Today I'm giving thanks for Chris Egan.
Chris is the Chief Strategy Officer at Lone Wolf. I’m not sure the Lone Wolf acquisition of HomeSpotter would’ve come together without Chris’ leadership.
Chris found us at just the right time for both parties. As we were prepping to put 2020 solidly in the rear view mirror, we were starting to prepare to go to market on a fundraise with an investment banker that we had just hired. I had my sights set on a primary path of raising a larger PE-backed growth round and using that to run our own rollup strategy. I had invested a lot of effort preparing a list of all the companies I was hoping we’d acquire after raising that round.
Coincidentally, just as I was polishing off my list of acquisition targets and working to spark up conversations, Chris led the acquisition of what would have been my top pick – W+R Studios. That had a dual impact for me. It put Lone Wolf on the map for me in a way that they had not been previously. I had tremendous respect for Greg and Dan and what they had built, and the fact that they joined Lone Wolf meant a lot. Also, I thought W+R Studios was unequivocally the most synergistic acquisition HomeSpotter could pursue. With that solidly off the table, other roll up strategies became a bit less interesting.
Not long after the W+R Studios acquisition closed, Chris reached out to me to have a conversation. I let him know about my plans to raise a growth round, but he was undeterred in his mission to convince me we should join Lone Wolf instead. As things got more serious, one of Chris’ selling points was that they would close quickly. While the overall offer itself was attractive enough to consider not going to market, their commitment to a quick close was also a key consideration… I didn’t want a long, drawn out, and big distraction for me and our executive team, especially if for some reason it didn’t go through. Chris was true to his word and drove us towards a quick close.
Post-acquisition, I worked directly for Chris for the first few months and learned a lot from him.
Chris- thank you for finding us and for making the deal happen. I’m proud to be part of the Lone Wolf team and excited about what we’ve accomplished so far and more-so for what’s to come. We’ve got big things in store!
Originally posted on LinkedIn – head over to give it a like or a share.
I’m giving thanks for 100+ days to individuals that positively impacted me or HomeSpotter’s trajectory.