Buying a SaaS company
“please help me giving a warm welcome to Brad Miller Brad come on up man”
Founder conversationGuru $10m+
Masters of Debt: How I bought a $5m SaaS Company Using Debt, Grew to $20m
Buying a SaaS company with equity and bank debt, growing it through M&A, and managing it toward a sale
Brad Miller · AwarenessTech
Published September 1, 2022About this resource
Brad Miller is a master of debt.
In 20 minutes, you’ll learn:
- How to create organic growth via M&A
- Playbook for growing from $100k to $300k in MRR
- How he exited for $35m
Explore the lesson. Sign in to access the slide download.
What you’ll learn
Brad Miller recounts buying and growing a SaaS company with equity and bank debt, competing through acquisitions, evaluating investment returns, and managing the business toward a later sale.
Read the source passagesKey moments
Find the ideas you need and go straight to the source.
Structuring the acquisition financing
“paid uh six million six million and how'd you find the Six Million uh well five and a half million uh myself in a financial partner split at 50 50. and we did a little bit of Bank debt uh on top of that um a million bucks a Bank debt to fund you know the purchase price and some other expenses and all that kind of stuff and so you start scaling this 2011 7 million Revenue 1 million profits did you take dividends out this year or you waited till next year no the next year but then so then we finally got them off the payroll so that I wouldn't take the”
Competition and acquisition opportunities
“so our biggest competitor uh this is also an odd story uh was a company called variato and at my previous business that I sold to Goldman I was trying to buy them too I got outbid heavily because they got sold for 45 million to two VCS and it was a nice you know business doing 15 million of Revenue making six million a profit um and then once so when I saw awareness Tech which was like a number two to them”
Evaluating investment returns
“investment you can see let's make it a dollar right so you put a dollar in you turn that dollar into what over 10 years uh well 12 and 37 so 47 so five um you know uh nine times nine one dollar to nine dollars on a five million base it's pretty good right good story okay so the story gets more interesting um can we go there yeah we can we can go there uh story gets he has to because it's already on the next slide”
Managing the business through change
“starting to decline on the other they they decided um we used to manage the business on a cash basis so because we were very paper click oriented we needed to see sales cash sales today so we could measure the success how much were you doing in monthly PPC you were managing 300K a month you know and um so over you know three four million a year and um and so it was it was the biggest”
Turn recurring revenue into profit
“Moved from 1 time to recurring”
Share profits with owners
“2016: $6m dividends”
Grow recurring revenue through acquisition
“$100k/m in MRR, grew to $300k MRR”
Cut costs to restore profitability
“Went from losing $2m to making $1.5m with staff cuts (60 down to 30)”
Distribute cash before a sale
“…. Already pulled out $12m in dividends”
Preview slides
Open slide preview in Google SlidesResource files
- Watch video
Video
Masters of Debt: How I bought a $5m SaaS Company Using Debt, Grew to $20m - Slide Deck
Brad is a serial entrepreneur who has successfully bought, built and sold several companies with extreme focus on capital efficiency. Most recently, he grew ATI revenue 400% (both organic and through acquisitions) with 37% EBITDA margins, with investors making 9x ROI upon exit. Prior to that, he built Silversky from startup to $60mm revenue with $10mm in EBITDA. After recap with Goldman Sachs at $150mm pre money value, Silversky was later sold to BAE for $250mm. Prior to Silversky, he built PRG (prg.com) from $30 mm to $350mm in revenue in 2 years via roll up strategy with 24 acquisitions. He also engineered PRG recap at $350mm value. He has also served as an active board member at SeeClickFix (sold for $22mm) and Palomar Technologies (sold for $200mm).
- Company revenue
- $10M
- Team size
- 200
More founder interviews
- Masters of Debt: How I bought a $5m SaaS Company Using Debt
Brad Miller · AwarenessTech
- Our Competitors Raised $100m
Ari Salafia · Taxtaker
- How we grew our revenue by 1700%
Becca Kay · Dingus and Zazzy
- Founder Net Worth Map
Ben Carpel · Galleon
- How I Bootstrapped to $5m using profit sharing and open salaries to motivate the team
Bridget Harris · YouCanBookMe
- High Volume, Low ARPU Sales Playbook
Chris Vandersluis · Timecontrol
Slide by slide
Each slide with a short explanation of what it shows. Open the slide text for its exact wording.
9 passages
AwarenessTech acquisition story
Slide text
Brad Miller CEO of AwarenessTech I bought a $5m SaaS Company, M&A for Growth, $12m+ Dividends … Grew to $20m, Then Flipped for a Huge Gain Founder500, Sept 2022
Revenue rose, then fell
The chart shows revenue rising from $5,000,000 in 2010 to $7,000,000 in 2011, reaching $20,600,000 in 2020, then falling to $10,000,000 in 2022. No bars are shown for 2012, 2013, or 2021.
Slide text
AwarenessTech Revenue Growth
Recurring revenue brought profits
In 2011, AwarenessTech had $7m in revenue and $1m in profits after moving from one-time sales to recurring revenue. The revenue chart behind the callout provides the wider growth context.
Slide text
AwarenessTech Revenue Growth Moved from 1 time to recurring … profits soared 2011 $7m in revenue $1m in profits
Profit and dividend history
Profits funded dividends
The callout lists rising dividends: $1m in 2012, $3m in 2014, and $6m in 2016. It presents profit distributions as a growing part of the company's financial results.
Slide text
AwarenessTech Revenue Growth You should want profits… … profits soared 2012 2012: Paid out $1m in dividends 2014: $3m dividends 2016: $6m dividends
Growth through acquisitions
An acquisition expanded MRR
The 2016 acquisition cost $3m, and the acquired business grew from $100k per month in MRR to $300k per month. The callout places this deal within the company's broader revenue timeline.
Slide text
AwarenessTech Revenue Growth In-Organic Growth via M&A … profits soared 2016 Bought business for $3m $100k/m in MRR, grew to $300k MRR
Turning around an acquired business
A turnaround followed staff cuts
After buying the company for $3.5m in 2018 with $10m ARR, Brad says it moved from losing $2m to making $1.5m after staff fell from 60 to 30. The slide also lists the prior owners' $45m purchase in 2008, with $15m ARR and $6m profits.
Slide text
AwarenessTech Revenue Growth In-Organic Growth via M&A … profits soared 2018 VC’s bought for $45m in 2008 $15m ARR, $6m profits Brad bought for $3.5m in 2018 (with $10m ARR) Went from losing $2m to making $1.5m with staff cuts (60 down to 30)
Sale and realized returns
The sale followed dividends
The 2020 callout says the company sold for $35m and had already paid out $12m in dividends. It frames the sale as the final milestone in the revenue timeline.
Slide text
AwarenessTech Revenue Growth Sold for $35m … huge financial win 2020 …. Already pulled out $12m in dividends
Revenue chart without callouts
The chart repeats the revenue timeline on its own, making the increase to $20,600,000 in 2020 and subsequent drop to $10,000,000 in 2022 easier to compare. Earlier bars show $5,000,000 in 2010 and $7,000,000 in 2011.
Slide text
AwarenessTech Revenue Growth
Closing title card
The closing card returns to Brad Miller's story of buying a $5m SaaS company, growing it to $20m, and taking $12m+ in dividends, with a portrait and AwarenessTech logo.
Slide text
Brad Miller CEO of AwarenessTech I bought a $5m SaaS Company, M&A for Growth, $12m+ Dividends … Grew to $20m, Then Flipped for a Huge Gain Founder500, Sept 2022