#120: Practical Founder Exits for $300 Million Cash with Identity Verification Platform – Bill Spruill

Practical Founders Podcast

Bill Spruill had a successful sales and executive career with two exits before he and his cofounder struck out on their own in the location verification market serving financial and e-commerce companies. Sales grew slowly for several years as they scraped by and kept going. Eventually, they pivoted the company to focus on identity verification and know-your-customer (KYC) with a new approach, and sales grew steadily every month.

Global Data Consortium (GDC) partnered with data providers and fintech companies who became loyal customers, trusted partners, and potential acquirers. The company grew over 100% for several years, acquiring new partners and adding experienced leaders to their small team. In 2022, the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) acquired GDC for $300 million in an all-cash deal.

Bill talks about the lessons he learned in their patient growth journey, the challenges of trying and failing to raise startup capital, their frugal focus, their incredible acquisition story, and what he is doing now as a successful former founder.

Quote from Bill Spruill, founder of Global Data Consortium (GDC)

“There was a low point in the business where we were just struggling with, Why are we doing this? Are we going to make it? So we stepped back and said, We’re gonna do something very simple. We’re gonna focus on 10% growth every month, which wasn’t a big number then.

“We focused on moving the needle 10% every month with revenue. And then you get into the power of compounding. Every month we moved it 10% and we would celebrate. We kept moving that needle 10%, 10%, 10%.

“Eventually, that number got to be very sizable where we cracked through $5 million in revenue and we paid off all of our debt. And we became profitable and we kept growing fast. That unleashed the ability to accelerate our growth, growing 100% a year as we got bigger.”

Links

• Bill Spruill on LinkedIn
• Global Data Consortium (GDC) on LinkedIn
• Global Data Consortium (GDC) website, now called LSEG Risk Intelligence
• London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) website

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