Rachit Dayal
About Our Guest
Rachit Dayal is an award-winning entrepreneur, marketer, and investor. Rachit successfully grew his digital agency from $0 to $10 million in sales over 10 years before a successful acquisition by Dentsu Asia.
As Singapore’s first Google-certified advertising and analytics professional, Rachit helps brands in Asia drive significant results from their digital marketing by using the latest technology and creativity.
Through their proprietary approaches to digital marketing, they have helped more than 5,000 executives grow their business.
About this Episode
From $0 - $10M: Growth & Exit of a Digital Marketing Firm
It’s 2005 and in the marketing world, TV advertising, media buying, and wining and dining clients is king. But rather than toe the line of traditional advertising, Rachit Dayal and his team at Happy Marketer dove into the “ignored” areas of marketing, including analytics, CRMs, and other MarTech areas.
As Singapore’s first Google-certified advertising and analytics professional, Rachit grew Happy Marketing to $10M in annual sales before finding himself in the middle of negotiations for an exit he didn’t intend to have.
In this episode, we talk about how to make future-proof business decisions, what to do in business partner divorces, as well as how to approach an exit when you didn’t want to leave the business.
What you will learn in this episode
In this episode we’ll cover everything from:
- How staying abreast of budding industry trends can yield high rewards
- Get back to basics: It doesn’t matter how fancy your tech is if no one needs your product
- How to make the right decisions in business evolution
- Creating more sophisticated - but organic - shareholder agreements
- A few of Rachit’s best book recommendations
Connect with Rachit Dayal
Website: https://www.merkleinc.com/au/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rachitdayal/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rachit.dayal
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/merkle/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/rachitdayal
Show Notes
(8:20) The roots of this business started in 2005, Google was not a public company, Facebook didn’t exist, My Space was at the height of its popularity, and websites were being designed as brochures.
(17:50) Rachit never wanted to sell, he wanted to work in the business until he was 70 so when his business partners decided to explore opportunities, he was along for the ride. Here’s how that played out on his mental framework.
(23:04) Everyone teaches you how to grow a business, but no one teaches you about a business divorce. Shareholder agreements, shares, and navigating multiple partners over the course of 15 years.
(29:58) Your business is the most valuable to you, but rather than using some irrational number and a ridiculous multiple of a non-existent base, here’s how Rachit’s valuation came back to reality.
(37:41) From your lifestyle business to the exit, getting emotionally ready to leave your business can take time. Here’s Rachit’s journey as he began speaking to Dentsu Asia.
(49:35) Top Takeaway: Good people can finish first – even when the business world doesn’t make it easy. Put people before profits, protect your employees, and build something great with people you love and making decisions will come a lot easier to you.
