Plenty of businesses grow revenue year after year but never grow in value. On this episode of The M&A Mastermind Podcast, host Nick Olsen welcomes Claire Mula, founder of Made for Scale and a certified Scaling Up coach based in Australia, to explain why. Claire scaled and sold her own tech company for an eight-figure outcome in seven years. Now she helps founders and leadership teams build value a buyer will pay for. She breaks down the difference between scaling to grow and scaling to exit, the warning signs of value that won’t transfer to a new owner, and how 1% improvements across seven financial levers can raise cash flow by 40% or more.
In This Episode, You’ll Learn:
- What Claire learned from scaling and selling her mobile commerce startup, and what she’d do differently
- The key difference between scaling to grow (creating value) and scaling to exit (building transferable value)
- Early warning signs, like thin margins and a shallow leadership bench, that revenue growth isn’t building value a buyer will pay for
- How the four pillars of the Scaling Up framework work: People, Strategy, Execution, and Cash
- How to spot and reduce founder dependence and key-person risk before going to market
- The “letting go” process and the tools that help leadership teams run the business without the founder
- How “Power of One” 1% improvements helped one client lift cash flow 42% in six months
- Which financial levers, especially pricing and inventory, tend to move valuation the most
- The biggest gap M&A advisors should flag before taking a founder-led business to market
About the Guest:
Claire Mula is the founder of Made for Scale and a certified Scaling Up coach based in Sydney, Australia. For about six years she has coached CEOs and leadership teams of privately held scale-up businesses on the Scaling Up framework. Before coaching, Claire co-founded Sprooki, Asia’s first mobile commerce platform for shopping centers. She grew it into six markets and sold it for an eight-figure outcome within seven years. She brings three decades of experience in strategy, marketing, and operations, including roles with Procter & Gamble and Fairfax, plus board experience. Learn more at madeforscale.net or connect with Claire on LinkedIn.
About the Show:
The M&A Mastermind Podcast provides actionable insights and effective strategies tailored for dealmakers in the lower middle market. Hosted by Nick Olsen, the show features conversations with leading industry experts who share valuable knowledge on topics such as industry intelligence, deal management, collaborative successes, and specialized expertise. Listeners who support small to medium-sized business owners will find practical tactics and advice they can immediately apply to advance their mastery in mergers and acquisitions.
If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, rate, and leave a review. It helps more lower middle market dealmakers find the show.
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Resources & Links:
- Made for Scale: https://www.madeforscale.net
- Made for Scale Public Workshops (including “Scaling to Exit and Finish Strong”): https://www.madeforscale.net/workshop
- Find a Scaling Up Coach in Your Region: https://coaches.scalingup.com
- Claire Mula on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/clairemulalinkedin
- Nick Olsen on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nick-olsen2328/
- Cornerstone International Alliance: https://cornerstoneia.com/
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