From University Project to Billion-Dollar Exit: SIGNAVIO - Together As One – with Signavio Co-Founder & CEO Gero Decker

Dec 20, 2024

01:33:03

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On March 5th, 2021, SAP acquired Signavio for a billion dollars – this marks one of the largest Tech Exits in the German market to date.

How does a university side project become a billion-dollar acquisition?

In this episode, Gero Decker, co-founder of Signavio, shares the incredible journey of building the company – from its roots as an open-source project to bootstrapping, scaling, and eventually being acquired by SAP for over a billion dollars.

Learn about the pivotal moments, the role of timing, and how a strong team culture propelled Signavio to success, even when the odds were against them.

What you’ll learn:

How a university project turned into a profitable company
Why customer feedback and bootstrapping were critical in the early days
How creative lead generation methods (like the "Hare Krishna Method") made a difference
Why team culture and timing played a vital role in success
How the billion-dollar SAP acquisition unfolded and the dynamics of negotiation

MORE UNICORN BAKERY:

https://zez.am/unicornbakery

More about Gero Decker:

LinkedIn: https://de.linkedin.com/in/gerodecker

Website: https://www.signavio.com/de/

Where to get the Book: Amazon: https://links.unicornbakery.de/signavio

Spotify Audio Book: https://links.unicornbakery.de/signavio-audio-book

Join our Founder Tactics Newsletter:

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https://www.tactics.unicornbakery.de/

Marker:

(00:00:00) Why were so many coincidences necessary for Signavio to even be founded?