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In The Big Exit Show by Peak and NP-Hard our hosts Johan van Mil and Anke Huiskes talk to tech entrepreneurs about scaling their companies and the route on making a successful exit.
[00:00:00] Emma: I don't think structurally in the company, we were prepared for that. And that would actually be my biggest advice to finders. Like how is your time going to be compensated? Hello
Remy: and welcome to the big exits show the podcast by Peak , where we talk to successful European tech founders about the exits of their companies and the path to how they got there.
My name is Amy heat. Again, all the way in Berlin. This is my beloved co-host, unfamiliar founder and managing partner of Peak. Yohan. What was the trip like for you?
Johan: Great traveling again in the post COVID times.
Remy: In this episode, we talked to Emma, Tracy, after a career in journalism and PR, she found us honeypots in 2015, which quickly grew to become one of the leading developer focused job platforms in Europe.
Holly bottle was sold in 2019 to the publicly listed social network Singh. At the time of the excess, the company had over 50 employees and over 1200 clients like GATA, Viki, media long say we transfer throughout Europe and we will learn from Emma about scaling the company, [00:01:00] but also about making a dream exit at the right time.
Emma, so good to have you with us here today. Hi
Emma: guys. Thanks so much for
Johan: having me. So Emma, what's the, what's the heroic story of honeypot?
Emma: Well, the funny thing is I'm Irish and, you know, um, self-deprecation I think is kind of a national characteristic. Um, so the heroic story is always like, I'm a bit of a difficult one for me to, to go into, um, What is the heroic story?
So, I mean, everything about honeypot was focused on developers from the stars. And I think Kyle and myself are so, so interested in the perspective of developers and the whole job hunt. Um, I think like in difference maybe to other competitors we had at the time, the focus for them was very much on, um, On the recruiter and what the recruiter was thinking in the end, the whole job hunt.
Um, so from the time we started, we re we really wanted to build something which was really, really strongly candidate driven, very strongly [00:02:00] focused on the developers themselves. Um, and so we began building in 2015. Um, I think we launched in October, 2015. Um, got a lot of press actually at that time. I meant as well.
We didn't have to start any paid marketing for the first nine, nine to 10 months, which was, which was wonderful. Um, uh, so that was 2015. Um, heroic story would be, we worked extremely hard for, for four and a half years and we sold in 2019 to sing.
Johan: Yeah. And so that's the heroic story indeed. What if I read about you in the press and you know, the older protocols that you did and, and articles, which were original, you read everywhere and what is.
Emma: Um, well, a lot of, a lot of work. Yeah. A lot of really, really hard work. So, um, I mean, there were definitely times when, um, it was extremely challenging, you know, we, we had to lay people off. Um, we had to kind of keep going and push with the team through, um, we made [00:03:00] bad business decisions along the way. Um, we made.
Hypothesis, which weren't proven to be true. Um, so just, I think a lot of perseverance grit, um, a lot of commitment from the team. Um, I think that's probably the real thing.
Remy: Yeah. We always start with the origin story to beginning. What was the problem that you are trying to solve with
Emma: honey? Yeah, I think the problem, which was really interesting to us was this problem from the developer's perspective of the fact that as a developer, you know, you have all of this choice, but somehow it's very intangible to you.
Um, so you know, what I always say is it's like winning the lottery, but winning us in the wrong currency for the specific country in which you're living, um, so much in having all of this potential choice, but not being able to realize it. Um, and this was the problem we were really interested in. How do we make.
The job hunt, easier, more transparent, and more con driven for, [00:04:00] for self-aware.
Johan: And you, you, you, you turn the market around, right. Make it, make it not demand driven, but supply driven, right. Focus to our developers. A lot of companies tried it in those days. Right. And different areas. What's the reason why you succeeded and a lot of your competitors.
Emma: Yeah. I think it really is for that, um, genuine. Approach towards the candidates because, um, if you looked at our competitors at that time, I think their focus actually really was on trying to solve this problem from the perspective of the recruiter, from the respect of the perspective of the company.
Whereas everything we did was very much focused on the candidate, which is why, if you look at honeypot, now we have so many things. Um, we have open source, um, documentaries, we have events, we have everything possible for, for developers. Um, and I think that kind of authenticity, um, meant that we from day one had no issues when it came to supply of developers on the platform.
And you know, when you have supply, I think demand naturally.
Remy: Now you have a rich [00:05:00] history, Korea, why she went into journalism, went into PR, even worked in a long dreads for your teenage years. How did you find out about this problem that was all around in this wonderful world, but in the world of developers?
Emma: Yeah. Well, what was, it was super interesting actually because, um, I, as you kind of said, I, I come from a background of journalism and PR um, my whole career up until that point was in. Emerging economies. So Columbia, South Africa, west Africa. Um, and I came back to Europe, to Berlin. Um, after, you know, five years of living outside, my mum was very, very happy.
Um, but I came knowing that I came from a very different background from a typical tech founder, and I knew that I wanted to start something digital, but I also knew that I needed experience first. And so I actually joined honeypot. Uh, along with, um, as one of the first employees. So as the first marketing employee, [00:06:00] um, knowing that Kaia, my co-founder was a really successful entrepreneur himself and that it would be a great time for me to, you know, spend a year with him before going onto my own, my own thing.
And so the company at that time didn't have. Didn't have a name or a brand hadn't launched, didn't have a product, anything like that. Um, but Kaia from his previous experiences knew this challenge of finding developers from the recruiter's perspective. So as I started to, or as we started to kind of dig into the problem, we realized actually it was so much more.
Pertinent or so much more, um, emotive almost on the developer side than it was on the recruiter side. And this is when we realized actually this is the perspective we need to be taking. This is where our brand needs to go. Um, and so that's when we really realized and decided to focus our attention on the developers instead of the.
Remy: You've been in Berlin for quite some years. What makes Berlin section attractive city for you, but also for entrepreneurs you
Emma: reckon? Yeah. I, well, in a, in a personal sense, I think [00:07:00] it's the perfect combination of a city, which is full of culture, full of history. If you like techno music, it's probably the only place you need to be.
And then like professionally, I think, um, it's just full of creative people, um, full of opportunities. Um, it's cheap to still cheap comparatively to start a business here. Um, and people just want to be here, you know, um, because of the great city that it is. So I think it's still really an exciting place to
Johan: be.
So what will be your next stop then after this great travel around the world
Emma: and the being in Berlin? My next stuff. Oh, good question. Um, Oh, I love Amsterdam. You know, that was our, that was the first city we set up in outside of Germany. So we're definitely massive. Fans of Amsterdam would love to live there.
Um, I mean, I would love to live in Mexico city. I think it's really exciting. Um, it's a really exciting place to be. And I think the whole startup, um, ecosystem in Latin America in general is, is developing in a [00:08:00] great direction. Um, so that would be something I would consider. I would also consider moving back to Colombia at some stage.
But, like I said, like I said at the start, my poor mum, you know, she probably does want me back in Dublin at some stage.
Remy: Now back to the, to, to the first year's health of honeypot. How did you find your first clients?
Emma: The first clients came definitely through Kaya's network. So my, my co-founder who had previously been involved with hid Fox, um, and had previously founded a company called uplift here.
Um, so a lot of that came through through network actually at the start. Um, and then I think from there, we began to partner with larger tech companies by hosting events. So we partnered with companies like Solando, for example, and we hosted, um, events, which were very much focused on how to, um, Run HR for tech companies.
Um, and they proved to be really popular. I think we also had not just a fun, not just an interesting event, but a kind of fun post drinks element. Maybe [00:09:00] that's the Irish inspiration though. Um, so we started kind of built up, um, traction, I think a lot through those events.
Johan: And with the marketplace is always the chicken and the egg problem.
Right. And I think in this case, you have a very clear target audience from the moment you went live. Right. Right. And you had the ID about, about creating the honeypot more or less. What was your first event, which really brought traction to your platform in terms of supply?
Emma: So physical events, definitely that, um, that event with Solando, which I think cut over 150 or something like that, tech recruiters, which were all primarily our audience, I think in terms of, um, you know, um, a marketing moment, which was really, um, huge for us, it was definitely the, the launch PR.
Um, and when we got into tech crunch and venture be use and. Granola Zaina and all of the kind of big tech press, um, which that was an insane moment because, you know, we were suddenly getting hundreds of, um, signage. Yeah.
Johan: 800 in a
Emma: week. I recall. Right. Yeah. And [00:10:00] our team kind of me and Kira actually were in Poland at the time, uh, kind of launching the company.
At a tech event and the team back in Berlin, you know, we're really scrambling to try to figure out how do we actually process this many developers? How do we get them through the funnel? Um, but it was a great time, you know, it's a great problem to have like an oversupply. Um, so that was good.
Remy: Move on to the growth phase. When was the first time you really felt that you were gaining traction, that you had a product market fit as we
Emma: call it? Th the first initial, um, taught that, okay, this is something that actually is going to. I mean, something was really when we got that first, uh, influx of developers, you know, um, just this, and then we cause every developer who was coming onto honeypot at that time had to do a personal [00:11:00] interview with one of our team.
Um, and just feeling this kind of like sense of. This is actually needed the developers telling us. Okay. Finally, someone's like listening to us what we want. LinkedIn doesn't work for us. Um, nothing that's available really works for us at the moment. So that was kind of the first feeling of, okay, this could definitely be something.
Um, and then we did actually start making sure. Money quite quickly. Um, you're a
Johan: profitable from year one, a half writer I read. Yeah.
Emma: And so, I mean, but then there were like bumps along the way. So there was one stage where, um, we had to let go. I think it was three people. And this was only when we were, you know, a 20 person team because we were living month to month from my revenues, because we had only taken like small family and friends around, um, And we kind of said to each other, okay.
Like six months, we need to like really prove this in six months. And if we don't, we would need to question if we, if this is the right thing. Um, and so those six months, [00:12:00] the team and, and us, we just worked really fucking hard and I'm so grateful to those already employees. Um, we just worked so hard and we reached profitability.
Um, and, um, A few months after that then, um, I was at this event, um, run by the family, um, here in Berlin. And it was about, um, it was from delivery hero and it was by a tire to kind of streamline your operations type scale, a business. And the guy who was talking said, you know, at some stage you need to look at your recruitment process and think about optimizing at different stages and for different types of talents that you want to.
And he said, you should really look at tools like honeypot. Well, I knew that I was like, oh wow. For the first time I was kind of less insular. And suddenly there was someone, you know, who I respected on stage and things like that. And I was in the audience. Yeah. Um, and so the next day I wrote him and said, Hey, would you like to chat?
Like, I'm curious about your experience. Um, and that was Felix blog. And he ended up becoming [00:13:00] an angel investor for us and our first angel. Yeah. Um, and that was like, then suddenly. Great feeling because he had already obviously seen quite a lot of different startups. He had massive belief in us and things like that.
And, and I think those, those kinds of moments where the real milestone moments where I felt like, okay, we're actually doing something here
Johan: and about your, you, you, you, you, you mentioned the, really, a funny word, the FET fetishization or venture capital, right? Are you. Uh, you were not really positive about taking on venture capital, right.
Also given the experience with, uh, the shoe salesman Morrison more or less, what, what was the reason for you for that to be less positive on that? What was your experience also?
Emma: You know, I was also very new to the whole, um, To the whole startup world, to the, how digital businesses are built and grow. And, you know, it was my first, um, experience in tech at all.
Um, and then I was a founder of this tech company, so I was very much learning. And so I was going, of course, Kaia had much more [00:14:00] experience, um, I think that generally, like there, you know, we did at one stage go out into the market, um, to look for VC and didn't get that much traction around and it was
Johan: before delivery hero infested.
Right. Okay. Yeah.
Emma: Yeah. And it was such a, uh, draining experience to be honest, um, like quite intimidating, um, and a little bit draining, um, as well. I think if you talk to most founders and you know yourself as a, as a former finder, the whole, um, fundraising time is hard and it is challenging and it pulls you away from the business and things like that.
And I think then. That was part of that momentum to say, let's just focus on what we're doing and let's make this work and let's get it to a point where it's kind of irresistible to, to, to VCs or to great.
Johan: Also your honeypot in that respect facts. That's what, what can you advise feces like P capital, but also other Fiji's right.
To do better in that respect also to learn from you,
[00:15:00] Emma: uh, interesting question. Um, I think one interesting thing, which, um, um, perhaps you guys do already is to, um, Ask like go to the founders instead of asking the finders to come to you, to let them be kind of on their home ground. I think maybe when, when having the discussions, but again, I mean, I, I, I'm not, I don't want to be over critical of VCs and I think it's super important of course.
And I've, I, I have changed my perspective quite a bit from those earlier experiences. Um, but being a, a first time founder, non non-tech person. Yeah. It was, um, a slightly intimidating experience,
Johan: exit phase. Um, what was the first time you discussed with Gaya? The potential exit of the company? So really the first time that you thought perhaps we should sell it,
Emma: this was such a surprise to us. I think. Um, so as I was saying earlier, [00:16:00] we kind of decided, you know, we'd reached that point where we felt.
We had a ferry. We were in a very good position to raise money, essentially. And so we were going out in the market. Um, and coincidentally, at that time, um, we got approached by the VP of corporate development from Singh. Um, and he had said that they. We're really interested in kind of this tech market in general, um, and that they had actually asked their internal recruiters, which product do you like using the most, um, of the marketplaces, which were available at the time.
And they had said honeypot. So he decided to talk to us. And, um, at first, you know, Kai and I, when, when, when he approached where we w we were just thinking, okay, well, like, let's talk to them. It's interesting. Maybe we'll learn something. Did he just
Johan: send an
Emma: email or call or email? Yeah. Um, and yeah, I kind of thought like, okay, it probably won't materialize into anything, but we will potentially learn something as well from them.
[00:17:00] Um, and then it kind of just started to like, Snowball a bit, um, also in our minds, um, And so I, I can't honestly remember the exact point in time, um, when this became real, but I do remember our, um, Christmas party in 2018. And, um, we had been, yeah, kind of like, you know, having very intense discussions with them up to that point and things like that.
Um, and I think Kaia or some something was making a speech at the Christmas party and I just had one of those moments, you know, where you're at a dinner and you kind of phase out for a second. Maybe next year is going to be very different. And maybe that was the first time in my mind that it was really like, okay, this is, this is a reality now
Johan: that, that, that, that, that first talk with, uh, in this case seeing, right?
So they send you an email and you replied. Probably schedule a meeting. Right? Where did you meet and how did it went to that? Especially that first moment, right? Because you are not in the face at that time of selling the [00:18:00] company. And these were, these guys were interested in buying your company, but you're at that time, not yet.
How did it went at
Emma: talk? So the first few talks were just quite informal, I think mostly between Kaia and Dennis, our counterpart at sing, and then the first kind of formal meeting. Um, we got the train up to Hamburg and then. Um, also someone from their product team, someone from their finance team, Dennis, and, um, maybe some of them, their sales team.
Um, and it was just great. Actually. It just felt like it clicked, you know, from the start. Um, and this is always something that I reflect on now. It's like, you know, this idea of whoever your VC partner is or exit partner, there has to be that feeling of like a click and it's, I'm sure it's exact same from your perspective.
Because these are the people who are going to shape your, your company and the, your, you know, your baby in the future, especially if it goes up on a ghost, John. Right. Exactly. Trust is so, so essential. Um, and so that feeling of a clicking kind of. [00:19:00] Elevated seeing from this, oh, maybe this will happen to like, suddenly in my mind, I really want this to happen.
Actually. I really want this deal to go through. And how
Johan: did it evolve? Especially in those early days, right? The first stocks, you know, just the informal talks where you didn't were there and then it become a little bit formal that you work on that time, you know, with an NDA, because they're also a little more competitive, right.
Because they're also doing on the, on the side, the recruiting activities, not the good as you did specifically for the developers, but how did you handle that kind of stuff? Yeah. Pretty early on also in the process. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And, and, and, and seeing is of course unlisted company, right. Which is a force, a different ball game to sell your company to arrive because they have all compliancy issues, et cetera.
And you are also as a founder. Um, uh, of course your, your, your colleague was a little bit more expensive, but how do you experience that? Especially working with a big structured listed company, and then being
Emma: the smallest. Sing ARD, uh, do a great job actually of hiring. I think that the people who work in the company are all, um, extremely [00:20:00] personable and I felt like a connection to most of them from, from the very start.
Um, I think like the due diligence process though, was really, really intense. Um, so for months I read somewhere around four months. Yeah, exactly. Um, and so, you know, we went through everything in the company and we had to, I think we probably had about three. People full-time on it. And then Kaia, probably 95% of his time.
Me probably 70% of my time. Um, so that was a really intense period.
Johan: You're a 50 people. So 10% of the total company was working on debt. Right. And, and, and the two CEOs also, right. To do it,
Emma: if that, if that had a falling apart, I think that would have been really detrimental for the company, just because of the amount of resource that we actually invested in.
The due diligence process,
Johan: especially though those days of selling the company right. At the same time, keeping the motivation right. Of your staff, because you are really good at it. It's really important for you and keeping the numbers up also. Right. Because that's also important during [00:21:00] that phase. How did you manage it?
Yeah,
Emma: uh, it was pretty challenging as well because, um, the NDA worked also that we couldn't even mention. That they were in the process with us. So we couldn't mention it to most of our stuff. Um,
Remy: yeah. How would the helium fall for your staff and key members about
Emma: your decision? Basically the whole way through, we were saying, like, we are in clearly a very advanced stage in fundraising and, um, You know, we cannot be transparent about this, and it's not also fun for us to not be transparent, but this is the time where you have to trust us, unfortunately, and we can reveal that much more and people respected that and people really stepped up as well.
It was crazy to see, um, like people really stepping up in the marketing side of things to take over a lot of responsibilities, which I would have normally managed huge amount of effort on the sales side. If people just stopped. Um, and I think that's, you know, that's the blood of start-ups, isn't it, you know, like people stepping up inexperienced people stepping up.
And I think we saw so much of that during that time.
Remy: Yeah. So you framed it as fundraising. Were they [00:22:00] surprised to hear that it was, um, a
Emma: company take. I'm not sure. I, I, I can't fully remember the details of that time. Um, I know that definitely at some point prior to I'd actually been, um, signed and everything we did actually bring in kind of the, the broader management, um, team, um, And so, yeah, I actually got the, this will also was one of my best memories, I think.
Um, so on the day that we signed, you know, I think that probably it had leaked a little bit to some people I'm not a hundred percent sure. I think it was like, don't ask, don't tell kind of situation. Um, but we, we went to Hamburg, you know, to sign the contracts. And what was supposed to be, you know, a four hour notary kind of signing turned into like an, any terrorist one.
And so we had said to the team like, okay, wait for us in the office, we will be back around five and we'll tell you, what's what's going on. And we were back around, [00:23:00] um, nine, nine or 10, something like that. Um, and we were, you know, racing in a taxi to get to the office. And as we were walking up the steps, we were on the top floor at that time.
You could just hear the music like blaring and already a big party going on. Um, and we walked in and, um, and a friend just like suddenly was silence on turn off the music. Um, and so we just went up in front of the team and said, actually, guys, this is, this was an exhibition. We just, yeah, we just signed the papers to sell the company.
And it was just like, Everyone just screaming and such applause and one of the best parties I think we've ever had. And people randomly standing up on tables, making speeches, because, you know, we were only 45 50 people at that time. And everyone had put their heart into things. And, um, that was a great day.
Is it, some of them
Remy: have stock options. What was it like?
Emma: Yeah. Some of them did also have stock. Um, so that was awesome. Um, that they got rewarded. One of my another favorite memory [00:24:00] was like calling one of our early developers. He was 19, I think when he joined Tony honeypot and he'd left maybe a year prior, um, and I called him and was like, We just exited, which means, you know, you're going to be getting some money soon.
And, you know, he just like was so emotional and started saying like, this is going to be such a huge help from me and my family. And then I started crying. Um, so like those moments are just incredible when, when, when next thing you know,
Johan: and, and, and during that process, because you mentioned you're a fundraising, did you also, at that time actually fundraise.
Seeing at that time approached you, you had a few informal talks, but also formal that you in the same time, talk with indeed with feces to have a double sided approach.
Emma: Yeah, we did. So we, at the time that I'm saying asked us if we would go into due diligence and, um, we also had, um, one offer actually from a, from a VC.
Johan: And how was, how were the talks at that time with the Fiji? Right. Because the first time you really had to just really draining, as you mentioned. Right. And how was the second [00:25:00] time talking to the feces? Because then you had a different situation, right? As a company.
Emma: And I feel like I personally was more experienced, I think was already very experienced, but, um, It was much more positive.
Yeah. I think a lot more confidence and, um, stronger, you know, business metrics and everything like that as well. And that's
Johan: also on your side, but especially also in the way that Feesey handled you, et cetera, that was really
Emma: positive as well. Yeah,
Johan: it was. And then how did you do that? Did you reach out to a lot of feces that you just contact the ones you knew?
Can you tell something about how you handled that? I can imagine that at the early days with seeing it, it wasn't clear yet that that would result into a transition.
Emma: So, so Kaia let the whole fundraising process. But I, I remember that, um, most of the people we engaged with at that time, the VCs, um, were VCs who had contacted us already throughout the last, maybe two years.
Um, and so we'd kind of built up a really good. With, with most of them, um, and kind of had also done probably a [00:26:00] bit more, um, research in terms of talking to other finders and things like that about, um, yeah. About them
Johan: only German feces you talked was also from other countries or US-based, or was it
Emma: German and Dutch actually.
Yeah, because our presence in Amsterdam. Yeah.
Johan: Okay. And, and, and, and, and during that process, right. Did, did you to handle that process for yourself or did you get some help off other people advisers,
Emma: et cetera, or we, we had an MNA advisor, um, Parkland capital who are based out of Hamburg. Um, and they were so great.
They really helped us structure a lot of what we needed to structure. Um, so we didn't actually engage them until, um, the, until we had the kind of term sheet for, uh, with Singh. Um, and then they kind of came in and began to help us
Johan: D D mainly. Right. Because normally what, the advice that we often give to founders, right?
If, if you are being approached by a potential buyer of the company, [00:27:00] uh, if we've in Dutch, in, in Holland and expression for us, your one buyer is no buyer in the English, but, um, we always advise that you always should have multiple buyers on the table. Right. So that's why. If a company approached you, you, at that time hire an investment banker or you approach yourself or your fiancee, but you at that, at that time, I guess you didn't do that.
Right? So
Emma: you were, so we have two other, um, large, Hey, chore tech strategics approach us at that time as well. Um, but to be honest, I'm not sure how serious they were. They definitely weren't as serious as. Yeah. Yeah. Um, but that's actually very good advice. I think. What was
Remy: the thing that, uh, surprised you most about the whole process?
You mentioned that the due diligence part took a heck of a lot of time. Um, were you prepared for death?
Emma: I don't think, no, I don't think structurally in the company, we were prepared for that. And that would actually be my biggest advice to finders. It's um, like how is your time going to be compensated [00:28:00] in the sense of like who's taking over what you normally do?
How do you make sure decisions are in blocked? How does the company move forward? Um, That kind of thing I think is super, super important to define, um, because no matter what, even if you have it split, and like I said, Kaia was the one running fundraising. You're always going to be pulled into the processes as a founder and you need to figure out.
How does the company keep, keep going? Um, and luckily we had a team who really pulled together, but, um, I think we could have done it a lot, much, much better, and I will do a much better in the X thing.
Remy: Accompany is also a rational decision, but there's also an emotional one. How do you deal with, uh, the emotions of selling your baby
Emma: basically?
Yeah, that was a really emotional, um, decision. Especially on the community side. Cause that was really my, uh, my baby. Um, and, and the marketing team and community team. Um, I love working with them. Um, I think it's the, it's it's, [00:29:00] I think it's so much tied into your personal motivation, you know, like if you, so I don't think I was particularly motivated by the money, you know?
Um, but I I'm motivated by, um, legacy. I am motivated by users having a good experience. I am motivated by building a good company for employees. Um, and I need to know that those things will be true post the time of me leaving. Um, and if they're not, then I wouldn't. If I thought that they wouldn't be true, then I wouldn't have sold.
And that's, I think how I deal with the emotions.
Remy: And normally in this segment, we ask the analyst of P capital to do a rough estimate on what the sales price might be for a company. But since this thing is publicly listed, we already know what the deal terms were. So they analyze the deal to see if it was a good one. So let's dive deeper into the [00:30:00] juicy.
The exit Federation this time, an easy job. It's the ventilation of the exit has been publicly disclosed and consisted of two parts. One is a cash component of 21,000,002, a quite large earn-out option or freely 5 million based on revenue and ended up performance over the next three years. Meaning that if the company would hit these targets, shareholders could earn 35 million.
Or the person leaves. Then I mentioned revenue. The annual report of Singh stated that honeypot contributed 3.5 million in revenues over 2019. If we only consider the cash component, this would imply a six times sales multiple. So what do we think of this? If you compare our honeypot, salesman's bull to their acquire X-Wing we see a slight discount as single Australian and several points, eights sales, multiple fun facts.
If you compare to Federation of both seeing and honeypots by dividing the Federation of the amount of members on their platforms. We see the following Singh African market cap at a time of 1.7 billion and 60 [00:31:00] million members and evacuation price per member of 110 euros honeypots with a Federation of 21 million in a hundred K members at a price per member of 2020.
Double the price per member who took Singh. So that's pretty large premium to pay for the members on the honeypot platform. So what's our take. What was particularly interesting is the high earnouts components. Well, 21 Marion already seems like a decent price for 35 million over the next few years is quite substantial.
It's probably imposed by saying due to the fact that unlike a SAS business we've locked into via software and contracts, it's a bit more uncertain. Whether the customers of honeypot would indeed continually returned to them. Especially after an exit sing, most likely wants to pay a good price, but only if customers remain to be repeat buyers and founders were probably willing to accept this because either one, they were confident about the business, which I hope was to case or two, because they were already happy with the base anyway, and weren't even counting the.
[00:32:00] However right now, it can be risky as unfortunately the honeypot case has proven to be Gus the next year in 2020 COVID hits and costume massive decline in their performance, but an annual report saying that not stays the actual performance of honeypots the Goodwill honeypots on the balance sheet, went down from 24 million, 6.4.
And the annual report also mentioned no Erna viability has been recognized for the acquisition of honeypots meaning they don't expect to pay anything for the earn-outs in the future or rides. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you so much for listening to this episode of the big exit show. We hope you enjoy today's program.
And if you did, please subscribe to our show through Spotify. Favorite podcast platform. If you have any feedback, please send a message through podcast@peak.capital. My name is Remy
Johan: And I am Johan van Mil.
Remy: again for listening and join us next episode. [00:33:00] .