Ritika Butani, Head of Corporate Development at Toast (NYSE: TOST) 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 04:22 Secrets to overcoming hurdles 05:51 Challenges in M&A 09:58 Complexities of smaller deals 12:43 Handling people in a smaller company 13:50 Cultural assessment 15:24 Culture ends up killing the deal 17:03 Tax Issues 18:58 HR issues 20:44 Contractual Issues 23:41 Change of control and assignment 25:05 Risks Mitigation 26:58 Finding good lawyers 28:34 Integration planning 30:05 Integration planning vs. hypothesis 32:44 No dedicated integration lead 34:34 Principles of doing deals 37:31 Non-negotiables 39:40 Dealing with issues 41:44 Surprise Issues 44:08 Craziest thing in M&A