When is it OK to stalk business owners? Synacti’s journey from 0 to Software Acquisition #1

Disclaimer: Unless noted otherwise, views and analysis expressed here are the author's own and based on public sources. The article is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only. This is not financial advice. Please consult a professional for investment decisions.

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Last week, we co-hosted the webinar “How Synacti sourced their first deal with SourceScrub”. Participating from Synacti, a British software HoldCo, were Guy Mitchell (CFO) and Octavian Manoli (Head of Origination). The mercurial Tristan Alden from SourceScrub moderated the call. 

We discussed:

1. Synacti’s beginnings - and what it has acquired so far

2. Synacti’s deal origination stack and stats

3. How Synacti got through to Callbell, their first acquisition

4. Common pitfalls of first-time acquirers

You can watch the full recording here. If you don't have 1/2h to spare, don't worry - we wrote down key points below. 

1. How did Synacti get started? What has it acquired so far? 

Guy and Mark Goodhead, the CEO of Synacti, joined forces in late 2023. Both have software backgrounds. Guy has 25 years of senior finance experience, including 14 in software. Octavian came onboard in March 2024, having previously world in deal origination for Constellation Software and Valsoft. 

In December 2024, Synacti closed its first acquisition: Callbell. 

Synacti targets young software companies that are on a growth curve; led by management teams that want to stay in the business. Companies like Callbell. Founded in 2019 and based in France, Callbell offers a “multi-agent platform for selling to and supporting customers on WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram and Telegram”. With a team of 50, Callbell processes 1B+ messages per year.    

2. Synacti’s deal origination stack and stats

As Octavian explained: “there are CRMs that have marketing campaign functionality, but they are not as good as they should be”. So instead of having an all-in-one solution, Synacti  opted for three - interconnected systems:

1. SourceScrub for deal screening

2. Salesforce for CRM

3. Outreach.io for email marketing

Synacti hired a consultant who natively connected these 3 systems. That way, they minimised the manual intervention from the get-go. 

Soon, leads began to pour in. By the time Callbell signed the IOI, Octavian had screened between 4,000 and 5,000 opportunities. He was averaging 30+ meaningful conversations per month. 

Sounds like a lot of calls? Competition is up, so you have to try harder. Octavian mentioned a $5M revenue business growing 10% YoY. The founder admitted to having received 8 emails from prospective acquirers in just one week. 

3. How Synacti got through to Callbell

Here comes the interesting part. We have heard about acquirers that go overboard on brand marketing well ahead of the first call. Synacti took a different path. Initially, it did not even have a proper website! 

Instead, Octavian uses these tactics to maximise probability of success:  

• Contact 2+ people from each target

• Have multiple emails in a sequence. Synacti customises emails based on the target industry. They will do things like insert industry news and/or competitor names

• Set up triggers for specific actions how targets interact with the email, with triggers 

Let’s double click on the last point. As Octavian put it:

Carlo [Callbell CEO] clicked the link that’s in my signature, and I saw that. I called him and I said, I know that you clicked. I want to understand what made you do that. Because you receive tens of emails like this every week.

So Carlo and Octavian started talking. In the first call, Octavian didn't go hard on the numbers, but rather tried to understand where Carlo was at. This approach helped build trust. The numbers Q&A followed on Call #2. 

4. Common pitfalls of first-time acquirers

Finally, it was my turn to speak. Tristan asked me about the most common mistakes that we at RollUpEurope see in the software M&A market. 

We see two common pitfalls:

1. People who pointlessly reinvent the proverbial wheel of deal origination

2. Inexperienced team with too many Finance / PE folks

Let’s unpack #1. The software serial acquirer community is full of smart, persistent people who eventually figure out the workflow that is both efficient and works for them. Until then, they follow processes that are manual and don't scale. You must be able to stand out in an increasingly crowded acquirer landscape. 

If you are running a thematic buy and build, let’s say acquiring ERP or manufacturing software, it is easier to get through - but then your addressable universe is much smaller. It is harder for industry agnostic HoldCos, like Synacti. A lot of people are bombarding business owners with near-identical pitches. Hence origination becomes a numbers game.

So what can you do to maximise conversion? You have multiple points along the funnel to do that. Let’s start at the very top: is your universe big enough? If you are not SourceScrub, then what? Are you manually scraping databases? 

Make the investment on day one, otherwise you will be stuck in the slow lane. 

Now onto #2, team composition. Look at Synacti: they have done this before. Octavian has worked for other aggregators. Guy and Mark have software experience. 

Contrast this with other software aggregators that tend to be populated by people mostly or exclusively from the finance industry. There is a tendency for banking and PE folks to prioritise quantity over quality. Often, when people pick up the phone and call the founders, they sound too pushy or too rushed. You cannot do that. Either the founder will lose interest in you, or the price goes up because you are perceived to be difficult to work with. 

As Guy put it: 

“As a founder, you might only sell a company that you have created once in your lifetime. And what you don't want to do is to sell to someone who's not going to take care of it, or does not have the same passion for it as you do”

Always try to step into the founders’ shoes.