Chapter 5Manufacturing an M&A Market When None is There
I remember sitting in my home office in the fall of 2022 staring at an inbox that had gone completely cold. We had one term sheet that was far below what the board would ever entertain, and the rest was an avalanche of “thanks but no thanks.” No new intros. No exploratory calls. No “let’s catch up next quarter.” Just silence.
Calling it a gut punch was an understatement. Deep down I knew the truth: there was no market for our company despite the revenue, products, and team. The potential acquirers that were once kicking tires were just kicking tires, and corporate-development teams that used to reply within hours now ghosted for quarters. That was when we realized something uncomfortable—if no one was coming to buy us, we’d have to create our own market.
Across more than fifty conversations at various levels, none turned into an actionable offer. Yet patterns began to emerge. The companies that requested second or third meetings all wanted to learn about our low-level web abstractions and our ability to deploy AI and computer vision without servers. Just as revealing, no one cared about our Gen Z consumer products or OEM licensing deals. Armed with that signal, we went back to the drawing board. We divested from B2B sales and consumer apps and refocused everything on a product that best leveraged our technical edge for professionals.
In early 2024—more than a year after that pivot—I started posting product updates and short write-ups on LinkedIn. They weren’t marketing pieces, just candid reflections on what we were building and the problems we were solving. Those posts unexpectedly reached people we hadn’t talked to in years, including an executive at a company that had passed on us in an earlier negotiation. Out of the blue he wrote, “Looks like you guys are onto something new—want to reconnect?” Three months later, that message turned into a term sheet.
That moment taught me something simple but profound: listen for the faint signals inside rejection and double down on them. Staying visible, sharing progress, and showing conviction create surface area for serendipity. But serendipity doesn’t happen in isolation—it happens through people. Behind every “lucky break” is usually a relationship that was planted long ago, quietly nurtured, and waiting for the right timing to bloom.
If I could rewind the clock, I’d tell my younger self that M&A is a relationship business disguised as a financial one. Every “no” is just a “not yet” waiting for more proof, context, or trust. I learned that the best founders build relationships long before they need them. For years, I’d met execs, PMs, corporate developers who’d shown curiosity but never urgency. Once I began sending short updates—no pitch, no ask, just “here’s what we learned and what changed”—those same people began to reappear. Relationships compound quietly, the same way code quality or brand reputation does: invisibly at first, and then all at once.
The temptation when your market goes quiet is to delegate the outreach—to bankers, to investors, or advisors. But the truth is, they can only amplify interest that already exists. They can’t invent it. Bankers and investors open doors, but you’re still the one who has to walk through and make people care.
Creating a market where none exists is one of the hardest things a founder will ever do. There were weeks when I didn’t want to get out of bed, when rejection felt personal, and when silence was worse than “no.” But every conversation, every update, and every act of staying visible mattered. The market eventually came back—but it only found us because we never disappeared.
The lesson of that season was simple: you can’t force someone to buy you, but you can make it impossible for them to forget you.
When I look back, I realize the real challenge of manufacturing a market wasn’t just about visibility—it was also about authenticity. You have to know who you are and what you stand for, because every conversation, every partnership, and every potential buyer will test it. Which is why the next chapter begins not with the market, but with you. Before finding the right buyer, you must first understand yourself, your motives, and your values—because the foundation of every successful M&A is a shared belief in why you’re building what you’re building.