reports showing net losses of $27.18 million (a 43% increase from the same period the previous year) on $121 million in revenue (a 13.6% increase from the same period the previous year). J.P. Morgan is listed as lead underwriter for the IPO.
Churn Rate Benchmarks, Nylas Closes a Series B, Braavo’s $6M Round, and Facebook Deletes Political Accounts: Newsletter August 24, 2018
Recurly this week published a study on subscription churn rates by industry type. The survey studied data from 1,200 businesses over the course of a year to establish benchmarks for a variety of different industries. Recurly found the overall monthly churn rate benchmark to be 6.12%, caveating the findings by noting churn rates vary greatly by industry. The survey also found that businesses in B2C industries experienced 7.69% churn, while those in B2B spaces experienced 5.56%. SaaS businesses had the lowest combined churn at 5.33%. This data is in line with FE data; the average churn for companies sold over the past decade is just 5.24%, beating the wider results published by Recurly.
Google One Subscriptions Open, WPBeginner Growth Accelerator Fund, Apple Pulls iOS 12 Beta: Newsletter August 17, 2018
Google One, Alphabet’s new cloud-based subscription productivity suite, is now available to new users. Announced a few months ago and rolled out to existing Google Drive subscribers, Google One plans will start at $1.99 per month for 100 GB, $2.99 for 200 GB and $9.99 for 2 TB, up to 30 TB. Google One brings with it discounts on hotels when searched for via Google Maps, as well as Google Play credits. While storage can be shared across multiple users, Google One is currently a consumer product and only available for US subscribers.
Collection of the 150 Best Free SEO Tools – 2019 Edition
You might be a one-man band, a lean startup, or an SEO working within a marketing team. Either way, you understand the importance of a solid strategy and the right tools to do the heavy lifting. Of course, it makes it even easier if that tool is free! Below are 150 SEO tools that are either free or have free trials to pro versions you can check out before you buy. We found most free SEO resources online were generally outdated, contained broken links or recommended methods that have since been hit with Google penalties. We hope this collection of the 150 Best Free SEO Tools serves you well in your 2019 SEO efforts.
Salsify Raises $43 million in funding, Slack Raises $400 Million to Compete with Microsoft and Facebook, Amazon Launches Alexa Auto SDK: Newsletter August 9, 2018
Salsify has announced they raised $43 million in a new round of funding. Based in Boston, the SaaS company helps e-commerce brands manage customers’ product experience by ensuring content is optimized across points of sale, as well as measuring active insights. This Series D round led by Greenspring Associates brings Salsify’s total VC funding to $98.1 million to date. While CEO Jason Purcell declined to comment on either the funding or an impending exit, it was noted in a press release that Salsify spent 40% of its 1H’18 revenue on research and expansion. Salsify plans to leverage the funding towards further investment in products, global expansion and employee growth.
DocuSign Acquires SpringCM, Brandless Receives $240 million in Funding, Twitter Shares Search Ranking Methods: Newsletter August 2, 2018
DocuSign Acquires SpringCM, Brandless Receives $240 million in Funding, Twitter Shares Search Ranking Methods: Newsletter August 2, 2018
Facebook Stock Falls 21%, Slack Acquires HipChat, Amazon Shares Rise, Google Drops Public Submit to Index Feature: Newsletter July 27, 2018
Facebook’s stock fell 21% (or $120 billion) following its Q2 earnings release this week. Facebook’s earnings report showed quarterly user growth slowing to just 1.54% (to 2.23 billion monthly users) compared to a 3.14% increase in Q1. Daily active user growth also slowed to 1.44% (down from 3.42% in Q1), however, Zuckerberg noted that 2.5 billion people use at least one of the company’s apps—Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger. Reuters consensus forecast showed revenues coming in at $13.36 billion in revenue, which was marginally higher than the actual numbers posted ($13.23 billion).
Salesforce to Acquire Datorama, Amazon Prime Day Results, Facebook Messenger AI Payments Patent: Newsletter July 20, 2018
Salesforce this week announced an agreement to acquire Datorama Inc., a cloud-based marketing platform in an $800 million acquisition. CEO Ran Sarig indicated that the platform would be included as a part of Salesforce’s Marketing Cloud, chiefly providing improved data integration, intelligence and analytics enabling marketers to build custom reports of holistic marketing data captured by the platform’s native AI. To date, Datorama has only raised $50 million in funding but counts PepsiCo Inc., IBM Corp. and Unilever PLC. among its biggest clients. A closing date for the acquisition has not yet been announced.
