Issue #104 • October 17th, 2026

Hi Reader,

Last week I told you about the day I spent with 70 professional business buyers. These are people who buy companies like yours to grow, build platforms and roll up their industries. They were learning how to agree to almost any price, as long as they control how and when you get paid.

That letter got more replies than anything I have ever sent. Most asked the same thing: how do I avoid the wrong end of that deal?

It comes down to one question every buyer asks:

The dancing bear

Buyers have a name for the owner who can’t answer it well: the dancing bear. The business only makes money while the owner performs. Every key customer has their cell number. Every big decision waits for them.

So buyers protect themselves: a lower price, less cash at closing, bigger earnouts, and years of you staying on. That is how the biggest offer ends up putting the least money in your hands.

I was the bear, and that was fine

Every founder starts as a dancing bear. When I started woom in 2014, everything landed on my desk. That is how a business survives its first years.

Past $10M, it stopped working. I was still placing every purchase order and doing our forecasting myself, because it felt too tied to cash flow to hand over. That is the trap: the work you keep is the work that feels too important to let go.

So I made a one-year plan and backed each key priority with a key hire. First John Jordan as fractional CFO, who was introduced to me by someone I met at the Association for Corporate Growth Awards and who later became my COO. Then leaders for key customer relationships, supply chain, and ecommerce and marketing. Each hire removed a piece of the business’s dependency on me.

That let me step out as CEO of woom USA in 2021 and take on the woom Global CEO role at over $100M in revenue. Then I did it all over again. In 2023, I stepped away completely.

“But great talent is expensive.”

I said it too. But A players are how you get there. Hire people who share your vision, who you trust, and who can move the needle. B and C players might not get you there. We made hiring mistakes along the way, which is why I believe your next hire is the most important decision you make.

Expensive talent shows up on your P&L.

Staying the dancing bear shows up at closing.

The 2-minute dancing bear test

1. Could you take four weeks off, phone off, and revenue would hold?
2. Do your top 10 customers have a relationship with someone other than you?
3. Can your team make pricing, hiring and spending decisions without you?
4. Does new business come from a system, not your personal network?
5. Is how the work gets done written down, not stored in your head?
6. Do you close your books every month, with numbers you would show a buyer today?

5 or 6 yes: You are building something a buyer will pay for.
​3 or 4 yes: You are dancing part time, and you have time to fix it.
​0 to 2 yes: Normal early on. But as you grow, a buyer will price it in.

Start this week: hand one decision you make out of habit to someone on your team.

I did not figure this out alone. What helped most was my Birthing of Giants group, owners a few steps ahead who were honest about what they got wrong. Wherever you find it, find people who will show you the seats you are still sitting in.

If you want to think through your own situation, my calendar is here.

I read every email, and I answer them myself.

Mathias Ihlenfeld | Entrepreneur | Coach | Advisor

​Texas Regional Cohort Leader Birthing of Giants​

P.S. I sat down with Bhadresh Nayak on the Clarity Is Freedom podcast. We talked about selling just 13 bikes in my first year and running a $100M business, shared my biggest mistake of my life, and the question that changed everything for me: “Why am I doing what I’m doing?” Listen here (link is in comment of the Linkedin post)

P.P.S. Have an entrepreneurial journey or professional story worth sharing? Bhadresh is looking for guests for his podcast, featured on his YouTube channel with over 3 million subscribers. Connect with him on LinkedIn and mention that you came through my newsletter so he can prioritize your inquiry. Or I can introduce you to him as well

​LinkedIn • Instagram • Website​

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