“I wasn’t looking to exit. I was looking for the next stage.”

A year in the life: Andrew Burgess on selling his software business and what came next.

At ClearCourse, we work with founders every day. We acquire software businesses, invest in them, and help them grow. But the story of what selling a software business actually looks like from a founder’s perspective is one we don’t tell often enough.

That’s why we’re launching A Year in the Life, a series that follows our founders and their teams through their first twelve months as part of the ClearCourse group. Over the coming months, we’ll be checking in at key moments, from the early days of settling in, to the challenges and opportunities that come with being part of a larger business.

In this first instalment, Andrew talks about what prompted him to consider a sale, what mattered most when it came to choosing the right partner, and what he was hoping life on the other side of the deal would look like.

Check back soon to find out how the first 90 days have gone.

What made you start thinking about selling?

We grew pretty quickly during Covid, which sounds like a good problem to have. But the bigger we got, the more aware we became of all the things we didn’t know. Customer data, security, legal queries from customers. We were trying to run a business at the same time as trying to get things done properly, and those two things were constantly in conflict.

We’d built a product we were proud of, but we were becoming victims of our own success. We knew we needed investment, a partnership, or an acquisition of some sort. We were being approached by a lot of companies, but most of them weren’t making it clear why they wanted to buy us. ClearCourse was different. There was a clear sense of why they wanted to work with us, and what we’d be able to build and develop together.

What mattered most to you when it came to choosing the right home?

I wasn’t looking for an exit where I stay for a bit and then walk away, I wanted a collaborative relationship. I wanted to work with a company that had a genuine track record of buying businesses like ours and helping them grow into the best versions of themselves. We also wanted to make sure the culture we’d built wouldn’t just disappear overnight.

What did you personally want from life inside the group?

Honestly? Headspace. So much of my time was being spent on firefighting. Legal queries, financial complexity, things that weren’t in my area of expertise but that were taking up about 75% of my mental space. In the past we’d felt cornered by things that, once we joined ClearCourse, turned out to be completely manageable for the people around us.

Once we were integrated, I knew I’d be able to focus on what actually makes the business tick. Having the breathing room to think more creatively, rather than just reacting to whatever fire comes up next, was really what I was after.

“ClearCourse was different. There was a clear sense of why they wanted to work with us, and what we’d be able to build and develop together.”

When did you know ClearCourse was the right fit?

It came in two phases. The person I spoke to at ClearCourse was a great communicator. We’d catch up once a year, and he was always transparent about what ClearCourse was trying to do and why we’d be a good fit. Around three years ago, we’d started building payments integrations, and that was already having a positive impact on our business. So when there was genuine interest from a company that wanted to take that further and involve us in building it properly, it just made sense. It would add substantial value to our customers and make things a lot simpler for us as well, because we’re not then having to manage loads of relationships with third parties.

The second phase was when the timing really aligned. Work-life balance had basically disappeared. We were generating interest from other companies, and our payment revenue had grown to a point where a proper conversation felt right. Compared to everyone else we spoke to, there were just more parallels with ClearCourse from the start.

What were those early conversations with ClearCourse actually like?

They were a useful annual checkpoint, more than anything else. We’d talk about where the business had grown to compared to the year before. I’d pick their brain about what ClearCourse had been up to, what other businesses they’d been working with. It was a good, low-pressure way of staying in touch. Looking back, those conversations were as much about building trust over time as they were about anything else.

What surprised you during due diligence?

The thing I was most worried about was the tech review. We’d built everything ourselves and we knew every bug and edge case in the product. The idea of someone else coming in to look at it was genuinely stressful. We worried the standards might be different. In the end, we did two in-person review days, and they were fine. The changes that came out of it were about two days’ work. The anxiety we’d built up beforehand was quite disproportionate.

Did the process change how you think about the business?

Significantly. For years, the main indicator of how things were going was whether the monthly invoice number was moving in the right direction. That’s a reasonable measure, but it’s a fairly shallow one. Going through due diligence meant properly drilling down into monthly recurring revenue, annual recurring revenue, churn rates, which products were actually keeping customers for the long term.

I came out the other side with a much better understanding of what actually builds a sustainable business, rather than just riding a wave. That’s something I’ve taken forward.

“I came out the other side with a much better understanding of what actually builds a sustainable business.”

What advice would you give to founders thinking about selling their software business?

Get on top of your accounts early. Not just having an accountant, but really understanding your billing, invoicing, and financial structure. You’re going to be asked very specific questions, and if you don’t understand the answers yourself, you’ll be trying to learn under pressure during one of the most stressful periods you’ll go through.

The other thing is being able to clearly articulate decisions. Due diligence questions aren’t designed to catch you out. They just need to understand why you did what you did. But if you struggle to explain a decision, one question quickly becomes five or six, and you can end up feeling like you’re being interrogated when the problem is just clarity.

What were you most excited about when the deal completed?

Learning. I know that sounds like the kind of answer you give in a job interview, but I mean it. For years, I’d been learning things because I had to, to deal with whatever crisis was in front of me. You can start to resent that. What I was really excited about was working closely with people who are genuinely experts in areas I’d only ever scraped the surface of. Finance, legal, product strategy. I wanted that kind of collaborative environment.

Some founders come into a deal like this thinking about winding down. I didn’t see it that way at all. I’m at a stage in my career where there’s plenty more I want to do and learn. This felt like the start of the next chapter, not the end of one.

“What I was really excited about was working closely with people who are genuinely experts in areas I’d only ever scraped the surface of.”

Andrew Burgess joined ClearCourse following the acquisition of Motasoft. If you’re a founder thinking about selling a software business, we’d love to have a conversation. Find out more about our acquisition approach.