How to use acquisitions as part of your growth strategy — Aaron Kennedy | Cognition360

Author: Jaelyn Campbell

Welcome to The Roadmap, an ASBN-exclusive series for executives, business leaders, and entrepreneurs who want to learn more about the benefits of developing and selling their enterprises. On today’s episode, Aaron Kennedy, CEO of Cognition360, and host Lee Heisman explore how scaling your business can occur organically.

Kennedy initially started his scaling career as an ordinary W-2 employee. He immediately made it clear that while he was passionate about building, he didn’t want to be involved in the nine-to-five workday. While working at his first software company, he discussed with his partner at the time and mapped out future potential acquisitions. Kennedy stresses how laborious it may be to scale through a service-based business. However, his ultimate objective was to generate a profit or a return by utilizing both organic growth and other acquisitions.  “We planned to acquire, integrate, and repeat until we hit a mass in which people started coming to us,” says Kennedy.

Transition

By starting at a small organization and then shifting to a massive corporation, the transition period may come with challenges. However, Kennedy asserts that along the way, entrepreneurs must understand that operations will run differently than they used to. They should be content to leave processes in the hands of the present acquirer, or they shouldn’t sell. For Kennedy, he realized that after leaving the first organization, his beliefs and personal ambitions led him to pursue a second job on the vendor side of the same industry. 

Overall, Kennedy contends it’s critical to maintain an optimistic mindset when closing any business because every transaction consists of 49% structural and 51% financial components. Including having a perspective consistent with what happens after transactions, how contracts operate, and how you proceed.