M&A Science

Latest Episodes:

Strategic M&A Framework: IFS's Acquisition Playbook with Rachel Hindley Nov 17, 2025

Show notes

Rachel Hindley, Vice President of Corporate Development, IFS

Most deals don't lose value at signing. They lose it in the months after close, when integration turns into a checklist. Rachel Hindley, VP of Corporate Development at IFS, explains how her team ties every acquisition to a deal archetype and a value creation plan, while answering to three private equity shareholders.

Rachel Hindley is Vice President of Corporate Development at IFS, a cloud enterprise software company focused on industrial AI. She leads acquisitions such as Copperleaf and TheLoops and works across IFS's PE shareholders: EQT, Hg, and TA Associates. She began her career at PwC in New Zealand and London, then moved through a fund role and corp dev at Royal Mail before joining IFS.Rachel's team runs diligence and integration as one connected effort. DealRoom M&A Operating System is the AI-powered operating system for Buyer-Led M&A™. Corp dev teams use it to run pipeline, diligence, and integration in one system, and customers cut person-hours per deal by about 50%. Request a demo: click here.

Mastering Carve-Out Transactions with Keith Crawford Nov 10, 2025

Show notes

Keith Crawford, Global Head of Corporate Development and M&A at State Street Corporation

Keith Crawford, Global Head of Corporate Development and M&A at State Street Corporation, brings over 20 years of expertise executing some of the most intricate custody business carve-outs in financial services. In this episode, Keith breaks down the realities of carve-out transactions—from proactive deal sourcing and dependency mapping to navigating TSAs and post-close integration. He shares hard-won lessons on avoiding common pitfalls like scope creep, third-party contract renegotiations, and employee retention challenges that can derail even the most promising deals.

Things You'll Learn

Why carve-out transactions demand bespoke approaches: No two deals are alike—discover how to identify the 20% of unknowns that templates can't capture and build flexibility into your diligence process.
How to source carve-out opportunities proactively: Learn State Street's strategy for targeting custody business carve-outs, including the "why us" narrative and who to approach (hint: not the business unit leader).
The integration secrets that prevent deal failure: From embedding integration experts early in diligence to managing employee retention and TSA timelines, Keith reveals how to align synergy assumptions with operational reality.

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This episode is brought to you by S&P Global.

Today's episode of M&A Science is brought to you by S&P Global Market Intelligence. If you're in corp dev or PE, you know the pain — good private company data is hard to come by. Everyone's still chasing clean, reliable, up-to-date data. I started out using CapIQ Pro for public comps, but didn't realize until recently how deep their private company coverage has gotten. Over 58 million private companies, global reach, and actually usable for real deal work. This isn't surface-level. You get real metrics — ownership, financials, funding rounds, even asset-level insights. So if you're still toggling between a dozen tools trying to piece together the picture, maybe it's time to stop guessing and start sourcing better.

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Episode Chapters:

[00:03:30] From Accountant to M&A Leader – Keith's journey from audit to becoming a dealmaking general contractor [00:06:00] The General Contractor Mindset – Why successful M&A requires orchestrating expert teams across tax, operations, IT, and risk [00:06:30] The 80/20 Rule of Carve-Outs – Why templates work for most deals but the 20% whitespace requires bespoke analysis [00:10:00] Third-Party Contract Landmines – How change-of-control provisions can blow up your valuation assumptions [00:16:00] Building Strategic Alignment Early – Embedding integration experts into diligence to bridge deal models with operational reality [00:23:00] Proactive Deal Sourcing Strategy – State Street's approach to targeting custody business carve-outs with a clear "why us" narrative [00:35:00] Leveraging Banker Networks Strategically – How mid-tier investment banks often have better contacts for carve-out opportunities [00:48:00] Culture Preservation in Integration – Lessons from the Charles River acquisition on maintaining employee morale and retention [00:52:30] Major Deal Breakers – The two red flags that cause State Street to walk away from carve-out transactions [00:55:00] The Craziest M&A Moment – A hospital room negotiation that almost derailed a major international carve-out

____________________ Questions, comments, concerns?Follow Kison Patel for behind-the-scenes insights on modern M&A.

Integration-Led M&A: Cisco's Approach to Deal Success Part 2 with Johanna Jaakola and Tesia Hostetler Nov 03, 2025

Show notes

Johanna Jaakola – Integration Lead, Corporate Development Integration Team, Cisco

Tesia Hostetler – Leader, Acquisition Integration Practice, Cisco.

Cisco decides which office an acquired team moves into, which CRM it lands on, and which products hit end of sale before the deal closes. Those calls get written into the commit materials, so integration moves on day one instead of starting flat-footed.

In part two, Johanna Jaakola and Tesia Hostetler show how integration-led diligence works in practice. They cover value drivers tied to the deal thesis, and a "surgical" split between what integrates fast (HR, payroll, finance, legal) and what waits (engineering, sales). They also describe an M&A community of roughly 150 to 180 people across Cisco's functions. Then they explain why go-to-market synergies break when a business that sells 90%-plus through partners takes on a company that sells direct, and why they left Splunk's sales motion alone until a better one was proven.

Cisco built its own M&A Hub so plans, dependencies, and value driver metrics live in one place. DealRoom gives buy-side teams that structure out of the box: diligence findings carry into integration worklists, each with an owner, and task timelines adjust automatically as dependencies shift. See how it works: click here.

Integration-Led Diligence: Cisco's M&A Approach with Johanna Jaakola & Tesia Hostetle Oct 27, 2025

Show notes

Johanna Jaakola – Integration Lead, Corporate Development Integration Team, Cisco

Tesia Hostetler – Leader, Acquisition Integration Practice, Cisco

At Cisco, the integration lead runs diligence. The integration strategy is already part of the deal thesis before LOI, in the first approval conversation with the CFO.

Johanna Jaakola, integration lead for the Splunk acquisition, and Tesia Hostetler, who leads Cisco's acquisition integration practice, explain how Cisco moved from throwing deals "over the wall" to integration-led diligence. They break down the integrate, don't integrate, and reverse integrate models, why Splunk ended up running Cisco's observability business, and what happened when regulatory approval came six months sooner than planned. They also get candid about the culture gaps that never showed up in diligence. This is part one of a two-part conversation.

Tesia's warning that teams who bring integration in late "start flat footed" at close is the problem DealRoom Integration was built to fix. Integration planning begins during diligence, and diligence findings link directly to the integration tasks that resolve them. See how it works: click here.

When Integration Beats Roll-Ups with Tim Hall Oct 20, 2025

Show notes

Tim Hall - Managing Partner and Founder, Brenton Point Capital

Tim Hall buys small companies at five to six times EBITDA and has typically sold the platforms he builds at 12 to 14 times. He calls that gap "earned arbitrage," and it only shows up when the add-ons are actually integrated.

After 29 years in private equity and 200+ add-ons, Tim explains why he doesn't think in roll-ups at all, and how Brenton Point's independent sponsor model raises capital deal by deal. He walks through his hub, spoke, and route criteria for add-ons, why a 15% management equity pool beats owning 90% of a smaller outcome, and the culture test he runs on every site walk.

Tim's team has closed eight acquisitions in 16 months with integrations running on top of each other. Every one runs from a 150-point checklist in DealRoom, so the data room doesn't turn into a filing cabinet at close. See how Easton Select Group closed six deals in the first 5 months: click here.

Buyer-Led M&A™ Strategy at Snowflake with Stefan WIlliams Oct 06, 2025

Show notes

Stefan Williams - Vice President of Corporate Development and Snowflake Ventures at Snowflake

"When you do the deal, that's the beginning for the company." Stefan Williams learned that the hard way. On Snowflake's early deals, the team rang the bell, moved on to the next priority, and balls got dropped on the company they had just bought.

As Snowflake's first corp dev hire, Stefan has since led close to 20 acquisitions. He explains how Snowflake built its M&A muscle: start with sub-50-person deals, name one or two DRIs per acquisition, and hold honest check-ins at 30, 60, 90, and 180 days. He also covers building the integration thesis with the target during confirmatory diligence, running three deals at once, and the Neeva acquisition that brought Snowflake its current CEO, Sridhar Ramaswamy.

Stefan's warning about acquisitions falling off the radar after close is the problem DealRoom Integration was built for. Diligence findings carry straight into integration worklists, and task timelines adjust automatically as dependencies shift, so owners and deadlines stay visible after Day 1. See how it works: click here.

Corporate Development Strategy: Notion's M&A Approach with Hilary Shirazi Sep 30, 2025

Show notes

Hilary Shirazi - Head of Corporate Development at Notion

On one deal, Hilary Shirazi's team was buying a startup of fewer than 50 people and ended up with 75 people working the M&A internally. "We had more people internally than at the company we were actually acquiring." Today she runs Notion's corporate development with a team of two.

Hilary has done M&A at LinkedIn, Zendesk, Pinterest, and now Notion. She walks through the deal thesis every sponsor writes before a single target is named. She also covers her Four T's (talent, tech, traction, terrain) for deciding what kind of deal you're doing. And she explains why Notion skips the IMO: the team that writes the integration plan, often before the term sheet, is the team that runs it after close.

Hilary's fix for the 75-person problem is Corp Dev funneling every internal question so founders aren't buried. DealRoom Diligence gives that funnel a home: requests are created, assigned, and tracked in one place, and sellers see only the requests assigned to them. DealRoom says centralizing your diligence process can reduce due diligence time by 50%. See how it works: click here.

How Corporate Venture Capital 2.0 is Reshaping M&A with Jennifer Miller Sep 23, 2025

Show notes

Jennifer Miller - Senior Director of Corporate Development, Oshkosh Corporation

Oshkosh's venture team adds more than 400 startups a year to its pipeline. That's too many to analyze one at a time. So Jennifer Miller's team works by theme, starting from what the business units say their customers will pay for.

Jennifer explains what Oshkosh calls CVC 2.0: the partnership comes first and the investment second. She covers why Oshkosh owns IP it develops with a startup and licenses it back, and why it asks for information rights but avoids a right of last refusal. She also explains how warrants tied to shared targets could let a corporate back the winners without putting much money in up front.

One piece of her advice to new CVC teams is to decide early which tools will track your deal flow. DealRoom Pipeline keeps targets, notes, contacts, and custom stages in one place, with dashboards and automated reports for leadership. See how it works: click here.

M&A Integration Reality: Deal Economics vs Human Dynamics with Nicole Markowski Sep 16, 2025

Show notes

Nicole Markowski - Former Director of Business Integration and Operations, Wipfli

Most integration failures are decided before integration starts: in the synergy model, the earnout structure, and the diligence questions nobody asked. Nicole Markowski has led integration on 30+ transactions at two top-25 accounting firms. She explains where deal economics collide with people, and how integration-led diligence keeps value from walking out the door.

Nicole Markowski is Director of Business Integration and Operations at Wipfli. She has led integration across 30+ transactions, from IT due diligence to full corporate integrations. She built Wipfli's M&A processes from the ground up and, as a senior manager at Aprio, worked on 5–16 simultaneous acquisitions. Nicole holds a BS in biomedical engineering from Marquette University and an MBA, and she started her career at Accenture.

Nicole's point is simple: integration can't plan for what it never heard in diligence. DealRoom M&A Operating System is the AI-powered operating system for Buyer-Led M&A™. Diligence findings feed directly into the integration plan, so your team is ready on Day 1 instead of re-diligencing after close. More than 275 organizations run their deals on DealRoom. Request a demo: click here.

Strategic M&A at Scale: Insight Partners' Buyer-Led Approach with Byron Lichtenstein Sep 01, 2025

Show notes

Byron Lichtenstein, Managing Director at Insight Partners Byron brings over a decade of experience scaling M&A operations across one of the world's leading software investors. In this episode, Byron breaks down how Insight executes buyer-led M&A at scale, supporting CEOs across their 500+ portfolio companies from sourcing through integration. He shares frameworks for strategic positioning, the critical difference between types of M&A deals, and why strategy must drive every acquisition decision. M&A professionals will learn how to build repeatable M&A processes and avoid the common trap of unfocused deal-making.

Things You'll Learn

Strategic positioning framework: How to "write the S-1 on day one" and create a clear 5-year vision that guides every M&A decision
M&A categorization strategy: The three core types of M&A (market consolidation, product expansion, geographic expansion) and how to execute each differently
Integration execution: Why integration must be 100% of someone's job and how to build flexible 100-day plans that actually get executed

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The Buyer-Led M&A™ Summit is back.The virtual event built for dealmakers who want to eliminate chaos and take control from sourcing through integration. 📅 October 30, 2025 🕚 11:00 AM – 2:30 PM ET 💻 Free & Virtual Learn from leaders who've built scalable, repeatable strategies that keep deals on track - Register now.

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Episode Timestamps:

[00:02:00] Building M&A at Scale – Byron's journey scaling Insight's portfolio support from 6 to 120 people across 500+ companies

[00:06:30] The Evolution of Software Roll-Ups – How the market shifted from simple consolidation plays to product-focused strategic acquisitions

[00:10:30] The NMI Case Study – Real example of product expansion M&A strategy in the payments infrastructure space

[00:14:00] Focus vs. Expansion Dilemma – When to stay focused on core customers versus expanding to new segments and markets

[00:28:30] Strategic Positioning Framework – The "write the S-1 on day one" approach to creating long-term M&A vision

[00:35:00] Founder-Led But Not Founder-Limited – Key qualities that determine which founders scale successfully through M&A

[00:38:00] Integration Planning and 100-Day Plans – Why someone needs to own integration full-time and how to build flexible execution plans

[00:48:30] AI and the Future of M&A – How AI is changing software M&A and the Optimizely orchestration layer case study

[00:52:30] Market Sophistication – Why software buyers are becoming more discerning and what this means for deal strategy Questions, comments, concerns?Follow Kison Patel for behind-the-scenes insights on modern M&A.

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