Buy Grow Sell

Charlie Emery got the call from his parents to join the family business in 2001, alongside his brother Mark. Twenty-odd years later, it's SOILCO, a national organics recycling platform, and Charlie is the CEO.

In this episode, Charlie walks through what it took to build on what his parents started: buying into the business with real money, setting up an outside advisory board, and walking away from two investor processes that were not right, one where a corporate buyer halved its offer after due diligence and one where the deal just did not feel right, before landing on the growth-capital partner who actually fit: an infrastructure investor comfortable funding a business that needs years of investment before it pays off.

Simon Bedard and Charlie also get into what it took to buy into a family business with real money rather than be handed it, why an outside advisory board matters more than people think, and Charlie's own advice for owners: be honest with your own strategic plan, or nobody else will believe in it either.

Connect with Charlie Emery
Website: https://soilco.com.au/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/charlie-emery-09b56422/

Connect with Simon Bedard
LinkedIn: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/srhbedard⁠⁠⁠
Website: ⁠⁠⁠https://exitadvisory.com.au/⁠⁠⁠
Website: ⁠⁠⁠https://buygrowsell.com/

Geoff Green was the first external investor in Fliteboard, the Byron Bay company that turned an electric surfboard into a global brand and sold to NYSE-listed Brunswick in 2023. He sat on the board from the outset and helped scale it to around $145 to 150 million in revenue in just four years.

In this episode, Geoff shares the question that guided every decision: who is the right owner for this business at this point in time? It is a reframe that changes how you think about your own exit.

Simon Bedard and Geoff cover funding fast growth without heavy dilution, why even an experienced board hired a corporate adviser to run the sale, what makes a growth story a buyer actually believes, and the identity shift that hit after the deal was done.

Connect with Geoff Green
Website: https://www.grgmomentum.com.au/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/geoffgreenthesmartbusinessexit/

Connect with Simon Bedard
LinkedIn: ⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/srhbedard⁠⁠
Website: ⁠⁠https://exitadvisory.com.au/⁠⁠
Website: ⁠⁠https://buygrowsell.com/

Jason Howard calls himself a 30-year overnight success. He built StudyLink across three different businesses, from a CD-ROM directory to the admissions software universities ran on, and never set out to sell it. At the end of 2023, he sold to Flywire, a NASDAQ-listed payments company, in a deal that closed in about six weeks.

Simon Bedard and Jason talk through what made the business saleable without an exit plan: knowing your number, making yourself operationally redundant, finding a strategic buyer you already work with, and the personal toll of an exit that nobody prepares you for.

Connect with Jason Howard
Website: https://www.bowerbridge.com.au/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-studylink/

Connect with Simon Bedard
LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/srhbedard⁠
Website: ⁠https://exitadvisory.com.au/⁠
Website: ⁠https://buygrowsell.com/

One hundred episodes. One consistent theme: the conversations business owners need to have about exit and rarely do.

In this milestone episode, Simon Bedard steps back from the interview format to answer the seven questions that have come up most consistently across 100 episodes of conversations with founders, advisors, and acquirers. No guests. No framework. Just straight answers to the questions business owners are actually asking.

Connect with Simon Bedard
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/srhbedard
Website: https://exitadvisory.com.au/
Website: https://buygrowsell.com/

In this special episode of the Buy Grow Sell Podcast, Simon Bedard sits down with Warren Hogan, Managing Director of EQ Economics and Chief Economic Advisor at Judo Bank, to discuss Australian inflation, interest rates, the succession cliff, and what it means for business owners planning to exit.

Connect with Warren Hogan
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/warren-hogan-835581116/
Website: https://eqeconomics.au/

Connect with Simon Bedard
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/srhbedard
Website: https://exitadvisory.com.au/
Website: https://buygrowsell.com/