Why Issuu chose debt over equity, the covenant risks to watch, and how it ran an all-cash sale to Bending Spoons
Joe Hyrkin · Issuu
Published September 6, 2024Explore the lesson. Sign in to access the slide download.
Joe Hyrkin explains Issuu’s acquisition by Bending Spoons after more than a decade of building the company. The conversation covers the company’s revenue scale, why it used debt instead of a new equity round, the risk of restrictive lender covenants, and the legal and buyer-selection work behind an all-cash sale.
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“did um uh as a company, we're doing just north of 30 million in revenue, profitable, um not not very profitable, but sort of barely profitable. And uh we sold the company for nine figures. Yeah. So, fair to say like a 4 to 6x revenue multiple, something in that range? Yeah. All right. Not six. I mean, uh unless you're AI right now, you're not getting north of five. I mean, there's the the There's all these companies”
“raising money, so in '21, given where we were at a revenue and growth trajectory, '21, you know, everybody was pushed to raise way more money than they wanted at higher valuations than were reasonable, and we're seeing a lot of fallout from that now, right? So, I wanted to make sure that we maintained our flexibility. So, instead of raising, we would have had to raise 30 million on a”
“terms moving forward. And this firm um continued to negotiate with us after we had verbally agreed, and kept squeezing and adding in more and more and more and more terms to the point where they started to demand um they wanted uh at one point an additional point in the company for each month that we didn't refinance the business, and wanted to charge us a penalty of a”
“they're great, I'll tell you. Um Larry Chew is a fantastic lawyer at Goodwin, and he helped make phone calls, and talked to people in the midst of this process that enabled us to navigate through both the term sheet and the contract way more efficiently than it would have otherwise. Did the terms drastically change between the term sheet signing and final One of the great things about working with Bending Spoons, they they didn't retrade with us. I don't think they've retraded with others, meaning changed the price. Terms”
“the 20 folks that you thought were going to buy you, that you thought were going to keep raising the price and quadrupling it, if that doesn't happen. It happens with AI companies. It happened with, you know, a few here or there, but it's pretty rare. At the end of the day, there's one to three companies that are right for that time, um, when you're ready to pull the trigger. You can stop and say, "I'll wait two years." or whatever, but If you hang out in circles like this all the time, you would think the $100”
“interest rate isn’t always best”
“Issuu.com Revenue Growth”
“Private equity playbook”
Video
How Issuu Got Acquired for 9 Figures in 2024 - Slide Deck
Joe is the CEO of Issuu, the world's leading omni-channel content tools and publishing platform, that through the Issuu Story Cloud, enables millions of marketers, brands and creators and publishers globally to digitally share and monetize their longer form quality content and create content marketing materials. Joe has more than 25 years of experience in startup and growth technology leadership globally covering stints in Asia, Europe and the US, from early stage through to IPO. Joe is a frequent thought and industry leadership contributor to the likes of Inc., Entrepreneur Magazine, Recode, Techcrunch, CNBC, Fox Business, Bloomberg and has spoken at conferences and events globally including Web Summit, Founders Forum, Horasis Summit, The Wrap's Grill Summit, The Issuu Generator's Summit among others. He has been the CEO, led sales, BD and Product for some of the leading and most innovative companies in Silicon Valley, backed by the likes of Benchmark, Redpoint, Trinity, Floodgate, True, Baseline, MDV, DAG, Sony, Time Warner among others.
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Each slide with a short explanation of what it shows. Open the slide text for its exact wording.
11 passages
SaaSOpen, September 2024 How Issuu Got Acquired for 9 Figures in 2024 Joe Hyrkin CEO, Issuu
A company announcement presents Issuu’s acquisition and describes its digital publishing audience. It frames the deal as an opportunity to build on Issuu’s product.
The summary groups Issuu’s story into debt, revenue growth, and the exit. It flags loan covenants, compares debt with equity when funds have a clear use, and notes the all-cash deal structure and transaction costs.
Watch out for covenants Low headline interest rate isn’t always best Cheaper than equity if clear use of funds $0 to $X00,000,000 Exit The Issuu story DEBT SCALE ARR EXITING $0 to $1m 7 years to $4m Another 8 years to $22m Paid bankers $2m+ All cash deal structure Lawyer/process and strategy
A product page screenshot demonstrates how a user can upload a file to create a digital flipbook. It also shows that the service accepts several document formats.
The bar chart traces revenue from $0 in 2006 to $32m in 2024, with marked milestones at $4.0m in 2013, $14m in 2017, and $22m in 2021. The bars show a long period of growth followed by a faster rise.
Issuu.com Revenue Growth
This build adds a financing table beneath the revenue chart, listing Issuu’s debt financing and earlier equity rounds. The overlay connects the growth story to the company’s capital history.
Issuu.com Revenue Growth
A still from a recorded interview pairs Joe Hyrkin with an interviewer. The slide points viewers to a past conversation about the company.
2021 Latka Podcast
The screenshot repeats the acquisition announcement, emphasizing the scale of Issuu’s publishing audience and the buyer’s stated plans for the product.
The slide introduces three acquisitions as examples of a private equity playbook. The company logos identify the cases without detailing their outcomes.
Bending Spoons Private equity playbook Deal 1 Deal 2 Deal 3
The closing summary emphasizes checking covenants, comparing financing choices against their use, and planning for the full exit process. Issuu’s growth stages and all-cash structure anchor the story.
Watch out for covenants Low headline interest rate isn’t always best Cheaper than equity if clear use of funds $0 to $X00,000,000 Exit The Issuu story DEBT SCALE ARR EXITING $0 to $1m 7 years to $4m Another 8 years to $22m Paid bankers $2m+ All cash deal structure Lawyer/process and strategy
Joe Hyrkin closes with a thank-you and his role at Issuu. The company mark reinforces the subject of the talk.
SaaSOpen, September 2024 Thank you! Joe Hyrkin CEO, Issuu