In 2019, SAP acquired lifecycle personalization provider Emarsys for $500M. At the time, Emarsys had grown from $135M ARR in 2017 (when I joined) to $175M ARR in 2019, a ~14% CAGR that valued the deal at roughly a 3x revenue multiple.

In this episode, I break down why SAP made the move, how Emarsys fit into the CX portfolio, and what perspective investors like Summit Partners and Vector Capital (likely) had in pushing for the exit. I’ll also explain why the price reflected Emarsys’ mid-market growth ceiling.

On a personal note, I share what it felt like inside the company — from the chatter about what might change, to the reality that almost nothing did — and how watching that exit firsthand sparked my obsession with M&A as the higher-level game behind SaaS.

Disclaimer: None of this is private or insider information. Everything shared can be found in, or reasonably inferred from, publicly available sources.

#SaaSExits #MarketingAutomation #SaaSInvestor #MandA #Tech

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📒 Resources

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📖 𝗚𝗘𝗧 𝗠𝗬 𝗕𝗢𝗢𝗞𝗦

🔗 CONTENT CAPITALIST: https://michaelbecker.org/product/content-capitalist-how-to-create-a-content-business-so-exclusive-customers-beg-to-buy-and-never-want-to-leave/

🔗 PRACTICES FOR SOVEREIGN LIVING: https://www.amazon.in/PRACTICES-SOVEREIGN-LIVING-Essays-Game-ebook

🎓 𝗛𝗜𝗥𝗘 𝗠𝗘

🔗 http://michaelbecker.org/services/

📌 𝗦𝗨𝗕𝗦𝗖𝗥𝗜𝗕𝗘 - 𝗕𝗟𝗢𝗚

🔗 http://www.michaelbecker.org

🌐 𝗖𝗢𝗡𝗡𝗘𝗖𝗧 - 𝗦𝗢𝗖𝗜𝗔𝗟

🔗 https://www.instagram.com/officialmbecker

🔗 https://www.linkedin.com/in/mjbecker

◉ Thanks for listening! Be sure to subscribe, share & comment!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Twilio is one of the clearest examples of expansion revenue driving enterprise value. In this episode, I break down how Twilio’s developer-first GTM, usage-based pricing, and broad product catalog produced dollar-based net expansion rates of 170% in its early years, held 120–130% at scale, and sustained net negative churn for over a decade.

We’ll look at the mechanics behind usage-aligned billing, why a $20 free trial could scale into $10M+ accounts, how cross-sell into email and data shifted margins, and how Twilio’s valuation swung from $60B at peak to 3.5x forward revenue as net retention cooled.

If you’re building SaaS, this is a clear case study in how pricing models and retention metrics dictate growth and market cap.

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📒 Resources

========================

📖 𝗚𝗘𝗧 𝗠𝗬 𝗕𝗢𝗢𝗞𝗦

🔗 CONTENT CAPITALIST: https://michaelbecker.org/product/content-capitalist-how-to-create-a-content-business-so-exclusive-customers-beg-to-buy-and-never-want-to-leave/

🔗 PRACTICES FOR SOVEREIGN LIVING: https://www.amazon.in/PRACTICES-SOVEREIGN-LIVING-Essays-Game-ebook

🎓 𝗛𝗜𝗥𝗘 𝗠𝗘

🔗 http://michaelbecker.org/services/

📌 𝗦𝗨𝗕𝗦𝗖𝗥𝗜𝗕𝗘 - 𝗕𝗟𝗢𝗚

🔗 http://www.michaelbecker.org

🌐 𝗖𝗢𝗡𝗡𝗘𝗖𝗧 - 𝗦𝗢𝗖𝗜𝗔𝗟

🔗 https://www.instagram.com/officialmbecker

🔗 https://www.linkedin.com/in/mjbecker

◉ Thanks for listening! Be sure to subscribe, share & comment!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode comes from a conversation I had with Mehmet Gonullu on The CTO Show. We cover the shift from old-school marketing tactics to system-driven models, why outreach still matters but needs a new approach, and how startups can build momentum in content without a full marketing background.

I talk about reputation as a growth lever, the move toward decentralized content teams, and how founders can apply neuro-emotional techniques to get real traction. We also dig into AI—where it fits, where it doesn’t, and how to use it without losing the human element.

If you want a straight breakdown of how I think about content, outreach, and growth in today’s environment, this episode lays it out.

#StartupMarketing #SaaSGrowth #ContentStrategy #OutboundSales #SaaS #GTMstrategy

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📒 Resources

========================

📖 𝗚𝗘𝗧 𝗠𝗬 𝗕𝗢𝗢𝗞𝗦

🔗 CONTENT CAPITALIST: https://michaelbecker.org/product/content-capitalist-how-to-create-a-content-business-so-exclusive-customers-beg-to-buy-and-never-want-to-leave/

🔗 PRACTICES FOR SOVEREIGN LIVING: https://www.amazon.in/PRACTICES-SOVEREIGN-LIVING-Essays-Game-ebook

🎓 𝗛𝗜𝗥𝗘 𝗠𝗘

🔗 http://michaelbecker.org/services/

📌 𝗦𝗨𝗕𝗦𝗖𝗥𝗜𝗕𝗘 - 𝗕𝗟𝗢𝗚

🔗 http://www.michaelbecker.org

🌐 𝗖𝗢𝗡𝗡𝗘𝗖𝗧 - 𝗦𝗢𝗖𝗜𝗔𝗟

🔗 https://www.instagram.com/officialmbecker

🔗 https://www.linkedin.com/in/mjbecker

◉ Thanks for listening! Be sure to subscribe, share & comment!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.