S07 EP42: eCommerce M&A Specialist, Chris Shipferling: Why You Should Not Sell Your Company

On today’s episode, Kunle is joined by Chris Shipferling, Co-Founder of both South Col, an accelerator program that incubates retail business, and Global Wired Advisors, an eCommerce M&A firm that helps business owners sell their businesses. With the pandemic and recession happening hand-in-hand, Chris and his founding partners at Global Wired started to notice changes and slowdowns in the macro and micro-economic trends. Escala, a Tel-Aviv-based business consulting firm, presented the idea of incubating businesses to which later on, they created a joint venture and started South Col. With its name taken from Mt. Everest’s final base camp and known to be a No Man’s Land, South Col stands for the journey and hardships that businesses face, especially during a time of pandemic and recession. South Col provides that nudge to finally be at the top. With Escala’s systematization and South Col’s planning and strategics, retail businesses are “car-washed” to raise their value and create a better exit for its owners. It’s an enlightening episode as you’d hear Kunle and Chris talk more about South Col’s brand diligence, growth strategy, investment criteria, channel expansion, macro, and micro-economic trends, as well as different perspectives on the state of businesses during the pandemic and through a recession. ----------- SPONSORS: This episode is brought to you by:  Klaviyo This episode is brought to you by Klaviyo – a growth marketing platform that powers over 25,000 online businesses. Direct-to-Consumer brands like ColourPop, Huckberry, and Custom Ink rely on Klaviyo.  Klaviyo helps you own customer experience and grow high-value customer relationships right from a shopper’s first impression through to each subsequent purchase, Klaviyo understands every single customer interaction and empowers brands to create more personalized marketing moments.  Find out more on klaviyo.com/2x. Gorgias  This episode is brought to you by Gorgias, the leading helpdesk for Shopify, Magento and BigCommerce merchants. Gorgias combines all your communication channels including email, SMS, social media, live chat, and phone into one platform.  This saves your team hours per day & makes managing customer orders a breeze. It also integrates seamlessly with your existing tech stack, so you can access customer information and even edit, return, refund, or create an order right from your helpdesk.  Go to Gorgias.com and mention 2x eCommerce Podcast for two months free. Recharge This episode is brought to you by Recharge, the leading subscriptions payment solution for Shopify merchants. Recharge helps eCommerce merchants of all sizes launch and scale subscription offerings. Recharge powers the growth of over 15,000 subscription merchants and their communities—turning one-time transactions into long-term customer relationships. Turn transactions into relationships and experience seamless subscription commerce with Recharge. Find out more on rechargepayments.com/2x.