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November 7, 2024
Advisers Help Avoid Family Business Mistakes
McComas Fuel Co.’s William A. McComas on lessons learned operating a multi-generation family business....
By Adam Burroughs
September 5, 2024
Unfortunate Circumstances Lead To Important Family Business Lessons
Gamse Labels & Packaging’s James Canzoniero on how an unfortunate event led to a quick succession, and important business lessons....
By Adam Burroughs
July 11, 2024
Finding A Buyer With A Culture Connection
VES LLC's Bryan LeBaron on his thought process when choosing a buyer....
By Adam Burroughs
June 5, 2024
How Listening To The Pros Made Selling Smooth For Nyquist Inc.
Nyquist Inc.'s George Nyquist on the importance of professional advice for business owners....
By Adam Burroughs
May 2, 2024
Labor Trends And Their Impact On Business
Mac Tisdale, Ahmed El Nokali, Philip Tulkoff, Richard McGee, Jr. on how changes in the labor market are affecting business....
By Adam Burroughs
April 25, 2024
Recognizing Baltimore's Smart Business Network Dealmaker Award Winners and 2024 Dealmakers Hall of Fame Class!
Read about the Dealmakers of the Year we're honoring in Baltimore this year and check out the accomplishments of our Hall of Famers....
By SBN Staff
March 21, 2024
When Selling A Business, Get Help But Get Going
Red Hawk Past Owner Gillet Boyce on the advice he'd give to owners selling a business for the first time. ...
By Adam Burroughs
February 15, 2024
How Market Shifts Are Impacting PE Fundraising
Sidereal Capital Group Jabbar Abdi on the state of PE fundraising. ...
By Adam Burroughs
January 25, 2024
The Nuances Of Buying Small Companies
Chesapeake Chemlab's Tim Krongard on the challenges, and opportunities, when buying smaller companies....
By Adam Burroughs
November 17, 2023
For SCLogic, Time Is Ticking For An Exit
Mike Saldi, founder and CEO of SCLogic, feels he's running out of time. And that in part why his company began running a process. "At 60 years old, I've got to figure out what's next," Saldi said at...
By Adam Burroughs
September 29, 2023
The 15-Year Process Of Selling CollabraSpace
CollabraSpace Co-Founder Ray Schwemmer says he would get cold calls all the time from people looking to buy his software company. "We basically just ignored them," he said at the Baltimore Smart...
By Adam Burroughs
September 1, 2023
Buyers’ Industry Knowledge Can Help Land The Best Deal
Dr. Nithin Krishna is a board licensed psychiatrist and serial mental health entrepreneur who formerly led as CEO the multimillion dollar Bloom Health Centers. Krishna acquired Psych Associates of...
By Adam Burroughs
August 4, 2023
Deal Close Is Not The End Of The Marathon
Rendia, founded by an eye doctor and his three children to help doctors and patients understand each other better, was sold to a strategic buyer, PatientPoint, this past October. To personally prepare...
By Adam Burroughs
June 29, 2023
Prepare At The Beginning For The Best End
Harold Green launched Chamberlain Contractors, an asphalt paving company, back in 1975, and sold it to Pavement Partners, a portfolio company of Shoreline Equity Partners, in January 2022. While he...
By Adam Burroughs
June 2, 2023
To Manage Through Fundraising, Transactions, Sign Up With Commitment
LabCorp recently paid a reported $450 million to acquire Personal Genome Diagnostics, known as PGDx, a genomic testing company. Earlier that same year, PGDx successfully raised a $103 million Series...
By Adam Burroughs
May 5, 2023
Baltimore Business Leaders See An Economy of Both Ups And Downs
Mahogany Inc.'s Jeff Hargrave, Acme Paper & Supply Co.'s Andy Attman, MacKenzie, Commercial Real Estate Services' Owen Rouse, Jr., and FNB Corp.'s Mac Tisdale share anecdotes from their experiences on the front lines and observations of trends during this choppy economy....
By Adam Burroughs
March 24, 2023
Capital As An Accelerant
RallyBright Founder and CEO John Estafanous on founding his first company and how that has informed building the second, what he learned selling that first business, his experience raising capital, and the importance of connecting with the right investors. ...
By Adam Burroughs
February 24, 2023
Lifting Lucy Creates Opportunities for BIWOC
Tranice Watts created Lifting Lucy when she was in her early twenties, working in an industry not known for much diversity. Watts, the first Black woman to co-own and operate a craft brewery in the state of Maryland, was on a subcommittee of the Craft Brewers Conference (CBC). She noticed an area where people could do proposals for diversity, equity and inclusion. Lifting Lucy has since grown into a network of businesses, organizations, and philanthropists serious about disrupting the barriers of entry and major hindrances toward the progress for Black, Indigenous, and other Women of Color (BIWOC) in the brewing industry....
By Dan Pender
January 20, 2023
The Dos and Don’ts in Today’s M&A Landscape
Chuck Morton, Partner, Venable LLP, has been recognized for decades as one of best middle-market deal lawyers in the United States. During his time as an M&A attorney, he’s seen business leaders make some excellent choices and some not-so-brilliant decisions. He sat down for a discussion on the Smart Business Dealmakers Podcast to elaborate. ...
By Dan Pender
October 21, 2022
Diligence Your Buyer
Peter Bowe and Barbara Stewart Foundation's Peter Bowe, along with 7th Street Advisors' Andy Cohen and Slate Capital Group's Parker Davis, on the importance of evaluating your buyer and other practical tips for getting your house in order before the deal goes down....
By Adam Burroughs
September 15, 2022
ESG’s increasing impact on investment decisions
Black Brain Trust's Angel St. Jean on the rise of ESG, her company’s growth, and the challenges of fundraising. ...
By Adam Burroughs
August 19, 2022
How macro factors are influencing deals
Murphy McCormack Capital Advisors' Bob McCormack, Bortek Industries' Greg Alt, Quotient's Clark Lare, and Bowie & Jensen's William McComas on the factors influencing buy-side deals and post-acquisition integration post-COVID....
By Adam Burroughs
July 22, 2022
Been there, built that
Rextar's Bill Fox on how his earlier experience forming, growing and exiting GoIndustry is informing how he's building and growing Rextar....
By Adam Burroughs
June 17, 2022
Investing in Downtown Baltimore
MCB Real Estate's P. David Bramble, Downtown Partnership of Baltimore's Shelonda Stokes, Chasen Companies' Brandon Chasen and FNB Corp.'s Mac Tisdale discuss the opportunities available for investors in downtown Baltimore. ...
By Adam Burroughs
May 20, 2022
Blended Finance Approach Leads to Quality Health Care
Ngu Morcho, president and CEO of KeraLink International, has more than 20 years of experience in early-stage technology development working in Africa and across India and Southeast Asia. Today, Morcho’s mission is to end corneal blindness globally as the head of operations at KeraLink. To fund this mission, KeraLink uses a blended finance model, a combination of grants, concessional equity and debt that is used together to develop a sustainable business model. ...
By Dan Pender
April 1, 2022
SPAC teams must be able to go the distance
Bill Finn and Odeon Capital's Eric Gomberg, along with DLA Piper's Matthew Gorra and Penny Minna dig deep into SPACs, offering advice from the trenches. ...
By Adam Burroughs
February 25, 2022
How to address SALT in your deals
Clearview Group's Brian Davis, along with Calvert Street Capital Partners' Brian Guerin, Nemphos Braue LLC's George Nemphos, The Courtney Group's Alan Macksey and ICSG Holdings & Incorp Industries' Peter Vrettakos, spoke at last year's Baltimore Smart Business Dealmakers Conference about addressing SALT issues in deals, the current buy-side environment and best practices for closing acquisitions....
By Adam Burroughs
January 14, 2022
Selling is painful, so be sure you know why you're doing it
Slate Capital Group's Erik Ginsberg, along with BDO's Dan Wahlberg, Jamie Benoit, and Saul Ewing Arnstein & Lehr's Andrew Segall, discuss choosing a buyer for your company. ...
By Adam Burroughs
November 17, 2021
Factors Influencing Transactional M&A
KPMG’s Stephen Guy, along with Venable’s Charles Morton, Robert W. Deutsch Foundation’s Mac MacLure and Sachs Capital’s Andrew Sachs look at state of M&A, factors influencing the buy-and-sell-sides, and what you need to do to ensure a closed deal in this new normal....
By Adam Burroughs
September 17, 2021
Find sale success through those who know how to succeed
Guy Dandrea, Tim Hodge, Charles Maskell, and Franklin Staley talk about the importance of pre-diligence work....
By Adam Burroughs
July 29, 2021
Luke Cooper on how pluck and luck helped him sell Fixt to Assurant
Luke Cooper talks about Fixt’s sale to Assurant, strategies for fundraising as well as an initiative that’s underway to help connect African-American entrepreneurs with Fortune 500 companies....
By Adam Burroughs
July 9, 2021
The benefits of crowdfunding
Jonathan Cohen, founder, CEO and president, 20/20 GeneSystems, shares best practices for effective crowdfunding as well as how to prepare pitches for different investor audiences. ...
By Adam Burroughs
June 11, 2021
Cyber risk in M&A transactions
Jamil Jaffer and Maj Gen USAF (Ret) Brett Williams, of IronNet-Cybersecurity Inc., talk about the threat cyberattacks pose to M&A....
By Adam Burroughs
June 10, 2021
George Nemphos of Nemphos Braue
Podcast: The founding member of law firm Nemphos Braue shares his thoughts on the activity he’s seeing, deals he’s been closing for clients, and what’s different from the deals that got done in 2019 and early 2020....
By Dustin S. Klein
