Building Your M&A Reputation: Why Relationships Beat Transactions Every Time with Andrew Cohen

Dec 22, 2025

In this conversation, Andy Cohen, Vice President of Corporate Development at F5, shares insights from his 30 years in M&A, emphasizing that success is built on relationships. He highlights the importance of shifting from zero-sum thinking to a 'win-enough' mindset for sustainable deals. Andy discusses the value of proactive sourcing and understanding founders' motivations, as well as the need for cultural fit in integration strategies. His focus on reputation and trust underlines that sometimes walking away is key to preserving long-term relationships.

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INSIGHT

Empathy As A Deal-Making Superpower

M&A requires empathy from having sat in every seat at the table to understand motivations and constraints.
Andy Cohen says understanding perspectives helps convince people that joining a bigger company is a better alternative.

INSIGHT

Win-Enough Not Win-At-All

Zero-sum thinking kills deals because one side winning guarantees post-close failure.
Andy Cohen recommends aiming for everyone to get "enough" of what they want so deals can succeed.

ADVICE

Leverage Reputation For Proprietary Flow

Build a network of bankers, VCs, and former CEOs to create warm introductions and proprietary deal flow.
Andy Cohen stresses reputation equity earned over years unlocks better meetings and processes.

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Andy Cohen, Vice President of Corporate Development at F5 Andy has built a career that proves M&A is fundamentally about relationships, not just transactions. With 30 years of experience and 60 deals closed across high-growth tech companies including Citrix, Acquia, and F5, Andy has cultivated the kind of reputation where every CEO he's worked with will take his call tomorrow. In this conversation, he reveals why zero-sum thinking kills deals, how to convince people to sell without convincing them to sell, and why walking away on principle matters more than closing at any cost.

Things you will learn:

Why reputation is your most valuable M&A asset
The shift from zero-sum to win-enough thinking
Learn Andy's approach to using due diligence as the foundation for integration strategy, cultural fit assessment, and long-term value creation.

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This episode is brought to you by S&P Global.

Today's episode of M&A Science is brought to you by S&P Global Market Intelligence. If you're in corp dev or PE, you know the pain — good private company data is hard to come by. Everyone's still chasing clean, reliable, up-to-date data. I started out using CapIQ Pro for public comps, but didn't realize until recently how deep their private company coverage has gotten. Over 58 million private companies, global reach, and actually usable for real deal work. This isn't surface-level. You get real metrics — ownership, financials, funding rounds, even asset-level insights. So if you're still toggling between a dozen tools trying to piece together the picture, maybe it's time to stop guessing and start sourcing better.

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Episode Timestamps

[00:02:30] The Empathy Advantage – Why sitting in every seat at the M&A table gives you the perspective to close better deals.
[00:04:00] Zero-Sum Thinking Will Kill Your Deals – The mindset shift from "winning" to ensuring everyone gets enough of what they want.
[00:07:30] Building Relationships That Actually Drive Deals – How a 30-year network of bankers, VCs, and former CEOs creates proprietary deal flow.
[00:10:30] Why Proactive Beats Auctions Every Time – Why almost all of Andy's deals are proactive and how strategic focus enables targeted outreach.
[00:14:00] Getting to the Story Behind the Company
[00:21:00] How to collaboratively build the acquisition narrative without being pushy or transactional.
[00:25:00] Trust Through Reputation and References
[00:32:00] Due Diligence Is Integration Planning
[00:42:00] Navigating the hardest negotiations—convincing product teams that buying beats building
[00:53:00] Walking Away on Principle – The deal Andy killed because the other side wanted to hurt employee shareholders

Questions, comments, concerns?Follow Kison Patel for behind-the-scenes insights on modern M&A.