Trunk Talks: Digital Agency Acquisition Podcast

David Rodnitzky: Creating Enterprise Value In this episode of Trunk Talks, we speak to David Rodnitzky, Founder and CEO of 3Q Digital, an online paid search and search engine marketing firm. David’s accomplished record of building an agency parallels his successful venture investor streak. In 2014, 3Q Digital acquired iSearchMedia to expand into search engine marketing and was then acquired in 2015 by Harte Hanks - which provided additional services and scale. In addition to having a lot of experience with acquiring and being acquired, David is also a successful venture investor and big Iowa Hawkeyes fan.

Dan Golden: Growing with Partnerships & Joint Ventures In this episode of Trunk Talks, we speak to Dan Golden, Co-Founder and President of Be Found Online (BFO), an international digital media agency. Dan gives us agency owner perspective and discusses important issues like building an institutional process, partnering before acquiring and sum of parts acquisition. Dan is a veteran digital marketing executive and business innovator who built BFO’s business model on employee empowerment and giving back to the community. Through open book management principles, BFO has been recognized as Ad Age’s #1 Best Place to Work 2016, and six straight years on the Inc. 5,000 list. Dan has recently been published in Huffington Post, Forbes, Business.com, Entrepreneur and Inc Magazine and is an accomplished speaker at conferences including PubCon, Conscious Capitalism and Inbound in 2017.

In this episode of Trunk Talks we speak to Bob Glazer, Founder & CEO of Acceleration Partners. In this episode, Bob discusses a number of important issues including the importance of patience when assessing the market, eliminating the earnout and the benefits of developing long-term incentives for employees. Bob is a serial entrepreneur and online customer acquisition specialist with an exceptional track record and passion for growing revenue and profits for B2C based companies. He is a top-rated speaker and contributing author, and has presented to large global audiences at over 20 conferences including adTech, Internet Retailer, DMA and Shop.org. His first book, Performance Based Partnerships will be available on May 15th, 2017.

In this episode of Trunk Talks we speak to Kyle Widrick, Co-Founder & Chairman of Brand Value Accelerator. In this episode, Kyle discusses a number of important issues including the benefits of a niche service offering, avoiding high client concentration and the mechanics of an agency’s decision to hire a banker. Kyle is an experienced consumer sector investor and brand building professional, who specializes in early stage ventures, corporate strategy, business development and internationalization. He currently leads the US team for SevenVentures, whose investments focus on best-in-class consumer facing companies who are looking to accelerate their growth in Europe.

In the latest episode of Trunk Talks, we speak with Brad Hajart, Chief Innovation Officer of Brand Connections. Brad speaks about his own digital agency experience, while highlighting a number of key topics for agency owners including the importance of an exit plan, what non-monetary benefits to negotiate, and the advantages of working under a private equity firm. The Texas native founded PIE Advertising when he was just twenty-six, and the agency was acquired by Brand Connections in 2012. Today, Brad remains at Brand Connections as a key member of the executive team.

In this episode of Trunk Talks we speak to Stuart Goldstein, Executive Director of Operations at McCann about his various management roles that oversaw numerous agency acquisitions. These included agencies such as i33 Communications, 360i, Dentsu as well as Tenthwave Digital. Stuart discusses a number of important issues including the financial fitness of your agency, strategically aligning your customers as well as matching the culture of the acquirer with that of your agency. Stuart has over eighteen years of digital agency operations experience specialized in building teams and partnerships as well as driving organizational growth. Now, he oversees operations for two health and wellness agencies at McCann Healthcare in NYC.

In this episode of Trunk Talks we speak to George Swisher, Founder and CEO of LiiRN about his extensive digital agency acquisition experience. Throughout his career, he has been involved in 100+ acquisitions, some as an owner and many as a strategic advisor. The conversation highlights a number of important topics for agency owners, including the dangers of 50/50 ownership partnerships, the importance of setting up financials to show enterprise value, and the key negotiating points that every agency owner needs to be armed with. With over twenty years of experience, George has a proven record of successfully founding and scaling digital agencies. He specializes in building them from the ground up, guiding mergers and acqusitions and helping with turnarounds. He recently founded and launched LiiRN, a technology platform that helps agency stakeholders better understand and interpret their business.

In this episode of Trunk Talks we talk to Brendan Casey, President of Upside Collective, about his management buyout experience. The conversation highlights a number of important points for current agency owners, including - succession planning, the importance of forming an advisory board, as well as strategies for how to approach a management buyout. Brendan began his career as a project coordinator at the advertising agency, Mehigan Bellone Associates and rose to the rank of VP while still in his early twenties. From there, Brendan went on to complete a successful management buyout of the agency, and rebranded as Upside Collective. Since the buyout, Brendan has built on the agencies traditional advertising foundation, and pushed forward into the digital frontier - focusing heavily on development and video services. In the coming months, the agency will release their first feature length documentary about the Albany Patroons basketball team.

In this episode of Trunk Talks, we talk to Managing Director of Grey Adventures, Evan Kraut about his digital agency acquisition experience. The conversation highlights a number of key issues for current agency owners, including - when to hire a CFO into your business, understanding the dynamics of an earnout, and how owning intellectual property can affect the valuation of an agency . Evan began his career on Wall Street at Paine Webber before moving to MRY to lead the business development team. During his tenure at MRY, Evan played a key role in landing the agency Coca-Cola, Sony and L’oreal as clients. Evan currently spearheads Grey Adventures, a new unit of Grey - a $1.3 billion agency - where he is responsible for utilizing new and developing technologies.