From Exited Founder to Acquirer to Advisor

IN THIS EPISODE

In this episode, Raman Sehgal sits down with Randy Woods. Randy is a twice-exited entrepreneur and senior M&A executive who has spent more than 30 years building, acquiring, and selling technology-enabled businesses across North America, Europe, and Latin America. He co-founded Nonlinear Creations in 1995 and led it for over two decades, scaling it into a multinational digital agency before running a competitive process that culminated in its strategic sale to Valtech

He then joined Valtech’s North American executive team, helping drive strategic growth and contributing to nine acquisitions as the company expanded significantly Earlier, as co-founder and CEO of Buystream, he raised over $20M in venture capital and navigated the firm through the dot-com collapse, ultimately managing the sale of its intellectual property to Watchfire (later acquired by IBM).

Today, as Vice President at Corum Group, Randy draws on hard-won experience from every side of the table to help founders exit successfully – achieving strong valuations, thoughtful deal structures, and outcomes aligned with life beyond the transaction.

Linkedin – https://www.linkedin.com/in/randwoods/

WHAT WE COVER

How Randy scaled a digital agency over 23 years by embracing mistakes, staying brave, and getting the timing right on offshoring before it became the norm
The painful lesson that salespeople can walk out, and the pivot to a content engine that created a measurable marketing flywheel independent of founders
Why he chose not to niche by vertical, instead building resilience across sectors while going deep in a capability niche through Sitecore expertise
The value drivers that made the business irresistible in a strategic sale, including geographic presence through an integrated Brazil team, capability, management depth, and crystal clean books years before going to market
The double transition after exit, moving into Valtech as an operator and corporate development leader, helping drive 9 acquisitions as the business grew from 2,000 to 8,000 people
What he learned on the buy side, including red flags in founders and deals that led him into his new NexChapter

ft. Joe Rideout

From Optimising for Exit to Optimising for Intentional Living

Joe Rideout, software engineer turned entrepreneur and co-founder of Perpetua, joins Raman Sehgal to explore the shift from optimising for...

Randy Woods

Randy Woods is a twice-exited entrepreneur and senior M&A executive who has spent more than 30 years building, acquiring, and selling technology-enabled businesses across North America, Europe, and Latin America. He co-founded Nonlinear Creations in 1995 and led it for over two decades, scaling it into a multinational digital agency before running a competitive process that culminated in its strategic sale to Valtech

He then joined Valtech’s North American executive team, helping drive strategic growth and contributing to nine acquisitions as the company expanded significantly

Earlier, as co-founder and CEO of Buystream, he raised over $20M in venture capital and navigated the firm through the dot-com collapse, ultimately managing the sale of its intellectual property to Watchfire (later acquired by IBM).

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FROM EXITED FOUNDER TO ACQUIRER TO ADVISOR

IN THIS EPISODE

WHAT WE COVER

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