Lessons on Acquisitions and Income Share Agreements with Three-Time Founder and Grain CEO Mike Adams

[00:14] An introduction to three-time founder, Mike Adams.

[00:57] His history in tech and how he founded Grain.

[02:14] What inspired Mike to come up with the concept for Grain.

[04:02] Examples of use-cases of Grain, from interview settings and meetings between consultants and clients to general team knowledge.

[06:27] How Grain is different from similar products like Gong.

[08:16] The benefits of using Grain with embeddable partners like Slack.

[10:13] Other integrations, like Zapier, Dropbox Paper, Notion, Coda, and Miro, and the benefits of using embeddable media from Grain through them.

[12:00] How Grain makes money through subscriptions.

[12:59] Why Mike exited MissionU: not every VC-backed business is appropriately VC-backed.

[15:30] Why he didn’t actually make any money on the acquisition and why it was shut down shortly after.

[17:14] What he learned from the experience.

[17:46] The pros and cons of income share agreements as vehicles to provide access to education and training instead of loans.

[20:04] Mike’s history in education and training.

[21:22] Mike’s views on loans, financiers, and income share agreements in education and the importance of transparency.

[26:20] Mike’s cheat code for healthy living: training for triathlons.

[28:54] His favorite business tool and book.