Episode #51
Ep 51 -Gregg Ficery— If You're Not Making Money, You're Not Worth Money — Tips from 1,000 Valuations
Today in the Sky Lounge, we are joined by Gregg Ficery, founder of Integgra Valuation & Advisory Services and one of the people founders call when a number has to hold up — in a funding round, in a divorce, or on a witness stand. Gregg left MCI Telecom for an Atlanta internet consultancy called IXL right after WorldCom took MCI over, collected his first stock options, and watched them go to zero when youdecide.com's business model never worked. He landed in valuation because the IRS created 409A and somebody had to do the work. Three firms later — including Silicon Valley Bank's group, the largest in the country — he had watched all three fail to make money at a business he found conspicuously simple. So in 2011 he started charging less and keeping more. He explains why revenue multiples are the number he trusts least, what happened when a departing agency partner demanded $10 million for her third of the business, and why SPACs were the no-doc mortgage of going public. Then there's the fifteen-year project: a box of photographs in his grandmother’s Pittsburgh basement that started a journey through his family’s legacy in football and the game’s backstory in his book “Gridiron Legacy: Pro Football’s Missing Origin Story.” And an experience in Florence that took some travel in a rough direction! ABOUT OUR GUEST: Gregg Ficery is the founder and president of Integgra Valuation & Advisory Services, which he launched in 2011 after more than 20 years in the field and nearly 1,000 private company valuations. He came to it by way of a decade in finance, accounting, and corporate development across technology, telecom, and financial services, then a Director role at SVB Analytics — Silicon Valley Bank's valuation arm — where he led over 150 engagements pricing stock options for 409A and SFAS 123R compliance, and before that a Senior Director post at Atlanta boutique Taylor Consulting Group handling M&A, financial reporting, tax, and litigation work, including expert witness testimony. He is also the #1 Amazon best-selling author of Gridiron Legacy: Pro Football's Missing Origin Story, and a speaker. CONTACT: https://integgra.com/ https://www.gridironlegacy.com/ What is THE SKY LOUNGE? Tales from the Sky Lounge takes you on a journey through business, consulting, and venture investing, hearing stories from the entrepreneurs, consultants, and investors shaping these industries. ABOUT OUR HOST: Todd Merrill is an experienced software executive who typically assists clients as a fractional or interim CTO and CiSO as a partner at TechCXO. He has served in a series of companies as a C-Level executive focused on leveraging the Cloud to bring SaaS offerings to market. As an entrepreneur, turn-around expert, technology and product leader, and mentor, Todd has held full corporate P&L and product development responsibilities and directed diverse international teams of Engineering Managers, Mobile Architects, Developers, Dev Ops, QA, and Customer Success professionals. Subscribe and turn on notifications to listen to new episodes as they launch! YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfeCS-Varb4gu2uCwyRTXWWEdP676Huh6 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6jz6ubcaUZ20Xh8TXhwzEN Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/tales-from-the-sky-lounge/id1730134658 Amazon: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/4ba289a5-0d33-4589-95c7-83416731a864/tales-from-the-sky-lounge Follow Tales From The SkyLounge on Social Media X/Twitter: https://x.com/TFTSkyLounge Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tftskylounge/ Learn more about TechCXO: https://www.techcxo.com/ Production/Design: James Liebman Music: Soundstripe/Cody Martin-Sunrise
