Corp Dev Leader Flashcards
(27 cards)
Walk me through your experience sourcing M&A deals.
In my corporate development and advisory roles, I’ve built sourcing strategies targeting founder-led, lower middle-market companies across professional services, technology, and digital infrastructure sectors.
At Dragonflip and Dealflow, I developed outbound pipelines by combining direct founder outreach, intermediary relationships, and industry mapping. I created target profiles, ran prioritization frameworks based on strategic fit, size, profitability, and growth levers, and maintained deal funnels in CRM systems to track and manage activity.
I believe great sourcing combines process discipline and relationship building — you need a clear thesis, but you also need to genuinely engage founders early, even before they’re ready to transact.”
How do you assess whether a SaaS business is a good acquisition target?
I focus on a few key pillars:
Revenue quality: Recurring revenue (ARR/MRR), customer concentration, retention rates (GRR/NRR)
Unit economics: Gross margins, CAC/LTV ratios, payback periods
Churn risk: Net churn, logo retention, upsell/cross-sell success
Technology stack: Modern architecture, scalability, minimal technical debt
Team quality: Founder depth, second-layer leadership strength
I also always validate product-market fit by talking to customers if possible — not just relying on financials. Numbers tell one part of the story; customer love tells the rest.”
How would you build Solen’s sourcing engine?
I would first define clear target parameters: industry verticals, ARR range, profitability levels, and strategic fit. Then, I’d set up parallel channels:
Outbound founder outreach (based on curated lists)
Relationships with key brokers/investment banks specializing in SaaS
Industry network building through events, webinars, thought leadership
In-house CRM to track all activity, measure funnel metrics, and iterate outreach messaging
My goal would be to build a repeatable sourcing machine that blends proactive and reactive deal flow and deepens Solen’s brand visibility among founder communities.”
How do you lead cross-functional teams through due diligence and deal execution?
I believe in structured, transparent coordination.
For each deal, I set up clear workstreams: financial, legal, tech/product, HR, and commercial diligence.
I assign owners, establish weekly reporting cadences, identify deal blockers early, and escalate issues fast.
I view myself as the quarterback — making sure teams stay aligned, information flows efficiently, and leadership has the data they need for decisions.
My goal is to manage diligence with discipline but without killing the deal’s momentum.”
Tell us about a time you led or mentored a junior team.
“In my previous roles, I mentored analysts and junior associates during M&A and corporate development initiatives. I focused on developing both technical skills and strategic thinking — teaching them not just how to build models or diligence lists, but also why those activities mattered in the context of the deal’s strategic rationale.
I ran huddles to ensure alignment, provided real-time feedback on their work, and created templates and guides to make them more autonomous over time.
I view my role as creating an environment where high standards are expected but team members feel safe to ask questions, learn, and grow.”
How do you foster collaboration and high performance within a corporate development team?
I believe high performance comes from clarity, ownership, and recognition.
I ensure that every team member understands:
The bigger picture — why this deal matters strategically.
Their specific ownership areas — with clear deliverables and timelines.
How success will be measured — both individually and collectively.
I encourage collaboration by setting shared goals, building transparent communication channels (daily stand-ups, Slack groups, shared trackers), and celebrating small wins along the way.
High performance isn’t just about pushing harder — it’s about building trust, giving autonomy, and removing blockers so talented people can thrive.”
How would you onboard and develop new Analysts into high-performing contributors?
First, I would create a structured 30-60-90 day onboarding plan:
First 30 Days: Focus on training — Solen’s investment philosophy, SaaS metrics, CRM processes, outreach strategies.
Days 30–60: Shadow live sourcing and diligence processes; begin taking ownership of small tasks (target list curation, outreach email drafting, first diligence checklists).
Days 60–90: Lead independent target evaluations and early founder conversations under supervision.
I would complement this with weekly coaching check-ins, structured feedback sessions, and gradually raise expectations as confidence builds.
I believe in setting people up to succeed early and then giving them more autonomy as they earn it.”
How do you handle it if an Analyst isn’t performing to expectations?
“First, I diagnose — is it a skill gap, a motivation gap, or a communication gap?
I have a structured feedback conversation early, focused on specific behaviors and outcomes, not personal traits.
If it’s a skill issue, I provide more training or pair them with a peer mentor.
If it’s an accountability issue, I set clear performance expectations with check-in milestones.
I believe in coaching first — but if improvement doesn’t happen, I also act decisively to protect the team’s performance culture. Holding a high bar and addressing issues early are critical leadership responsibilities.”
What’s your philosophy on leading teams in high-growth, high-pressure environments?
My philosophy is simple: clarity, calm, cadence.
Clarity: Set clear goals and success criteria from day one.
Calm: Model steadiness under pressure — urgency without panic.
Cadence: Establish predictable rhythms for communication, updates, and decision-making.
People don’t fear pressure if they feel supported, aligned, and heard.
As a leader, my job is to amplify focus and resilience — not stress.”
How do you define success for an M&A initiative beyond just closing the deal?
Success starts before the close. I define it around three pillars:
Strategic fit: Is the deal achieving the strategic goals we articulated? (market expansion, product adjacency, technology acquisition)
Financial performance: Are revenue, gross margin, and EBITDA tracking against underwriting?
Operational integration: Are we hitting milestones for systems integration, org alignment, customer retention, and synergy capture?
At close, I work with leadership to set clear KPIs for each of those dimensions — and establish an accountability rhythm to measure progress at 30, 60, 90, and 180 days post-close.”
What KPIs would you track to measure the success of an acquisition?
I typically build a dashboard with KPIs across strategic, financial, and operational categories. Examples:
Financial KPIs: Revenue growth, gross margin improvement, ARR expansion, churn/retention rates
Operational KPIs: Integration milestones achieved (% systems migrated, % key hires retained, cross-sell initiatives launched)
Strategic KPIs: New customer acquisition in target vertical, new geographic footprint, product adoption metrics
Synergy KPIs: Cost synergies realized vs. plan (SG&A savings, vendor consolidation, etc.)
The KPIs are agreed upon during diligence, tracked immediately post-close, and reported up quarterly.”
How would you monitor KPIs post-acquisition to ensure the deal delivers intended value?
I’d establish a post-merger integration (PMI) dashboard at Day 1, assigning ownership for each KPI to a functional leader.
We’d set a cadence:
Weekly team updates during first 90 days
Monthly reporting to executive sponsors
Quarterly reviews to the Investment Committee or Board
If KPIs trend off-plan, I’d escalate quickly and work with business owners to reframe initiatives or adjust resources.
You can’t assume value will materialize — you have to inspect, measure, and drive it proactively.”
Walk me through how you manage a deal from sourcing to integration handoff.
“I approach M&A as a full lifecycle ownership responsibility:
Sourcing: I start by building a clear target profile aligned with our growth thesis. I leverage direct outreach, broker relationships, and industry networking to generate a live pipeline.
Qualification & Initial Diligence: I screen opportunities quickly for strategic fit and red flags (customer concentration, tech stack risks, margin profile).
Deep Diligence: If the target passes initial screening, I coordinate functional diligence — finance, legal, product, HR, tech — managing internal teams and third-party advisors.
Negotiation: I manage LOI and PSA negotiations, balancing value protection with relationship building to keep founders engaged.
Close and Integration Handoff: Before signing, I ensure integration planning has already started — aligning Day 1 priorities, systems handoff, key personnel retention plans. I then work with the integration lead to transition smoothly after deal close.
I believe successful M&A isn’t just about getting to signing — it’s about setting the acquired company up to realize the full strategic value.”
Where do most M&A deals fail, and how do you mitigate those risks across the deal cycle?
Deals most often fail because of:
Poor initial screening (buying the wrong company),
Rushed diligence (missing critical risks),
Misaligned expectations during negotiations,
Weak integration planning (waiting until after close to figure it out).
I mitigate these risks by:
Building target filters that are strict enough to avoid bad fits early.
Running cross-functional diligence with clear ownership for each workstream.
Managing founder relationships carefully through negotiation to maintain trust and momentum.
Starting integration planning during diligence, not post-close — so the handoff is seamless and Day 1 value capture is immediate.”
How do you balance moving quickly through a deal process without sacrificing diligence quality?
I believe in speed with structure.
I prioritize early identification of deal-killers (tech obsolescence, churn risk, cultural incompatibility) to disqualify bad targets quickly.
I standardize diligence checklists and maintain a pre-vetted bench of third-party advisors for specialized diligence areas.
I compress timelines by running parallel workstreams — legal, finance, tech — rather than sequential ones.
It’s not about doing less diligence — it’s about doing smart diligence faster.”
How do you ensure a strong handoff to the integration team after close?
Integration planning starts in parallel with diligence — not after close.
During diligence, I identify key operational risks, critical personnel, tech systems dependencies, and customer touchpoints.
I build a Pre-Day 1 integration blueprint outlining immediate priorities (people, systems, customers) and assign preliminary owners.
I coordinate a structured handoff meeting between the deal team and the integration team to ensure nothing gets lost in translation.
Ultimately, the deal team and the integration team have a shared responsibility for delivering on the investment thesis — and I structure handoffs accordingly.”
Beyond revenue size, what factors would you look at to evaluate a SaaS acquisition?
I focus on several qualitative and quantitative indicators of SaaS quality:
Product Stickiness: High customer retention rates, low churn, embedded workflows that make switching costs high.
Expansion Potential: Strong NRR (Net Revenue Retention) indicating upsell/cross-sell success and customer growth over time.
Churn Risk: Gross Revenue Retention (GRR) above 85–90% for a healthy base business; I dig into churn reasons (e.g., logo churn vs. downgrade churn).
Tech Stack Quality: Modern architecture, API integrations, cloud-native design — which reduces tech debt and future replatforming risk.
Customer Base Health: Diversified customer base with minimal concentration risk; low reliance on one or two accounts.
Unit Economics: CAC payback periods under 18 months, strong LTV:CAC ratios (ideally >3x).
Market Positioning: Clear niche leadership or defensible vertical focus rather than undifferentiated broad-market SaaS.”
How would you assess product stickiness during diligence?
I would look at both data and voice-of-customer inputs:
Data signals:
Net retention rates (NRR >110% is strong)
Average customer tenure
Cohort analysis: how ARR from a given cohort behaves over time
Voice-of-customer:
Customer interviews to understand workflow integration and switching pain
NPS scores (Net Promoter Score) trends
Churn reasons coded in CRM (involuntary churn vs. product dissatisfaction)
Compare ARR and MRR
MRR captures the recurring revenue we generate in a single month and is the best indicator of immediate growth or contraction trends.
ARR is simply MRR multiplied by 12 — it provides a long-term view of recurring revenue and is the key number used for valuations, board reporting, and strategic goal-setting. Both are essential, but they serve different horizons: operational vs. strategic
What is CAC Payback Period and why does it matter?
CAC Payback Period measures how long it takes to recover the customer acquisition cost (CAC) through gross margin contribution from a new customer. Ideally this period would be less than 12 month.
What is LTV/CAC and what’s a good ratio?
LTV/CAC measures the lifetime value of a customer relative to the cost to acquire them.
A good ratio is typically 3:1 or higher — meaning every dollar spent on acquiring customers returns at least three dollars in gross profit over the customer’s life.
Why is Gross Margin critical in SaaS M&A deals?
Gross margin shows how much true economic value is left after direct delivery costs like hosting, support, and onboarding.
In SaaS, high gross margins (75%-85%) are crucial because they fuel reinvestment in R&D, sales, and customer success.
Buyers prioritize high gross margin SaaS businesses because they scale more profitably and efficiently.”
If you could only pick one SaaS metric to monitor daily, what would it be?
Net Revenue Retention (NRR).
It tells you everything about customer happiness, product strength, and expansion opportunity — in one number.
If NRR is consistently strong (>120%), it means the business is not just retaining customers but growing within them, fueling durable, efficient growth.”
Questions about lack of direct reports
I had 2-3 direct reports as the Head of M&A at Dragonflip and I mentored Jr. Analyst/Interns at Dealflow and Johnson Consulting Group.
A lot of my leadership experience has been through leading cross-functional deal teams and integration workstreams rather than managing formal direct reports. But in practice, that’s meant coordinating legal, finance, product, and external advisors through high-stakes, time-sensitive projects — and keeping all of them aligned around execution and value capture.
