In this week's blog post, I provide an overview of the specific lessons that I learned when financing the acquisition of Microdea inredactedI begin by discussing the critical importance of the link between capital structure and strategy (a consideration that I think I completely fumbled), and then discuss some of the more specific lessons that I learned in raising the debt required to finance the acquisition.

Given that all of you are prospective acquirors and aspiring CEOs, I'm sending this to you in hopes that you won't make the same mistakes that I did. Beyond the very tactical advice that I provide around raising debt, I'd also encourage each of you to consider my comments in regards to how I lacked a “north star” that could have otherwise guided my capital allocation decisions in the course of actually running my business. This was due largely to my lack of early clarity on: a) My specific investment thesis; and b) How I was planning to ultimately return capital to my investors.

Link to read/listen is provided below. Please enjoy.

redacted