Sramana Mitra: I’m going to double-click down on your second category. You have product-market fit. The options are, do we sell the company now or do we go for another round of funding. If we choose to go for another round of funding, we will get funded because we have product-market fit. In that scenario,
Sramana Mitra: Is the driver in that acquisition strategy upselling from your current user base and giving them more products to get into? Seong Kim: Yes, it serves the two purposes that I alluded to before. It expands the suite of products and services and support we can offer to our existing base. It also
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Sramana Mitra: What role does valuation play in whether an acquisition happens or not? Seksom Suriyapa: This is a tough one. The reality is that it tends to be the issue of whether a deal happens or not. Very professional corporate development teams are highly disciplined around how they value deals. Similarly, in the case
These days, everyone seems to be a startup mentor. Whether they have ever done a startup or not, whether they have ever raised money or not, they are ready to advise entrepreneurs. I want to share some things we have learned in running the 1Mby1M program for the past twelve years. I feel that it
Sramana Mitra: Let’s do some examples. What have you been up to in the last few years that illustrates some of this framework thinking? Seong Kim: The most recent acquisition that we just announced was just over a week ago. It was the largest acquisition we’ve ever done in language learning. As a company that
Sramana Mitra: Let’s take this example that you started with. Who drives acquisition? Is it product leaders or corp dev? How do you find about this company that you ended up considering an OEM deal with that led to an acquisition? Seksom Suriyapa: In a very perfect world, I advise that product leaders should drive
Seong Kim, Corporate Strategy & Development for Chegg Inc. discusses exit strategy within EdTech. Sramana Mitra: Let’s start with a little bit of introduction. What path have you pursued in the industry? Then we’ll get into some specific topics. Seong Kim: I’ve been working in Corporate Strategy & Development for the past six and a