Exit Right 2023: Should we sell, or should we grow?

There are lots of factors to consider when deciding whether to grow or sell your business. Serial entrepreneur Marcus Exall & M&A expert Andy Maher from Endeavour, an M&A advisory business, have bought and sold many companies. They will share their experiences of successful growth strategies and tips for acquisitions and business exit. In addition, Matt Brown, Co-Founder of Quorbit, workforce management experts, will talk about the acquisition of his company by UKG and his dilemma about whether to sell or grow.

Speaking at the event:

Marcus Exall, Partner, Endeavour

Marcus is a serial entrepreneur, investor and board advisor. He was part of the early wave of digital pioneers after a career in marketing in both London and Tokyo. He built a successful digital agency, exiting to IPG in 2011. Since his first exit, he has been involved in building many successful tech businesses, either as an investor, founder or operator. Businesses in which he has been directly involved have scaled to hundreds of employees and over $1 billion in venture funding. He is a trusted adviser and mentor to technology and agency founders across the UK and Europe.

He is a long-term supporter and trustee of the charity Project Hello World which aims to bridge the digital divide by connecting hard-to-reach communities to online education and WIFI connectivity.

Andy Maher, Managing Partner, Endeavour

Andy leads the M&A practice at Endeavour. He is a former Omnicom COO for Asia Pacific, based in Tokyo and was instrumental in the rapid expansion of the region and in the enhancement of the region’s strategy, professionalism and profitability. In addition to 4 years in Asia, Andy spent 5 years in senior financial leadership roles within Omnicom across the UK and US.

Aside from other international corporate finance roles, Andy has founded, run and exited three stand-alone businesses across various sectors in London and Tokyo. With over 25 years’ experience in the media and marketing industry, working and living in four continents, Andy is well positioned to provide effective and culturally nuanced strategic advice to his clients.

Andy started his career as an accountant in Australia; his first international role was in investment banking with Salomon Brothers, (London) now known as Citibank. He graduated from Griffith University, in Brisbane, Australia.

Matt Brown, Co-Founder, Quorbit

Matt Brown, who co-founded an enterprise Workforce Planning software solution, will talk about the acquisition of his company by US tech company UKG and his dilemma about whether to sell or grow.

With over 20 years’ experience in assisting businesses justify, design, implement and realise benefits from enterprise technology solutions, Matt co-founded Quorbit in late 2016. A niche software solution, Quorbit makes workload budgeting & capacity planning for large-scale businesses simple. Through 2020 & 2022 the company secured three large enterprise contracts with multi-year supply agreements in the retail and hospitality sectors and in November 2022 the company was acquired by UKG having spent 2022 considering both Exit and VC investment routes.