In 2012, Ryan Coon started Rentalutions, a platform to help landlords manage and communicate with their tenants more effectively. The business showed steady growth, but Coon wasn’t satisfied.
Five years in, Coon rebranded the company to Avail and focused his marketing to target DIY landlords with under ten rental units to manage. The changes proved successful as Coon grew the business to around $7 million in revenue before selling to Realtor.com in 2020 for approximately five times revenue.
In this episode, you’ll learn how to:
Articulate your target market to employees and customers.
Convert free users into paying customers using one surprising method.
Avoid the most significant mistake founders make when raising money.
Avoid seller’s regret.
Facilitate relationships with potential acquirers.
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More About Ryan Coon
CEO and Co-founder of Avail, acquired by realtor.com in December 2020. Avail is a platform that simplifies the rental experience for 600,000 DIY landlords (who individually own and self-manage less than 10 rentals) and tenants. These individuals use Avail to navigate all aspects of the rental process — everything from listings, rental applications, leases, monthly rent payments, and maintenance tickets. Rental units on the Avail platform are in roughly 20,000 zip codes nationwide.
Definitions
Earnout: An earnout is a contractual provision stating that the seller of a business is to obtain additional compensation in the future if the business achieves certain financial goals, which are usually stated as a percentage of gross sales or earnings. Source.
Letter of Intent (LOI): A letter of intent (LOI) is a document declaring the preliminary commitment of one party to do business with another. The letter outlines the chief terms of a prospective deal. Commonly used in major business transactions, LOIs are similar in content to term sheets. One major difference between the two, though, is that LOIs are presented in letter formats, while term sheets are listicle in nature. Source.
Due-Diligence: Due diligence is an investigation, audit, or review performed to confirm facts or details of a matter under consideration. In the financial world, due diligence requires an examination of financial records before entering into a proposed transaction with another party. Source.
Preferred Preference: Preferred Preference means that amount equal to the sum of the Preferred Preference Per Share for all shares of Company Preferred Stock (including any rights convertible into, or exercisable or exchangeable for, shares of Company Preferred Stock on an as-converted, exercised, or exchanged basis) issued and outstanding immediately prior to the Effective Time, rounded to the nearest one hundredth (0.01) (with amounts 0.005 and above rounded up). Source.
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