John Warrillow
500 episodes listed below
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Built to Sell Radio is a weekly podcast for business owners interested in selling a business. Each week, we ask an entrepreneur who has recently sold a business why they decided to sell their business, what they did right and what mistakes they made through the process of exiting their business. Built to Sell Radio is the ultimate insider's guide to approaching the most important financial transaction of your life.
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Founder stories and buyer interviews turn business exits into concrete lessons about valuation, leverage, deal structure, and life after the sale.
Built to Sell Radio treats selling a company as a sequence of decisions rather than a victory lap. John Warlow's interviews move among founder exit stories, conversations with acquirers, negotiation guidance, and accounts of life after a sale.
A buyer weighs culture; a founder talks Thanksgiving. Your exit spreadsheet needs another tab.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A clear-eyed look at the buyer side of an all-cash-at-close acquisition.
Built to Sell Radio uses this episode to open up the buyer side of a sale: Dan Mitels of Salt Creek explains why his firm, after more than 100 acquisitions, typically pays 100% of the purchase price at close and lets the owner walk.
A grounded exit story that keeps the sale mechanics clear and concrete.
Built to Sell Radio treats Jeff DeGarmo's Qubic sale as a plainspoken service-business exit, not a glossy victory lap. The company reached 20 employees and more than $4 million in revenue, then sold after 16 years for 5.5x EBITDA to a public company.
A blunt look at how a big exit can strain family, purpose, and boundaries.
Built to Sell Radio treats a big exit less as a victory lap than as a test of what comes next. Alex Bean, co-founder of Divi, talks through the sale for $2.5 billion and the emotional aftermath that can follow that kind of success, including family pressure, changing…
A sale story where the building and the business both matter.
Built to Sell Radio follows Mac McLaughlin through nearly 30 years at FX Design Group, the company behind the sets on TV news and sports broadcasts.
A practical look at buying overlooked businesses and why culture can matter as much as cash flow.
John Pohl makes a clear case for buying what others overlook: small local radio stations, simple deal structures, and a kind of business value that reaches beyond cash flow.
The sale matters less than the life that follows it.
Chang Kim's story is mostly about what came after the sale: a sabbatical, a move from founder mode into full-time fatherhood, and the awkward business of adjusting to sudden wealth at home.
A practical exit story that turns valuation into real owner decisions.
Built to Sell Radio follows Doug Lowenthal's exit from True Technology and makes a service-business sale feel concrete. It stays anchored in a Florida MSP founder's push toward the $1 million EBITDA level that buyers seem to care about, then weighs what a six-to-eight-times…
A practical guide to reading a buyer and staying steady when a company sale gets personal.
Built to Sell Radio treats the sale of a company as a high-stakes negotiation, and Christopher Hadnagy adds tactical guidance on body language, conversation, and psychology that can be put to use right away.
Stephen Dubner tests bourbon economics, Alzheimer's research, and money advice against hard data.
Daily business news with Kai Ryssdal, tracking Fed policy, oil shocks, and private credit.
Galloway rotates Office Hours Q&A, Raging Moderates politics, and China Decode geopolitics weekly.
Joel and Matt answer listener money questions weekly in the show's Ask HTM segments.
Brené Brown's long-form conversations linking grief, caregiving, politics, and nonviolence to her vulnerability research.
Sean McAuliffe shares how he built a $19 million distribution business selling car key fobs after starting as a house painter, detailing his accidental entry into the industry, scaling through eBay and wholesale, and navigating a private equity sale with lessons on valuation and exit strategies.
Dan Mitels buys differently.
Christopher Hadnagy, an expert on influence and negotiation, shares tactical body language cues and psychological insights for entrepreneurs selling their businesses.
Doug Lowenthal, founder of True Technology, shares his journey to selling his managed service provider business after hitting $1M in EBITDA.
Mac McLaughlin shares his 30-year journey building FX Design Group, a company that designs TV news sets, and his eventual sale to a subcontractor.
Chang Kim (CK) discusses selling his company Tapas Media for $510 million, his decision to take a sabbatical instead of immediately launching another startup, and the personal and financial adjustments post-exit.
Brent Beshore, founder of Permanent Equity, discusses his alternative to traditional private equity, emphasizing a debt-free, long-term holding model focused on cash flow and legacy.
Alex Bean, co-founder of Divi who sold for $2.5 billion, discusses the emotional and relational challenges after a big exit, including loss of purpose, family friction, and finding new meaning through his 'factory for good' concept.
Ben Leonard shares his experience selling his $6M e-commerce brand Best Gear to Thrasio, detailing how the acquirer dismantled the business post-sale, turning his earn out into a 'pray out'.
Ryan Atkinson stayed mostly in the background, which is the whole trick here.
John Pohl, who has acquired 19 small radio stations, discusses his investment thesis in unsexy industries, focusing on community value and culture over cash flow.
Andreas Lares, a negotiation expert, discusses common M&A mistakes with host John Morlow, covering how negotiations start earlier than sellers realize, the dangers of proprietary deals, emotional management, and strategies for handling lowball offers and earn-outs.
Jeff DeGarmo shares his experience selling Qubic, a 20-person marketing agency, for 5.5x EBITDA after 16 years.
Rich Galgano shares his journey of founding Windy City Wire, building it into a half-billion-dollar sale, including lessons on avoiding leveraged buyouts, structuring minority recaps, and navigating failed sale processes.
An entrepreneur discusses his journey of raising capital and selling his patient communication platform for a high multiple.
An interview with negotiation expert John Richardson on strategies for founders to maximize their company's sale price.
An entrepreneur shares how he bought a small electric conduit business for $40,000 and sold it ten years later for 6.2 times EBITDA, using value drivers and indifference as a negotiating asset.
An interview with Sequoia Borgman, an independent sponsor who has acquired 19 companies, discussing how buyers think and structure deals.
An entrepreneur shares his journey of bootstrapping and selling his pharmaceutical services company for $190 million, navigating stock drops and earn-out challenges.
Michael Sonnenfeld discusses the origin of Tiger21 and common investing mistakes entrepreneurs make after selling their businesses.
An entrepreneur shares his journey of building and selling AutoWeb, a lead generation service in the auto industry, including the highs of an IPO and the lows of a stock crash.
An entrepreneur shares his journey of building and selling a consumer analytics agency, discussing the process and lessons learned.
Jordan Van Schindel shares how he grew his service business to 30 employees with no turnover and sold it for a double-digit multiple.
An entrepreneur shares his story of taking over his father's business and achieving a $20 million exit.