Lessons - Billion-Dollar Acquisition Blueprint | Milton "Todd" Ault III - Chairman of Ault and Company, Inc.

Summary

Success Story Podcast Summary: Lessons - Billion-Dollar Acquisition Blueprint | Milton "Todd" Ault III

Hosted by Scott D. Clary | Release Date: February 26, 2025

In this insightful episode of the Success Story Podcast, Scott D. Clary engages in a profound conversation with Milton "Todd" Ault III, Chairman of Ault and Company, Inc. Together, they delve into the intricacies of successful acquisitions, emphasizing the paramount importance of management integrity over mere financial metrics.

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1. The Primacy of Management Integrity in Acquisitions

Milton "Todd" Ault III underscores that the cornerstone of any successful acquisition lies in the honesty and accountability of the management team. He states:

“People are the number one issue.” ([04:15])

Ault emphasizes that regardless of whether the acquisition target is a publicly traded holding company or a private entity, the critical factor remains the integrity of its leaders. He shares his personal experience with lenders who persistently scrutinize his operations, revealing that honest management will transparently disclose potential risks and contingent liabilities.

2. Rigorous Due Diligence: Beyond Financials

Ault delves into the due diligence process, highlighting the necessity of probing deeply into the management's honesty and accountability. He explains:

“If a person knows that there's something hidden, they need to tell you what the risk of the deal is.” ([04:45])

He recounts instances where lenders repeatedly ask the same questions to ascertain the consistency and honesty of responses. This approach helps in identifying any concealed issues that could jeopardize the acquisition's success.

3. Public vs. Private Acquisitions: A Unified Perspective

When addressing the differences between acquiring a publicly traded company versus a private one, Ault maintains:

“I don't think there's any difference for me other than whether the management, the people that run it are honest with you.” ([07:27])

His stance is clear: the nature of the company being public or private is secondary to the quality and integrity of its leadership. Authenticity and transparency in management are non-negotiable traits he seeks in any acquisition.

4. Managing People and Navigating Legal Challenges

Ault candidly discusses the challenges of managing people, especially in the face of legal disputes. He shares his philosophy on accountability:

“I believe everything is my responsibility, even if someone else messes it up.” ([06:31])

Ault reveals his proactive stance on legal matters, stating:

“I just defend everything because I'm not going to be a stipend for lawyers.” ([17:17])

He elaborates on maintaining a dedicated legal team to handle disputes, underscoring his commitment to resolving issues without letting legal battles drain company resources.

5. The Human Element: Accountability Over Blame

Ault emphasizes the importance of personal responsibility within business operations. He asserts:

“Don't blame me for your problems. If you accepted the deal, you can't blame me for that.” ([19:00])

This mindset fosters a culture of accountability, where team members take ownership of their actions rather than shifting blame. Ault believes that such an environment not only enhances trust but also ensures sustainable business growth.

6. Continuous Learning: The Path to Sustained Success

In the latter part of the conversation, Ault highlights the significance of incessant learning and adaptation:

“You need to constantly be reminded every couple weeks... you need to remind yourself that this is happening in other places and there are creative ways of getting out of it or working around the problem.” ([21:09])

He credits resources like the Success Story Podcast for providing valuable insights that entrepreneurs can apply to their own ventures. Ault advocates for leveraging available knowledge to navigate the complexities of entrepreneurship effectively.

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Key Takeaways

• Integrity Over Numbers: The honesty and accountability of a company's management are more crucial than its financial statements during acquisitions.

• Depth in Due Diligence: Effective due diligence goes beyond surface-level financials to assess the true character and reliability of the leadership.

• Unified Approach to Acquisitions: Whether dealing with public or private companies, the fundamental evaluation criteria remain centered on management quality.

• Proactive Legal Management: Maintaining a robust legal framework is essential to protect the company's interests and navigate disputes efficiently.

• Cultivating Accountability: Encouraging personal responsibility within the team leads to a more trustworthy and resilient organization.

• Embracing Continuous Learning: Constantly seeking knowledge and applying learned lessons is vital for sustained entrepreneurial success.

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Notable Quotes

• “People are the number one issue.” — Milton "Todd" Ault III ([04:15])

• “If a person knows that there's something hidden, they need to tell you what the risk of the deal is.” — Milton "Todd" Ault III ([04:45])

• “I don't think there's any difference for me other than whether the management, the people that run it are honest with you.” — Milton "Todd" Ault III ([07:27])

• “Don't blame me for your problems. If you accepted the deal, you can't blame me for that.” — Milton "Todd" Ault III ([19:00])

• “You need to constantly be reminded every couple weeks... you need to remind yourself that this is happening in other places and there are creative ways of getting out of it or working around the problem.” — Milton "Todd" Ault III ([21:09])

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Conclusion

This episode offers a treasure trove of wisdom for entrepreneurs and business professionals aiming to master the art of acquisitions. Milton "Todd" Ault III provides invaluable insights into prioritizing management integrity, conducting thorough due diligence, fostering accountability, and embracing lifelong learning. Scott D. Clary facilitates a conversation that not only elucidates these critical aspects but also inspires listeners to apply these lessons to achieve sustained business success.

For those seeking to navigate the complex landscape of acquisitions and build resilient businesses, this episode is a must-listen. Dive deeper into these discussions by tuning into the Success Story Podcast and harness the strategies that can propel your entrepreneurial journey forward.

Transcript

[Scott]

Today's Success Story podcast is brought to you by Vanta. Now listen up. This matters for your business. In today's digital landscape, security isn't optional, it's essential. Without it, deal, stall, sales cycle stretch out and scaling becomes really difficult. Why? Because investors, customers, partners, they all expect businesses to demonstrate strong security practices before they commit to anything. And if you can't prove trust, you lose opportunities. So whether you're a startup founder trying to land that first big client or an established company scaling your security program, Vanta helps businesses of all sizes prove they're trustworthy by Automating compliance across 35 frameworks like SoC2, ISO 27001 and HIPAA. The exact certifications your prospects, your customers are demanding. And here's why you need to pay attention. Vanta gives you back precious time you're currently wasting on compliance. Their platform automates up to 90% of the tedious compliance work and it helps you respond to those endless security questionnaires up to five times faster. And they also connect you with to get your security program running immediately. And the results they speak for themselves. A recent IDC report found that Vanta customers achieve over $535,000 per year in benefits and the platform pays for itself in just three months. So join over 10,000 global companies like Atlassian, CORA and Factory who use Vanta to manage risk, improve security in real time, and don't miss this for a limited time, only my listeners can get a thousand dollars off Vanta. That's real money back in your pocket. Visit vanta.com Scott now this offer expires. That's V A N T A dot com Scott For $1,000 off a huge shout out to Federated Computer for supporting today's episode. Let me explain why I love Federated Computer. Why they are friends of success story. They are changing the way businesses buy software because we all need software to run our businesses. I don't care what kind of business you're building, but the best business software doesn't have to cost thousands of dollars each month. So Federated Computer replaces a lot of the software that you're using right now. Let me explain. The average typical Federated computer customer saves 75% or more on their software built and gets great software, top notch customer service and support and a software solution that is uniquely installed for your business without any sort of surveillance or breaches of privacy. For example, if you use Google for email, Salesforce for CRM, Slack for team chat, list Monkey for customer acquisitions, and Airtable for data management with a team of 10, you'd save $9,000 per year on software costs by switching to Federated Computer. They replace all of those. And what's wild is that the cost of Federated Computer doesn't grow as your team grows. You can use Federated Computer savings to grow your business rather than feed the woke Silicon Valley software companies. The Federated Computer team literally invented cloud software. They actually have the patents to prove it. And they are taking a hammer to the ridiculously high prices of business software that all entrepreneurs are suffering from. Federated Computer. They've been a longtime supporter of success story. They're offering 30% off their already low prices when you use a coupon code freelance. So go to www.federated.computer to begin saving 75% or more on your monthly software costs. That's www.federated computer. These folks are going to do you a big favor. Check them out in this lessons episode. Discover why successful acquisitions hinge on the integrity of management rather than just financial metrics. Learn why evaluating honesty and accountability is crucial during due diligence. And understand how transparent communication can prevent hidden liabilities and foster sustainable business partnerships. Is there, is there a, is there a difference? Because now you've done these acquisitions and you've been doing them for a while now. Is there a difference in what you look for in a company that you would acquire in a publicly traded holding company versus something you would acquire in a, in a, just in a private acquisition?

[Unknown Guest]

I don't think there's any difference for me other than whether the management, the people that run it are honest with you. It's, it's, it's really tricky for if you don't ask the right questions. I have this lender that's lent me a lot of money. I think they probably lent me, I don't know, 50 million, maybe more. And they, I used to get really irritated with them where they would, they would ask my team, they would ask me the questions. Then they would interview my team and ask them the questions. Then they would come back and ask me new questions. Then they would interview my team again and ask the same questions. And eventually after they asked the same question like six times, I would say, you know, you've asked that question a bunch of times. Yeah, we're going to keep asking to see if we get the same answer. And if a person knows that, they know the model and there's something hidden, they need to tell you what the risk of the deal is. And an honest person selling you, the company would say, yeah, here's the ebitda. Here's the company, here's our history. But what is it? I'm not telling you. What is the real problem that could pop up in the business? What is the contingent liability? And I think it's really hard to find people that want to be honest and not blame others for your problems. Right. I, I, I, and I say this in the sense that I'm more concerned about the people that are running it than I necessarily, because in a business is going to be good or it's going to be bad and you don't know for sure, but the people running it are either good or bad. And that you need to know. You need to know whether they're honest and whether when you acquire them, they're going to stay and be honest with you about what's happening or they're going to say, hey, that was on page 47. I told you that, you know, there was a contingent liability. Well, I didn't see it. Right. You didn't tell me that you were a week away from losing this contract. So I would say people are the number one issue. And I used to think that was corny, but people are pretty much all that matters now. If you got a great product, that's great, but you need great people. You just, that really is important. I, there's one lesson I've learned is that people who are not honest will blame you for their problems even though they already had them.

[Scott]

And I love that.

[Unknown Guest]

It's really critical that you understand that. I, I get upset about things, but at the end of the day, the reason probably we started this conversation off with that I work every day. At the end of the day, I believe everything is my responsibility, even if someone else messes it up. So that's why probably I have lenders and investors that despite things going wrong, know that I'll tell them the truth and I'll get them paid back. You know, I try to do things that allow me to shoot my way out of a problem. And one thing I don't do is turn my back on someone that's honest with me. If there's an honest mistake, they're going to stay, they're going to work with me, and I'm going to work with them. But you know, the deception part, I'm sure you've invested a lot of companies and you know, that person that blames you for the problem versus takes responsibility for the problem, and that's a hard thing to do when you, when you acquire a company, you need to know what Management comes with it.

[Scott]

The issue is that usually that behavior shows itself far too late. It shows it, it shows it later on, right? It doesn't usually show it when everyone's feeling good and everyone realizes they're about to get a check. Everyone, everyone, everyone wants to play ball when you're, when you're sitting down at the table the first time, but you realize six months later it's not, by the way, we're talking about acquisition or investing, but this could be a business partner. This could be. Even if you get a job and you have a shitty manager and all of a sudden you realize they're gaslighting you. Like, this is, this is just. The people you work with make a huge difference. It's no different when you acquire a company. But I've done it with business partners.

[Unknown Guest]

I have, I have people that have, like taken a role with me and maybe they left somewhere else and I tell them how they'll get paid and they get paid exactly that way and then they're mad later and complain to the whole company that they aren't getting what they used to get at their old job. Well, I didn't make you come work here. And, and, and also when you're then complaining to others at the company, you really end up being. Those people end up getting fettered out anyway. So eventually they ultimately don't work here because they can't either they change their attitude or their attitude changes where they work. Right? Because they're not happy. I just want people to be happy. Like I, I quoting Gary Vee. Don't you want to be happy? Because the reality is, is that that is the only way that things work out. And people, people will make meaning of things they don't like change. That's another thing too. I, I tell people all the time to read that book, who Moved My Cheese? Because they realize, like the people that, you know, you've seen this with Steve Jobs, right, where he's in a garage and they're all happy and they're all drinking beer together and making a company. But ultimately, you know, my responsibility now I spend almost all my time thinking and structuring the finances of the company. It's not the same. I don't have the luxury of hanging out all night and going to have a beer with people when I got four institutions waiting for a proposal from me and I got covenants, I got to meet. And it just doesn't. So the evolution of that is, is the human condition. And that's where it's so much easier If a person's unhappy, for them to tell you they're unhappy. But it's so much harder for a person to tell you they're unhappy. It's a strangest thing. People tell me all the time I'm intimidating, they're afraid to tell me something, yet I find that I'm the easiest to talk to. And you can say whatever you want to me, but don't blame me for your fucking problems. Like, don't blame me for your problems. If you accepted the deal, like, you can't blame me for that. And I didn't do anything to you. And that's the biggest problem with managing people is they believe that something's done to them. And the best people accept what they've allowed to have happen. And they come to someone like me who would say, well, if I did that to you and that was my fault, I apologize. Let's, let's fix that, right? So managing people is the hardest thing in the whole world. If I say that to anybody, anyone who says it's not is full of shit. It's so hard to manage people because everyone has their own problems, their personal problems, their family problems, and then their business life. And by the way, I'm not, it sounds like to me, if you watch this podcast, you're not going to want to start a business. And you shouldn't. You shouldn't. If you're, if you're not prepared for what's going to happen to you, you shouldn't start a business. Because I can tell you people today that are your friend will sue you later if you make a lot of money. I've been sued so many times it's ungodly. I got sued by a guy, I think it's still going on five years later. I got sued by a guy who had a $54,000 bill from me and sued me for 6.8 million because I terminated him. He was a contractor and claimed that I was going to give him a percentage of the company. None of it's true. And, and yet here I am. I did not want to be a stipend for lawyers. So I basically defend myself and I do not, I do not settle a case ever unless it's gone a long ways for me to understand their claim. I am not a stipend for lawyers. I just don't sit here and let people sue me and I'm not afraid. I'm a battle hardened litigator and I'll litigate if you're going to try to wrong me or my company, I'll litigate. And a lot of people are afraid of that. They're afraid of lawyers, they're afraid of the irs, they're afraid of their rights. Of course, we're in a country now where our rights are a little weird, but that's a whole different conversation. It's funny.

[Scott]

A shout out to NORDVPN for supporting today's episode. I have to tell you a story. So I was actually in Toronto visiting family last month and I went to binge some of my favorite Netflix shows. I forgot. And I realized that half of my US shows weren't available in Canada. Super annoying. Flipped on NordVPN within seconds, I got access to everything. Now it's not just about watching shows. What makes NORDVPN a game changer really? Just imagine having this personal security guard for your entire digital Life. With just one click, you're connected to one of their 7100 servers across 118 countries. I mainly use it for accessing streaming services when I travel, but I've also saved hundreds on flight bookings by checking prices from different countries. And their new Threat Protection Pro blocks all those endless popups and suspicious links before they even get to me. And what I love most is how simple it is. One account, 10 devices. So laptop, phone, iPad, everything's covered. And the speed? Honestly, it's so fast that I forget that I'm even using a vpn. And the best part? I've got a special offer just for success story listeners. So head over to nordvpn.com success and you'll not only get their best discount, but they'll throw in an extra four months on the two year plan. And don't worry about commitment because they offer a 30 day money back guarantee. The link is in the episode description. Trust me, it's worth checking out, especially if you travel or stream content regularly. That's nordvpn.com success. Thank you Netsuite for supporting today's episode. Now, what does the future hold for business? If you ask nine experts, you're going to get 10 answers. Bull market. Bear market. Inflation up, inflation down. Honestly, I just need a crystal ball. But until we get one, over 41,000 businesses have found the next best thing. They future proofed their operations with NetSuite by Oracle, which is the number one cloud ERP. Imagine having your accounting, your financial management, your inventory, your HR all flowing together in one fluid platform. Here's what makes NetSuite different. It gives you one source of truth for your business. You get the visibility and control to make quick, confident decisions. While others are guessing, you're working with real time data Insights Forecasting. You're basically looking into the future of your business with actionable data. Whether your company is earning millions or even hundreds of millions, NetSuite helps you respond to immediate challenges and helps you grab your biggest opportunities. And speaking of opportunities, they Put together the CFO's guide to AI and machine learning at NetSuite. This is the playbook for understanding how to use AI for your business. The guide is free. Go to netsuite.com ScottClary that is netsuite.com ScottClay A big thank you to Indeed for supporting Success Story because hiring people is one of the hardest things you're ever going to do as an entrepreneur, as a founder, as somebody who's trying to build a business. Because it's important to hire. Well, it's important to hire and find the right person, but it takes so much time. It's so labor and intensive because like most entrepreneurs, you have a thousand things going on and there's a good chance that you just realized your business needed to hire someone yesterday. How can you find that great, amazing right fit candidate Fast? It's easy. You just use Indeed because you don't have to waste time struggling to get your job post seen on all these other job sites. If you're using Indeed, you can just use their sponsored jobs to help you stand out and hire fast. Your post jumps right to the top of the page for relevant candidates so you can reach exactly who you're looking for faster and the results really speak for themselves. According to Indeed data, Sponsored jobs posted directly on indeed have 45% more applications than non sponsored jobs. You know what I love most about Indeed? It really just makes hiring so fast because everything is streamlined in one place. No more juggling multiple platforms or waiting weeks for the right candidate. How fast is Indeed in the minute I've been talking to you. 23 hires were made on Indeed according to Indeed Data Worldwide. There's no need to w wait any longer. Speed up your hiring right now with Indeed and listeners of this show will get a 75 sponsored job credit to get your jobs more visibility@ Indeed.com Clary just go to Indeed.com Clary right now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on this podcast. Indeed.com Clary terms and conditions apply if you're hiring Indeed is all you need. By the way, I've noticed that because that's a very I find that a very American thing. Using I've never Been, I've never been sued by an employee until I've come down to the US or a contractor or anything. And now it just seems like people just use it as a, as a tool. It's like, it's like, it's like any other business tactic in Canada. I don't see it as much. I see it as more of a. If you have been financially wronged in Canada, you get sued, but you let somebody go in the US And I mean it sucks letting people go, but this happens when you're building a business, suing and having to let people go and firing people, terminating, whatever it's going to happen if you build anything significant. So yeah, it's tough. But the added tough is when they're a sales rep, they don't hit the numbers. You terminate and then they come after you for nothing. Like, like literally nothing. But they think that for whatever reason you're going to fold and you're going to settle.

[Unknown Guest]

And most people, and most people do, most people look at as a cost of doing business. I simply don't. I, I made it. If you look at our, our financials, you'll see our legal fees. We, I just defend everything because I'm, I'm not going to be a stipend for lawyers. I made a decision five years ago and I have, I have, I have three full time lawyers that work for me. General counsel, deputy general counsel, associate counsel, and then two outside law firms, one litigation firm. And I, I just, I don't sue anybody unless they need to be sued. I do not. Usually I am not the aggressor. Generally, I would say 95% or more of the time. I am not the person suing, I'm the person getting sued. And when they sue me, I look at the case very seriously and I generally will fight it. If I believe, if I, if we did something wrong, we'll try to settle it. If we did, if we thought we did something wrong. But the people that have been with me a long time, especially lenders and investors that know me, know that I paid everyone back, anyone who stuck with me in any period of time. I don't know, I gotta probably put 400,000 disclaimers in this possibility. But if you've invested directly with me, not bought my stock in the open market, but if you've invested directly with me, you put money to work with me, you wrote me a trek for a private placement. I don't think that there's any five year cycle where you're down. I think there, there's big drawdowns. I had a lot of people that took the drawdown after 2009 and they participated with me in a private deal that went public open first trade for 3.3 billion and they got all their money back plus a return on their investment. So I, I generally do not leave a dead body behind. If I feel like I starting something and I owe you money and you put some money at risk with me and it didn't go right. I try to put you in a deal that helps you make that money. So listen, am I perfect? Not even close. You know, I, when you, when you look at my background, you'll probably say, wow, you got a lot of stuff on in your background. And it's true. But the only way you kind of get that is to do deals and things go wrong and things go right. It's just, it's the nature of it. It's. You don't really see these stories out there. Maybe Scott, you have. But like Mark Zuckerberg starts the Facebook in his. Is in his dorm. But look at even that resulted in tons of litigation when it was one of his Parsons, one of his partners, one of his roommates, the Winklevi. All these things, you know, they, it's the nature of business. It's just the nature of it. And as a public company, you get a lot of scrutiny for. You know, there's a lot of keyboard warriors that say a lot of stuff that they don't really know what they're talking. But that's the nature of being public. And I don't want to dwell on that. I feel like I've dwelled on.

[Scott]

No, I think it's, it, it's difficult. I think that even if you're private, you're going to get this stuff happen to you and to your business. So I think actually the takeaway is first of all, anybody can figure it out and deal with it and survive in spite of it, but it's not going to be easy. But that's okay because anything worth doing is never going to be easy. But I also think it's good to have conversations like this because then it normalizes what's going on in someone's life. So someone who doesn't have a mentor could be from maybe not a big city USA who's killing it is getting their first lawsuit. That's. That's super stressful and it shouldn't be that stressful. And there's different ways to work through it and maybe don't let lawyers take advantage of you. Either. But the point is, this is part of. This is part of what we're doing here. This is part of business, is part of life, and be an ethical, good person and always do things that you know are right and honest. And I think that's how you sleep good at night, even if somebody else is trying to take advantage of you. It sucks, but it's like you have.

[Unknown Guest]

Your success story podcast. What I would say to people is, it's taken me a long time to learn this, but I, I inherently figured out how I got here, and that was I would endlessly learn. You hear these statements about endlessly learning, but like, if you, if you were to watch every podcast that you put out, a person did that, made a commitment to say, I'm just gonna listen and get something, I found that I could always get something from every single one of your podcasts, which is that if I listen to what the person did, I could apply some of that lesson to what was happening with me. And you need to constantly be reminded every couple weeks. If you're on the journey of entrepreneurship or starting your own company or buying a company, you need to remind yourself that this is happening in other places and there are creative ways of getting out of it or working around the problem. The problems are different, but they're all the same. You just have to listen to enough people. And with. With your podcast, since you're not really being spoken to in the sense that you're paying for it, you're able to listen to it. There's a lot of free information that can help you. And that's probably what's changed for me, is I spend a lot more time listening and, and learning than I do doing, because I can apply it, right? Like I, I try to. So I'm one of those guys that looks at Edgar as public companies. Almost every deal that comes out on Edgar, I try to read what the transaction was, who did the financing, what was the investment bank involved, how did they raise the money, what was the structure of the deal? What kind of EBITDA did they have, or Cash Flow? Who did that private equity deal? Why did they do that? Well, that's. In my world, I need to know that stuff, right? But I promise you, if you're going to start anything, you can watch one of your success podcasts or a few of them and go, okay, I can this person some in something similar. You got to absorb that. You know, you gotta. If you can't afford a mentor, you can't pay for a consultant. You can get a consultant. Right. You could. You can watch your podcast and, and then eventually you will find that answer and then it'll. You'll dig more and you'll dig more and you'll go down that rabbit hole and you find yourself learning. I. That's what I tell people all the time. It's just, it's not, it's not overnight. You don't just start Facebook and you're rich. It never, never happens like that.

[Scott]

Thanks for tuning in. If you found this valuable, don't forget to hit that subscribe button so you never miss an episode. And if you want to dive deeper into this conversation, check out the links in the description to watch the full episode. See you in the next one.

[Unknown Guest]

Foreign.

[Scott]

Today's Success Story podcast is brought to you by Vanta. Now listen up. This matters for your business. In today's digital landscape, security isn't optional, it's essential. Without it, deal, stall, sales cycle, stretch out and scaling becomes really difficult. Why? Because investors, customers, partners, they all expect businesses to demonstrate strong security practices before they commit to anything. And if you can't prove trust, you lose opportunities. So whether you're a startup founder trying to land that first big client, or an established company scaling your security program, Vanta helps businesses of all sizes prove they're trustworthy by Automating compliance across 35 frameworks like SoC2, ISO 27001 and HIPAA. The exact certifications, your prospects, your customers are demanding. And here's why you need to pay attention. Vanta gives you back precious time you're currently wasting on compliance. Their platform automates up to 90% of the tedious compl and it helps you respond to those endless security questionnaires up to five times faster. And they also connect you with experts to get your security program running immediately. And the results, they speak for themselves. A recent IDC report found that Vanta customers achieve over $535,000 per year in benefits, and the platform pays for itself in just three months. So join over 10,000 global companies like Atlassian, Quora and Factory who use Vanta to manage risk, improve security in real time, and don't miss this for a limited time. Only my listeners can get $1,000 off Vanta. That's real money back in your pocket. Visit vanta.comscott now before this offer expires. That's V a n t a dot com Scott for $1,000 off a huge shout out to Federated Computer for supporting today's episode. Let me explain why I love Federated Computer, why they are Friends of Success Story they are changing the way businesses buy software because we all need software to run our businesses. I don't care what kind of business you're building, but the best business software doesn't have to cost thousands of dollars each month. So Federated Computer replaces a lot of the software that you're using right now. Let me explain. The average typical Federated computer customer saves 75% or more on their software bill and gets great software, top notch customer service and support, and a software solution that is uniquely installed for your business without any sort of surveillance or breaches of privacy. For example, if you use Google for email, Salesforce for CRM, Slack for team chat, list Monkey for customer acquisitions, and Airtable for data management, with a team of 10, you'd save $9,000 per year on software costs. By switching to Federated Computer, they replace all of those. And what's wild is that the cost of Federated Computer doesn't grow as your team grows. You can use Federated Computer savings to grow your business rather than feed the woke Silicon Valley software companies. The Federated Computer team literally invented cloud software. They actually have the patents to prove it. And they are taking a hammer to the ridiculously high prices of business software that all entrepreneurs are suffering from. Federated Computer They've been a longtime supporter of Success story. They're offering 30% off their already low prices when you use a coupon code freelance. So go to www.to begin saving 75% or more on your monthly software costs. That's www.federated.computer. these folks are going to do you a big favor. Check them out. Today's Success Story podcast is brought to you by Vanta. Now listen up. This matters for your business. In today's digital landscape, security isn't optional, it's essential. Without it, deal, stall, sales cycle stretch out and scaling becomes really difficult. Why? Because investors, customers, partners, they all expect businesses to demonstrate strong security practices before they commit to anything. And if you can't prove trust, you lose opportunities. So whether you're a startup founder trying to land that first big client or an established company scaling your security program, Vanta helps businesses of all sizes prove they're trustworthy by Automating compliance across 35 frameworks like SoC2, ISO 27001 and HIPAA, the exact certifications your prospects, your customers are demanding. And here's why you need to pay attention. Vanta gives you back precious time you're currently wasting on compliance. Their platform automates up to 90% of the tedious compliance work and it helps you respond to those endless security questionnaires up to five times faster. And they also connect you with experts to get your security program running immediately. And the results? They speak for themselves. A recent IDC report found that Vanta customers achieve over $535,000 per year in benefits and the platform pays for itself in just three months. So join over 10,000 global companies like Atlassian, CORA and Factory who use Vanta to manage risk, improve security in real time, and don't miss this for a limited time only my listeners can get a thousand dollars off Vanta. That's real money back in your pocket. Visit vanta.comscott now before this offer expires. That's V a n t a dot com Scott for $1,000 off a huge shout out to Federated Computer for supporting today's episode Let me explain why I love Federated Computer. Why they are friends of Success story. They are changing the way businesses buy software because we all need software to run our businesses. I don't care what kind of business you're building, but the best business software doesn't have to cost thousands of dollars each month. So Federated Computer replaces a lot of the software that you're using right now. Let me explain. The average typical Federated computer customer saves 75% or more on their software bill and gets great software, top notch customer service and support and a software solution that is uniquely installed for your business without any sort of surveillance or breaches of privacy. For example, if you use Google for email, Salesforce for CRM, Slack for team chat, list Monkey for customer acquisitions and Airtable for data management. With a team of 10, you'd save $9,000 per year on software costs by switching to Federated Computer. They replace all of those. And what's wild is that the cost of Federated Computer doesn't grow as your team grows. You can use Federated Computer savings to grow your business rather than feed the woke Silicon Valley software companies. The Federated Computer team literally invented cloud software. They actually have the patents to prove it and they are taking a hammer to the ridicul high prices of business software that all entrepreneurs are suffering from. Federated Computer They've been a longtime supporter of Success story. They're offering 30% off their already low prices when you use a coupon code freelance. So go to www.federated.computer to begin saving 75% or more on your monthly software costs. That's www.federated.com these folks are going to do you a big favor. Check them out.