STORY & VISION
Turning Tech M&A and Growth Financing Challenges into Opportunities
MARKET
OBSERVATION
When Erik Leus, Mark van der Horst, and Nathan Kotek, together with a group of tech industry seniors, started Shurman, they made a simple market observation. Tech M&A and financing processes can be unpredictable, time-consuming, and high-cost. However, they also saw the opportunity to transform these challenges into opportunities by providing transaction confidence, clarity, and creativity that maximise potential and minimise risk.
The founders of Shurman identified that the root of struggle and overcoming it are two sides of the same coin. The complexity of the tech industry and the mystified nature of M&A and corporate finance advisory are the two key factors that need to be addressed.
TECH INDUSTRY COMPLEXITY
Side A
Realising successful sell-side, buy-side and financing transactions in today's tech world of confusing and overlapping company categories is a challenge. Digital technology industries and tech-enabled service businesses are complicated and often operate in highly fragmented markets.
How do you adapt your next step M&A and growth financing strategy and thrive in this fast-paced world of constant change? How do you construct your next step scenario in an industry characterised by disruptive technology, digital innovation, hyper-competition, business immaturity, "eat or be eaten" M&A waves, and dealmaking that pushes beyond your daily routine? How do you balance your ambitions throughout the process?
How do you prepare, shape the right deal structure, find the right partner(s), and financial or strategic sponsors at the right moment in time? How do you unlock value that meets your personal, strategic, and financial ambitions? The founders of Shurman recognised that conventional Tech M&A and Financing have not adapted to these complexities and often perceive value only in terms of numbers.
MYSTIFIED M&A ADVISORY
Side B
A commonly heard problem is that tech M&A and financing practices are often led by people who lack hands-on tech industry expertise. Traditional M&A and corporate finance advisors often play the game of EBITDA - focusing on boosting it to maximize the transaction price.
These advisors often like to mystify the process and use outdated playbooks but forget that a company's actual value is not just in the numbers. It demands a holistic and value-driven approach that reaches far beyond their strict financial capabilities.
The outcome is that the stakeholders involved feel frustrated, distracted, and bewildered by these lingering M&A and financing practices. The management teams get diverted from their daily business, and the owners are not getting the projected deal value. The buyers are not realising their business potential, and the stakeholders get stuck with a deal that lacks personal, strategic and financial value, putting the company needlessly at risk.
PROVIDING A FRESH APPROACH
FOR TAKING YOUR NEXT STEP
Shurman's founders saw that the complexity of the tech industry, combined with mystified and high-risk M&A and financing, requires a fresh approach. The vision for value-driven Tech M&A and Financing was born with a tech industry focus and a unique set of programs to execute this vision.
Shurman takes a programmatic approach, which is non-existent in the mid-market Tech M&A and Financing market and usually only available to large advisory firms. Shurman's programmatic approach for taking the next step is structured and, at the same time, very pragmatic, hands-on and fast to execute.
At Shurman, we believe that deal-making always needs to go hand-in-hand with unlocking intrinsic, synergetic, and sustainable value - facilitating your next step. If this is not the case, sooner or later, M&A and financing transactions will lead to disappointments and, even worse, regret.