Sam Youssef,  Founder and CEO at Valsoft Corporation This episode is sponsored by the M&A Science Academy, DealRoom, and FirmRoom. To join our growing online community of M&A practitioners, visit https://www.mascience.com/academy. Don’t forget to use code “podcast” at checkout. Ready to take your M&A to the next level with software made to manage each stage of the deal process? See how DealRoom can facilitate your next deal at https://www.dealroom.net FirmRoom provides 80% cost savings over VDRs that bill by page and delivers a far better user experience to boot. Sign up in under 2 minutes by going to https://www.firmroom.com EPISODE TIMESTAMPS: 00:00 Intro 05:44 Looking at business through a different lens 09:19 Distinguishing good acquirers 11:17 Identifying the right segment and deal size 15:07 Platform play acquisition 19:57 Approaching target companies 23:16 Financial structure 26:09 Challenges in building an M&A muscle 29:42 Driving value from synergies 30:56 Getting the right people 32:49 Sharing learnings 38:39 Craziest thing in M&A