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Acquisition Master: How we hit $30m Revenue

Hiring international developers, building an outbound sales team and the LOI Cognism used to buy PLG rival Kaspr

James Isilay · Cognism

Published September 1, 2022
About this resource

James Isilay, CEO and Founder of Cognism shares:

- Using/finding international developers

- Adding product capabilities fast

- Real LOI we used to acquire Kaspr

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What you’ll learn

James Isilay explains how Cognism used international hiring, a sales team, and an acquisition to add a product-led element to the business. He also discusses managing stakeholder expectations around valuations and transaction timing.

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Key moments

Find the ideas you need and go straight to the source.

Hire internationally

“actually we're all end of August we're at 37 million AER uh our Revenue growth has really been a mix of probably about 50 uh from marketing and 50 from our outbound sales team and I'll talk more about that um as we as we go through the talk so the next 20 minutes I'm gonna I'm gonna cover a lot of topics uh I'm gonna just cover really key points and and I think some of the key lessons from cognizant's growth Journey um first of all we're going to talk about the growth from zero to 30 million”
Watch at 01:38

Build early sales capacity

“was a disaster and so really our key lesson here is really to build an in-house team and to really keep the talent and train the talent internally and to really pair that Talent with great mentors um from from companies that are scaling above you and that's really you know been The Key to Our Success here this is our organic traffic and this is really driven from our create demand strategies so uh currently we're about 260 K of value”
Watch at 05:27

Add a product-led motion

“competition I mean at the heart of any m a transaction or acquisition is really that narrative that story that you're trying to bind everybody together with and this was the narrative that that I built and I I took and talked to Alan about in the team which really was the common Vision that then helped the transaction go ahead and which was the The Vision that was shared with the board I think it's super important that right at the beginning of the transaction if you're leading that m a transaction that you have a narrative that you have a really well defined narrative about when these two”
Watch at 09:48

Make an acquisition case

“um I mean one of the big lessons going through another m a transaction at the moment is at this stage is really to understand is the founder ready to sell like this is where you can really drag out a lot of the issues and and um really find out like who at the uh where the other company of the doubts and and then you've got as the drive of the transaction it's my job to to to kind of challenge those doubts and Tackle them in the letter of intent to get everybody comfortable with the transaction so um again”
Watch at 14:09

Manage valuation expectations

“um you know we've we've had a great we created an amazing um uh way of capturing of growing with this capture demand and creating demand strategies and splitting those out and really putting resources in both I mean that in terms of create demand really that's like a year uh payoff but again as you see now like we have double the number amount of organic traffic than our nearest competitor so again it's really paid off and the Investments really paid off um in terms of why do m a uh or”
Watch at 18:01

Cognism Revenue Growth

“Cognism Revenue Growth”
Read slide 2

Capture Demand

“SEO: double down on high intent, commercial terms and competitor comparisons”
Read slide 6

Kaspr started to appear in our deals

“Kaspr started to appear in our deals”
Read slide 16

Using/finding international developers

“Using/finding international developers”
Read slide 20

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Resource files

  • Video

    Watch video

  • Template LOI for acquiring your smaller competitors

  • Acquisition Master: How we hit $30m Revenue - Slide Deck

About the speaker
James Isilay

James Isilay

CEO · Cognism

LinkedIn

James Isilay is the CEO of Cognism which is a B2B sales acceleration software company that provides a marketing and sales acceleration solution. The company has raised over $20 million from top tier investors such as Investiere, London Co-Investment Fund, Newable Private Investing, AXA Venture Partners, Fintech Sandbox, and PeakSpan Capital to name a few.

Company revenue
$64M
Team size
481

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Each slide with a short explanation of what it shows. Open the slide text for its exact wording.

21 passages

From zero to $30M

  1. Slide 1Open deck
    Slide text

    Founder500, Sept 2022 James Isilay CEO, Founder of Cognism Acquisition Master: How we hit $30m Revenue … and why we acquired our PLG competitor

  2. Slide 2Open deck

    Cognism ARR accelerates

    Cognism’s chart rises from $2.6m in Dec 2018 to $30.9m in Jun 2022. Growth steepens in the final year, reaching $21.7m by Dec 2021.

    Slide text

    Cognism Revenue Growth

  3. Slide 3Open deck

    The talk moves from growth to M&A

    The agenda connects the company’s growth from $0 to $30m with demand generation, acquiring Kaspr, and the deal playbook. The acquisition section covers the rationale, product capabilities, go-to-market changes, and transaction terms.

    Slide text

    Over the next 20 minutes: Using/finding international developers I’m going to show you $0 TO $30M WHY M&A M&A PLAYBOOK Growth channels: Capture Demand Growth channels: Creating Demand Inorganic growth (+$3.2M ARR) Stop competition (defensive moves) Adding product capabilities fast Real LOI we used to acquire Kaspr New GTM motion Valuation, cash/earnout split, and full acq. deal structure

International hiring and demand generation

  1. Slide 4Open deck

    Three growth channels open the talk

    This section covers location-agnostic hiring, demand capture, and demand creation. It frames the first part of the talk around hiring and the channels used to attract customers.

    Slide text

    Let’s Start With Section 1 Location-agnostic hiring Speed to scale Talent attraction I’m going to show you INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPERS CAPTURE DEMAND CREATE DEMAND SEO Google Ads LinkedIn Ads & Facebook Ads Value-led Content LinkedIn Ads & Facebook Ads Organic LinkedIn

  2. Slide 5Open deck

    Nearshore hiring supports scale

    Hiring experts regardless of location is presented as a way to scale faster and attract talent in technology hubs. The slide cites an average cost of $32k.

    Slide text

    International Developers Hire best-in-industry experts in every field – independent of their location Scale teams at speed and with and cost-efficiency – ave. $32k  Attract new talent by having offices in the tech hotspots The many benefits of near-shoring Dev hires when scaling a business

  3. Slide 6Open deck

    Capture existing buyer intent

    The demand-capture plan pairs SEO and Google Ads around high-intent commercial and competitor searches, while LinkedIn and Facebook retargeting focus on product value.

    Slide text

    Capture Demand SEO: double down on high intent, commercial terms and competitor comparisons Google Ads: high intent (competitor and commercial terms) and brand focused LinkedIn Ads & Facebook Ads retargeting. Product value focused

  4. Slide 7Open deck

    Organic traffic reaches 260k

    The headline reports organic traffic at 260k for the month. The dashboard trend rises substantially from 2020 through mid-2022, alongside a separate page-view chart.

    Slide text

    Organic Traffic Hit 260k This Month

  5. Slide 8Open deck

    Create demand with useful content

    Demand creation combines actionable blog, video, and webinar content with ungated social distribution and expert-led organic LinkedIn posts. The example post offers practical wellbeing advice for salespeople.

    Slide text

    Create Demand Value-led content, highly actionable: written (blog), video, webinar LinkedIn Ads & Facebook Ads driving engagement and in feed consumption, ungated, to everyone, always Organic LinkedIn: Subject matter expert led, value only, non promotional

Why acquire a competitor

  1. Slide 9Open deck

    M&A adds capabilities and reach

    The agenda introduces inorganic growth through Cognism and Kaspr ARR, added product and data capabilities, and market expansion. It sets up the acquisition as a route to reach a different customer segment.

    Slide text

    Let’s Jump in to Section 2 Cognism ARR Kaspr ARR I’m going to show you INORGANIC GROWTH ADDING CAPABILITIES EXPANDING MARKET PLG Motion Data Red Ocean Blue Ocean

  2. Slide 10Open deck

    Cognism ARR continues its climb

    The repeated chart emphasizes Cognism’s growth from $2.6m in Dec 2018 to $30.9m in Jun 2022, with the largest gains occurring in the final three reporting periods.

    Slide text

    Cognism Revenue Growth

  3. Slide 11Open deck

    Kaspr ARR grows after launch

    Kaspr’s chart rises from $475k in Feb 2021 to $3.2m in Jun 2022. The final period is a sharp step up from $1.45m in Apr 2022.

    Slide text

    Kaspr Revenue Growth

  4. Slide 12Open deck

    Combined ARR reaches $34m

    The combined Cognism and Kaspr chart reaches $34m in Jun 2022, up from $2.6m in Dec 2018. The earlier trajectory tracks Cognism’s standalone figures before the combined total rises above them.

    Slide text

    Cognism Revenue Growth

Adding capabilities through Kaspr

  1. Slide 13Open deck

    Kaspr expands the customer range

    Kaspr adds a product-led offer for individual users and immature teams, while Cognism serves larger, more mature teams with premium features. The slide groups the customer tiers at $500-$2k, $2k-$10k, and $15k-$50k+ ACV.

    Slide text

    Adding Capabilities “Kaspr’s entry level sales intelligence solution is deepening Cognism’s expertise and database as well as expanding our team with local knowledge, allowing the company to serve earlier stage businesses and individual contributors” $500 – $2k ACV Individual licences Immature Teams $2k - $10k ACV Mature team licences Basic features $15k - $50k+ ACV Org Licences Premium features Data

  2. Slide 14Open deck

    Kaspr brings product-led reach

    Kaspr’s founder describes the company as strong in product-led data but limited in its ability to pursue larger deals. The slide presents Cognism’s sales resources and knowledge as complementary strengths for expanding Kaspr’s reach.

    Slide text

    “Kaspr is a very good PLG data provider but what we lack is the commercial power to address larger deals. Cognism has one of the strongest sales forces in our industry and the combination of the two will allow us to achieve great things.With Cognism knowledge and resources, Kaspr can become one of the most powerful PLG data providers in Europe and smash the competition.” Allan Benguigui CEO & Founder, Kaspr

  3. Slide 15Open deck

    The acquisition combines complementary motions

    The Venn diagram contrasts Kaspr’s product-led motion, individual users, and French focus with Cognism’s sales-led motion, premium compliance, and broader markets. Shared engineering, growth, and a Chrome extension sit in the overlap.

    Slide text

    How We Bought Kaspr SLG motion Scale-up £15-50k+ ACV Premium compliance Premium targeting Intent Diamond Verified Data Organisational licences US, UK, DACH markets PLG motion Start-up $500-$2k ACV 1st party data capture Immature teams Single users French market $2k-15k ACV Lost-cost engineering Rapid growth Chrome extension Combined Entity

  4. Slide 16Open deck

    The deal moves from contact to close

    The timeline starts with Kaspr appearing in Cognism’s deals in September 2021 and ends with completion in March 2022. Financial, technical, legal, and HR reviews are shown beginning in January 2022.

    Slide text

    September 2021 October 2021 November 2021 January 2022 March 2022 Kaspr started to appear in our deals Kaspr added UK sales resource Cognism engages with Kaspr for the first time Cognism engages with Kaspr for the first time Financial Due Diligence starts Technical Due Diligence starts Legal & HR Reviews start Transaction completed

LOI and deal structure

  1. Slide 17Open deck

    The final section covers deal execution

    This section turns to the acquisition process, moving from a letter of intent to deal structure and lessons learned. It previews an example structure and the takeaways from the transaction.

    Slide text

    Let’s Jump in to Section 3 Example LOI I’m going to show you LOI & STRUCTURE DEAL STRUCTURE LEARNINGS Example Structure What did we learn?

  2. Slide 18Open deck

    Prepare early and protect the team

    The LOI lessons are to be ready to sell, build relationships with the target’s board early, keep both sides informed to protect the team, and account for jurisdictional issues.

    Slide text

    The LOI We Used As a Founder, be ‘ready to sell’ As an acquirer, build relationships with their board early on Keep the loop closed on both sides to protect the team Be aware of jurisdictional issues

  3. Slide 19Open deck

    Structure valuation, earnout, and cash

    The slide recommends setting a valuation basis and expectations early, then aligning stakeholders around the partnership. Its example terms use a 9x market multiple, a 35% earnout, and 65% cash.

    Slide text

    Deal Structure The three core elements of a deal structure Valuation Determine Revenue versus ARR Set a Market multiple – 9x Set expectations early Earnout – 35% Incentivise continued growth Build a partnership Agree stakeholders Cash – 65% Give a portion upfront Set an earn-out schedule Get investors on board VALUATION EARNOUT CASH

  4. Slide 20Open deck

    The recap links growth and acquisition

    The recap ties growth from $0 to $30m to demand capture, demand creation, and an M&A playbook. It highlights $3.2m ARR from inorganic growth and closes on the Kaspr LOI, go-to-market motion, and deal structure.

    Slide text

    Over the last 20 minutes: Using/finding international developers I showed you: $0 TO $30M WHY M&A M&A PLAYBOOK Growth channels: Capture Demand Growth channels: Creating Demand Inorganic growth (+$3.2M ARR) Stop competition (defensive moves) Adding product capabilities fast Real LOI we used to acquire Kaspr New GTM motion Valuation, cash/earnout split, and full acq. deal structure

  5. Slide 21Open deck

    James Isilay closes the talk

    The closing slide thanks the audience and identifies James Isilay as Cognism’s CEO and founder.

    Slide text

    Sept 2022 James Isilay CEO, Founder of Cognism