Inspiration
As I enter my 35th year in business-to-business software solutions, I’ve had the opportunity to observe and participate in acquisitions and integrations both large and small. It wasn’t until I began working with smaller SaaS businesses that I realized two fundamental truths—rapidly evolving engineering patterns had left many companies burdened with technical debt, and the financial pressures of competitive markets often left little room to address it.
In 2014, I found myself in Silicon Valley on the leadership team of a $350 million SaaS business that had been divested by Intuit and acquired by NCR. On day one, the challenge was clear—a massive integration effort, focused on migrating a complex B2B-to-C SaaS solution out of Intuit’s data centers. This had to be accomplished while balancing the business needs of over 850 customers and roughly 20 million end users, all within a highly regulated environment. Success depended on assembling an A-team and executing flawlessly across every aspect of integration. Some technical debt was remediated during the process, while other aspects had to be deferred and addressed in the business-as-usual roadmap. The team delivered, and in the process, I gained more practical knowledge and leadership insight than I had in the previous decade of my career.
As my career continued, so did the M&A activity—and with it, more integrations. Some were well-structured with strong leadership commitment; others struggled due to a lack of focus. Then, one day, I found myself in an interview with a growing SaaS company, discussing their planned acquisitions and the challenges that came with them. A technical leader asked my thoughts on navigating these complexities. My response was simple—maybe even too succinct:
“We are going to get really good at it!”
That private equity-backed company ultimately paused their search, and I accepted a competing offer with another company. But that moment stuck with me. I realized I needed to put real substance behind that statement. Inspired by my time working alongside exceptional former Intuit colleagues, the lessons from integrations that lacked focus, and that pivotal interview question, I put pen to paper.
This book is the result.
Derick Schaefer
Author