Who actually buys your business

Finding the Real Buyer: why most successful acquirers are outside the obvious shortlist

Many owners assume their eventual buyer will be a competitor, customer or familiar industry name, yet in more than 90% of Simon’s deals, the successful buyer was someone the seller had never heard of. Buyers may emerge from adjacent industries, investment groups, international markets or individuals looking to become entrepreneurs through acquisition. Simon explains why relying on the obvious shortlist can restrict competition and leave value on the table, and how a properly run sale process uncovers buyers the owner would never have found alone. The discussion changes how founders think about the market for their business and what it takes to create genuine buyer tension.

About Simon Bedard

Simon Bedard, podcast guest

Business Sales Specialist & Author

25+ years Finance, investment, energy and technology experience100+ episodes Host of the Buy Grow Sell podcast20K+ Business-owner and adviser audience2024 winner BX Best Consulting Company of the Year

Simon Bedard helps business owners build businesses they can sell.

He is the Founder and CEO of Exit Advisory Group, National Chair of the Australian Institute of Business Brokers, a Registered Business Valuer, and the author of Exit Like an Expert, endorsed by a Bain & Company advisory partner and one of Australia’s best-known economists.

If your audience includes founders, investors, business owners, or the advisers around them, you and Simon have something in common.

Simon works on the part of the business owner’s journey that decides whether all that building and growing pays off. Turning a business you own into one someone will actually buy.

On his own podcast, Buy Grow Sell, he has interviewed more than 100 founders who have sold their companies, including the one who led Swisse to a $1.7 billion exit, and people like Finder.com co-founder Fred Schebesta, and a games maker whose studios were bought by Disney, Sony and Atari. He does lots of deals himself, so he brings stories and specifics, and he is an easy, engaged guest.

Unfortunately, most owners leave their ultimate ‘pay day’ to the end.

View profile →

Book Simon Bedard for your show

Request an interview →