M&A Science
Cultural Fit Over EBITDA: How Salas O'Brien Built a 30-Merger Program Without a Single Failure
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Nathan Rust, Senior VP of Corporate Development, Salas O'Brien
More than 30 mergers in three years. A 100 percent success rate. And a first diligence list that's just 10 questions long.
Nathan Rust runs corporate development at Salas O'Brien with a team of three. They look at more than 200 opportunities a year, and fewer than a third get past the first call. That screen happens before anyone talks price. It checks three things: will the leaders stay for the long term, do they love the work, and would you go to dinner with them and their spouse?
Nathan also explains why he gives every prospective seller the contact details of every past merger leader, and why 20 to 40 percent of the price rolls into equity. He covers why his team won't retrade a deal after the LOI. The result: 93 percent of shareholders from 15 years of mergers are still with the company.
Most buyers send a 500-question list where every item is marked top priority. Nathan sends 10. DealRoom Diligence helps you build a focused request list, assign each item to the seller and track it in one workspace, then save it as a template for the next deal. Centralizing the process can "reduce your due diligence time by 50%." See how it works: click here.