This Is M&A Podcast

Dealmaking without the B.S.Designed for the decision-makers navigating complex, high-stakes transactions, This is M&A is your front-row seat to the real world of mergers and acquisitions, capital raises, and strategic moves.Whether you’re a CEO, founder, corporate development leader, or senior executive, this podcast is for you.

This Is M&A Podcast is a business podcast hosted by Steven Monterroso, with 27 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80.

Steven Monterroso hosts This Is M&A Podcast, a business show with 27 episodes published.

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  Episode #28

  The LOI is Where Leverage Moves: What Every Seller Needs to Know w/ Bill Sorenson | This Is M&A

  Sep 30, 202656 min

  Most sellers think the Letter of Intent is a formality. Bill Sorenson says it is where leverage starts to move, and most founders never see it coming. In this episode of This Is M&A, Bill Sorenson, CEO and Principal of Heritage Capital Group, breaks down why the LOI is the single most important document in any M&A deal, what happens to your leverage the moment you sign, and which terms beyond purchase price must be locked in before you hand over exclusivity. Bill has spent nearly 30 years in middle market investment banking and strategic consulting, leading hundreds of M&A transactions with deal sizes typically ranging from $20 million to $150 million in enterprise value. He is the principal of Heritage Capital Group and sister firm Business Valuation, Inc., and brings a process-improvement lens shaped by time at Deloitte and Fortune 50 consulting to every engagement. In this episode, you will learn: ✔️ Why the LOI, not the purchase agreement, is the most consequential document in the entire deal ✔️ How exclusivity works and exactly what leverage you surrender the moment you sign ✔️ Which provisions beyond purchase price must be negotiated at the LOI stage: earnouts, rollover equity, seller notes, rep and warranty insurance, escrow, and real estate ✔️ Why buyers push hard to get you under LOI fast and how to recognize that pressure for what it is ✔️ How a competitive process produced offers ranging from 3x to 9x on the same business Learn more about Bill Sorenson and Heritage Capital Group: Website: https://heritagecapitalgroup.com https://businessvaluationinc.com/ LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/bill-sorenson-71a6585/ Connect with your host, Steven Monterroso: LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/determined2succeed/ Follow This Is M&A Podcast on LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/company/this-is-m-a/ Want to become our next guest? Sign up or subscribe: https://sharevault.com/this-is-ma/ Listen now on Apple Podcasts, iHeartRadio and Spotify. #thisismapodcast #mna #letterofintent #exitplanning #middlemarket #sellside #duediligence #privateequity #founders #mergersandacquisitions Chapters 00:00 — Meet Bill Sorenson: Banker, Musician, Knife-Fight Survivor 02:42 — LOI 101: The Deal's Most Critical Doc 04:43 — Exclusivity: Where Your Leverage Disappears 07:48 — Roadmap or Rules of Engagement? 14:16 — Why Buyers Rush You to Sign Fast 20:34 — Terms That Matter More Than Price 27:43 — "Non-Binding" Is a Dangerous Myth 32:25 — Post-LOI: Diligence, Disclosures, Don't Lose Focus 41:17 — Rapid Fire: M&A Myths Busted 44:52 — From Defense Contracting to Middle Market Deals

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  Episode #27

  How Serial Acquirers Build a Repeatable M&A Machine w/ Gwen Pope | This Is M&A

  Sep 16, 20261h 6m

  Most companies think finding the right deal is the hard part. It isn't. In this episode of This Is M&A, Gwen Pope, Co-founder and CEO of Tiger Team M&A, breaks down why the best acquirers stop treating M&A as a one-off event and start building it as a repeatable operating system, what integration-led diligence actually looks like in practice, and how lean teams can now compete with enterprise serial acquirers using purpose-built AI. Gwen is a veteran M&A strategist with 20+ years and nearly 100 transactions ranging from $10 million to $10 billion. She has built and led M&A organizations across product, tech, go-to-market, and corporate strategy at Google, Microsoft, eBay, and elsewhere. She is co-owner of multiple patents and co-founder of Tiger Team M&A, whose M&AOP platform embeds patented decisioning methodology to help serial acquirers drive deal ROI more efficiently and predictably. In this episode, you will learn: ✅ Why 75% of M&A headcount has been cut at large serial acquirers while deal volume is up 40% year over year and what that math means for execution risk ✅ What separates a true serial acquirer from a company that just does deals ✅ Why buyer-led M&A starts with strategy and corporate roadmap, not targets ✅ What integration-led diligence finds that traditional checklists never will ✅ How a spike in support tickets once exposed an entire deal thesis as broken ✅ Why the value gap between programmatic and non-programmatic acquirers is not just large, it is widening Learn more about Gwen Pope and Tiger Team M&A: Email: gwenp@tigerteammna.com Website: https://tigerteammna.com LinkedIn (Personal): https://linkedin.com/in/gwenpope LinkedIn (Company): https://linkedin.com/company/tiger-team-mna Substack: https://substack.com/@tigerteammna Connect with your host, Steven Monterroso: LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/determined2succeed/ Follow This Is M&A Podcast on LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/company/this-is-m-a/ Want to become our next guest? Sign up or subscribe: https://sharevault.com/this-is-ma/ Listen now on Apple Podcasts, iHeartRadio and Spotify. #thisismapodcast #mna #serialacquirer #corporatedevelopment #integrationplanning #mnaoperatingmodel #privateequity #dealmaking #aiinma Chapter Markers 00:00 — Meet Gwen Pope: 100 Deals, Five Tech Giants 04:50 — The Brutal Math Lean M&A Teams Face 12:10 — One Deal vs. a Deal Machine 19:53 — What Reactive M&A Actually Looks Like 27:17 — Building the M&A Nervous System 33:42 — Why Your Diligence Checklist Is Lying to You 40:12 — The Support Ticket That Blew Up a Deal 45:38 — The Modern M&A Operating System Explained 54:42 — Can Lean Teams Outcompete the Giants? 59:55 — Gwen's Career Arc: How It All Clicked

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  Episode #26

  Quality of Earnings Explained: What Kills Deals & How to Prepare w/ Mary Grace Doggett | This Is M&A

  Aug 26, 202635 min

  Most founders think their financials are bulletproof. When quality of earnings review begins, quality of earnings review begins. In this episode of This Is M&A, Mary Grace Doggett, Transaction Advisory Services Manager at GHJ, breaks down what a QoE actually tells you, what it does not, how smart sellers use it to protect valuation, and the red flags that quietly reprice or kill deals before close. Mary Grace provides financial due diligence support for buy- and sell-side transactions ranging from $10 million to $1 billion at GHJ, a national independent advisory, tax, and accounting firm. She specializes in the food and beverage sector and works with privately held businesses, private equity firms, and institutional investors across the lower to middle market. In this episode, you will learn: ✅ Why a QoE is not an audit and what that distinction actually means for valuation ✅ How smart sellers diligence themselves first and why transparency upfront is almost always cheaper than negotiating under pressure ✅ The red flags that kill or reprice deals: revenue quality issues, unsupported add-backs, working capital surprises, and lack of financial infrastructure ✅ Why deals don't break but unravel, and what causes the fastest unraveling ✅ When to run a sell-side QoE and why 3 to 6 months before going to market is the right window Learn more about Mary Grace Doggett and GHJ: Website: https://ghjadvisors.com LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/marygracedoggett/ Email: mdoggett@ghjadvisors.com Connect with your host, Steven Monterroso: LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/determined2succeed/ Follow This Is M&A Podcast on LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/company/this-is-m-a/ Want to become our next guest? Sign up or subscribe: https://sharevault.com/this-is-ma/ Listen now on Apple Podcasts, iHeartRadio and Spotify. Chapter markers: 00:00 — What Quality of Earnings Actually Tells You 03:25 — EBITDA Normalization Explained 08:36 — QoE vs. Audit: What Is the Difference 10:01 — When Does a Deal Need a QoE 12:23 — Revenue Quality Red Flags That Kill Deals 15:15 — EBITDA Add-Back Battles 17:04 — How Deals Unravel 18:22 — How Smart Sellers Prepare and Protect Valuation 21:54 — Working Capital Surprises 24:41 — Related Party Transactions 25:58 — The Red Flags That Kill vs. Reprice 28:05 — Timing: When to Run a Sell-Side QoE 31:22 — Mary Grace's M&A Family Legacy #thisismapodcast #mna #qualityofearnings #financialduediligence #exitplanning #privateequity #foodandbeverage #lowermiddlemarket #ebitda #mergers #qoe

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  Episode #25

  Bad Surprises Kill Deals: What Closes Life Sciences & Medtech M&A w/ Gregg Blake | This Is M&A

  Aug 13, 202637 min

  Most medtech deals that stall were already in trouble before the process started. In this episode of This Is M&A, Gregg Blake, Managing Director in Healthcare Investment Banking at CapM Advisors, breaks down what separates deals that close from deals that die: how to build for a premium exit 2 to 3 years out, what hidden risks quietly kill momentum, and how to run a sell-side process that actually extracts maximum value at the finish line. Gregg Blake is a Managing Director at CapM Advisors, based in New York. He has been advising clients worldwide in healthcare, life science, and medical technology for over 20 years. He founded Brocair, a dedicated healthcare corporate finance advisor, in 2004 and ran it for over a decade before merging it with Bryan Garnier, where he co-led the healthcare practice. CapM Advisors has completed M&A transactions totaling over $51 billion. In this episode, you will learn: ⚡️ What the best companies do 2 to 3 years before exit to position for a premium outcome ⚡️ Why customer concentration and CEO dependency quietly destroy deal value before a buyer ever shows up ⚡️ How to control the diligence narrative before a buyer controls it for you ⚡️ Why running your own QofE before going to market is non-negotiable ⚡️ How competitive tension in a sell-side process added 25% to one deal's value in 36 hours ⚡️ When scientific risk kills life science deals versus when commercial risk is the real threat Learn more about Gregg Blake and CapM Advisors: Website: https://cap-m.com LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/greggblake/ Connect with your host, Steven Monterroso: LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/determined2succeed/ Follow This Is M&A Podcast on LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/company/this-is-m-a/ Want to become our next guest? Sign up: https://sharevault.com/this-is-ma/ Listen now on Apple Podcasts, iHeartRadio and Spotify. Chapter Markers 00:00 — Meet Gregg Blake, M&A Insider 02:36 — Build the Exit Before It Exists 06:22 — Who You Take Money From Matters 11:03 — Capital Structure Can Kill Your Exit 14:05 — Why Deals Stall (And How to Stop It) 18:33 — Science Risk vs. Commercial Risk 21:30 — Management Red Flags Buyers Notice 23:44 — Creating Competitive Tension to Win 33:40 — Long-Term Relationships Drive Deals 39:45 — How to Reach Gregg Blake #thisismapodcast #mna #medtech #lifesciences #healthcareinvestmentbanking #exitplanning #founders #duediligence #middlemarket #dealstructure

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  Episode #24

  Technical Debt Is Killing Your PE Returns w/ Dave Mangot | This Is M&A

  Jul 29, 202654 min

  Most PE investors never look at the engineering organization. That blind spot is costing them. Dave Mangot, author of DevOps Patterns for Private Equity and founder and CEO at Mangoteque, joins This Is M&A to explain how DORA metrics translate into investor outcomes, why technical debt quietly destroys EBITDA, and what breaks in the first 100 days post-close. A DevOps veteran, he has successfully led digital, SRE, and DevOps transformations at Salesforce, SolarWinds, and Cable and Wireless. In this episode, you will learn: ⚡️ What DORA metrics actually signal about business health — and what to listen for when your CTO presents them ⚡️ How technical debt inflates COGS and destroys EBITDA before it shows up on a financial statement ⚡️ Why AI amplifies existing engineering problems instead of fixing them ⚡️ Why not integrating engineering teams post-acquisition is the costliest PE mistake ⚡️ What engineering alpha means and how multi-tenant SaaS architecture drives EBITDA margin Learn more about Dave Mangot and Mangoteque: Website: https://mangoteque.com Blog: https://blog.mangoteque.com Podcast: https://engineeringalpha.fm LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/dmangot/ Email: dave@mangoteque.com Connect with your host, Steven Monterroso: LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/determined2succeed/ Follow This Is M&A Podcast on LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/company/this-is-m-a/ Want to become our next guest? Sign up or subscribe: https://sharevault.com/this-is-ma/ Listen now on Apple Podcasts, iHeartRadio and Spotify. TIMESTAMPS 00:00 — Meet Dave Mangot of Mangoteque 01:21 — Engineering's Hidden Role in PE Value 05:21 — Technical Debt Is Killing Your Margins 09:28 — Moneyball: More At-Bats, More Growth 15:52 — DORA Metrics Decoded for Investors 22:11 — Speed vs. Quality? Both. Here's Why 29:26 — When the CTO's Vision Stalls Out 35:36 — Acquisitions That Freeze Product Delivery 41:50 — Engineering Alpha: The EBITDA Multiplier 48:10 — How to Reach Dave and Final Takeaways #thisismapodcast #mna #privateequity #devops #technicaldebt #softwarevaluation #exitplanning #engineeringalpha

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