My $100M Mistake + 6 Company Exit F**k Ups To Avoid

**Shaan Puri** (0:00)
Today, we are playing a drinking game on the podcast, and we're playing Never Will I Ever. And it's a game where we're talking about all the mistakes that we made when we were selling our company and saying, never will we ever make this mistake again. And if you ever want to sell a company or you've sold a company, if you sold a company, you're going to be able to relate some of these mistakes. I'm sure if you want to someday sell your company, it's good to listen to so that you don't have to pay the same price that we did and make these mistakes. So go ahead, grab a drink. We're playing Never Will I Ever.
And start sipping on a drink while we tell you about HubSpot, our partner for this episode.
Hey, let's take a quick second to talk about our sponsor, HubSpot. You know it, we know it. Next year is creeping up quick. And if you want to win inside your niche in 2024, you need tech that puts you in the pilot seat. You can collaborate on every inch of the customer journey inside HubSpot's new sales hub. With a comprehensive prospecting workspace and powerful sales analytics tools, your data is connected across your teams, so your leads never slip through the cracks. HubSpot's sales hub lets you accelerate every facet of your sales operation with precision. With over 1,400 integrations and tons of ways to mix in new features. So finish your Q4 strong and gear up for the next year with HubSpot's sales hub. Learn more at hubspot.com/sales. All right, let's get back to the pod.
Today, we are talking about how to sell a company and in fact, we're talking about how not to sell a company. These are mistakes that we made selling our company. So Sam sold the hustle to HubSpot and a big deal sold to a public company.
I've had two exits now under my belt and I've sold one to a big company, Amazon, and one to a small group of private buyers. And every time you sell your company, you learn a bunch of lessons. But we're going to make this fun. So if you've ever played the drinking game, never have I ever. We have a new drinking game for you. MFM style, right? This is Never Will I Ever. And Never Will I Ever is a game where we say never will I ever do blank again because we made so many mistakes.
We made these mistakes so you don't have to. We died so you don't have to hear. And if you listen to this, you're going to be a lot smarter when it comes to selling your company. Sam, are you ready to play the game?

**Sam Parr** (2:21)
What are you drinking? What's your drink?

**Shaan Puri** (2:24)
I mean, I only have a little bit left here, but I got some greens in the morning.
I'm looking a little athletic and I got some greens. Not sponsored, but you know, send me a free box.

**Sam Parr** (2:34)
Yeah, that'll save you 80 bucks a month.
Dude, I have a ton of it. I drink it once in a while. It's really hard to stomach for me. You could just drink that plain.

**Shaan Puri** (2:42)
I love it plain and I love that it doesn't taste that great because to me, I don't want my healthy shit tasting good, right? I don't like my hot people to be funny, too.
I don't like when things are not supposed to go together, go together, all right? Like the guy Matt Wright, the comedian? No.

**Sam Parr** (2:59)
Too good looking.

**Shaan Puri** (3:00)
I'm not watching that special. Number one on Netflix?

**Sam Parr** (3:03)
Well, you're pretty funny. What does that make you?

**Shaan Puri** (3:06)
Pretty ugly. As the world should be.

**Sam Parr** (3:12)
All right. How do we want to go about this? We have a bunch of points here. Which one? Let's start with the most straightforward thing.
So, Never Will I Ever.
You both, we both have this one. Ignore QSBS.

**Shaan Puri** (3:26)
I'll drink to that, yes. Now explain, when you say ignore QSBS, what happened here?

**Sam Parr** (3:33)
QSBS, for those who don't know.
I didn't know about it until like a year before I sold.
My friend Jack Smith told me about it. QSBS, I'm going to try and state the law here, but it says, so it stands for Qualified Small Business Stock. QSBS protects up to 10x of your investment from long-term capital gains taxes of $10 million or 10x your initial investment. What that means, and a lot of people only pay attention to the $10 million thing. So, with QSBS, how long do you have to hold it? Your stock?