What is a "Broken Handoff"

Nearly 20 years ago, I earned my first “home run” in the entrepreneurial world with Internet Global (iGlobal). My team and I were on top of the world as our years of efforts and over-nighters, navigating potholes, bleeding, and solving problems that would change the world led to a $122 million transaction. We were rich! The problem was that we handed over control, our stock was locked up for a year, and our new partner did not have the same absolute determination as my founding team. That lockup period was brutal year, and it was also the beginnings of the book entitled Broken Handoff. For those of us who poured our life blood into iGlobal, she was our baby. In building that company we were faced with many death blows and we always found a solution. We had to! Unfortunately our buyer viewed iGlobal was an investment, not a child. Big difference!

Every year, more than 50,000 deserving entrepreneurs and executives attempt to fund or sell a company they’ve worked tirelessly to build, and well over 30,000 of those fail after they have made it through the rigorous due diligence process. In the world of M&A transactions, 70% failure rate seems to be acceptable for the buyer or funding partner. Indeed, 70% is simply part of the profitable calculus for the funding partner or purchaser, but it is the end of the world for the executive who built a company good enough to make it through Venture Capital (VC) due diligence. 

The VCs of the world typically make money if one of their investments is a superstar, two perform okay, and seven fail. That seven-in-ten failure rate represents $3.5 trillion dollars in annual losses worldwide. Can any of those seven-in-ten be saved? 

YES.

Why do entrepreneurs call venture capital “vultures?” Under the right circumstances, entrepreneurs and VCs could develop an indestructible pact that would ultimately add hundreds of billions of dollars back into the world economy. In most cases, can this indestructible pact happen?

YES.

Written by three subject matter experts: Darien George, Seth Gordon and Michael Gorton, Broken Handoff paints the picture and provides a road map on how to fix thousands of the broken handoffs that occur every year. This book should be on the desk of every entrepreneur, company builder, M&A expert, Angel, VC, family office, private equity business, M&A lawyer, or company looking to buy or sell.

Get your copy on Amazon, or directly from our www.BrokenHandoff.com