STORY & VISION
Turning Tech M&A, Exits and Growth Transactions Challenges into Opportunities
MARKET OBSERVATION
When Erik Leus, Mark van der Horst, and Nathan Kotek, along with a group of senior tech industry professionals, founded Shurman, they made a simple market observation: tech M&A, exits, and growth transaction processes are often unpredictable, time-consuming, and costly. They recognised the opportunity to transform these challenges into opportunities by offering transaction confidence, clarity, and creativity that maximise potential and minimise risk.
The complexity of the tech industry and the mystification surrounding corporate finance advisory needed to be addressed.
TECH INDUSTRY COMPLEXITY
Side A
Realising successful sell-side, buy-side and growth transactions in today's tech world of confusing and overlapping company categories is a challenge. Digital technology industries and tech-enabled service businesses are complicated and often operate in highly fragmented markets.
How do you adapt your next step M&A, exit and growth strategy and thrive in this fast-paced world of constant change? How do you construct your next step scenario in an industry characterised by disruptive technology, digital innovation, hyper-competition, business immaturity, "eat or be eaten" M&A waves, and dealmaking that pushes beyond your daily routine? How do you balance your ambitions throughout the process?
How do you prepare, shape the right deal structure, find the right partner(s), and financial or strategic sponsors at the right moment in time? How do you unlock value that meets your personal, strategic, and financial goals? The founders of Shurman recognised that conventional Tech M&A, Exit and Growth firms have not adapted to these complexities and often perceive value only in terms of spreadsheets and numbers.
MYSTIFIED M&A ADVISORY
Side B
A commonly heard complaint is that tech M&A, exit and growth transaction firms are led by people who lack (hands-on) tech industry experience. Traditional M&A and corporate finance advisors tend to overemphasise the financials, focusing too narrowly on spreadsheets and EBITDA multiples.
These advisors often mystify the process using excessive jargon, forgetting that a company's actual value is not just in the numbers. It's crucial to adopt a practical, transparent, and value-driven approach that moves beyond the numbers and considers as well the company's narrative and strategy.
Shareholders and stakeholders often feel frustrated, distracted, and bewildered by lingering M&A, exit and growth transaction practices. Management teams become diverted from their day-to-day operations, unnecessarily putting the company at risk, while shareholders fail to achieve the projected objectives.
PROVIDING A FRESH APPROACH
Shurman's founders saw that the tech industry's complexity, combined with mystified and high-risk M&A, requires a fresh approach. With a focus on the tech industry and a unique set of practical programs to execute this vision, Shurman created a vision for value-driven tech M&A, exits, and growth.
At Shurman, we believe that deal-making always needs to go hand-in-hand with unlocking value—facilitating your next step. If this is not the case, sooner or later, transactions will lead to disappointments and, even worse, regret.