Building Your M&A Reputation: Why Relationships Beat Transactions Every Time with Andrew Cohen

Andy Cohen, Vice President of Corporate Development at F5

Andy Cohen spends two to 10 hours researching a founder before the first call. After 30 years in M&A, he still treats that call as a sales call.

Andy runs corporate development at F5, and almost all of his deals are proactive. He explains how he screens a new space: 30 companies, cut to eight, with four approached first through cold LinkedIn notes, warm intros and old board connections. He covers why you can't know the company until you know the person, and why you can't convince somebody to sell who doesn't want to. He also explains how a dinner or a long walk turns up the culture cues that shape integration, and why "transactions and meetings are short and careers and reputations are long."

Andy's follow-up system is an Outlook reminder that says "call this person in three months," plus Google alerts on every target. DealRoom Pipeline keeps your targets, deal notes, contacts and deal emails in one place, with tasks and real-time notifications, so every "not now" has an owner and a next step. See how it works: click here.