Building and Selling a Functional Safety Leader — Bill Taylor | Watermark at 25! Ep. 2

▶ Watch the full Watermark at 25! series: https://watermarkadvisors.com/waterma... Part of Watermark at 25!, celebrating 25 years of guiding owners through M&A. Explore our 25-year Timeline and Watermark in Numbers at the link above. In 2010, Bill Taylor and Jody Nelson founded kVA, a Greenville, SC consulting firm focused on functional safety, ISO 26262 and autonomous vehicle safety. By 2018, it served Ford, Toyota, Honda, Mercedes, Tesla, Apple, Amazon and more. While still young and growing fast, they decided to sell. Watermark Advisors took the deal to market in January 2019, and five months later kVA was acquired by UL. In a rare, candid look back at the complexities surrounding the sale, Bill shares how he and kVA's co-owner evaluated multiple letters of intent, a deeper perspective on evaluating earnouts, the mindset shift it takes to stay on and lead the business you sold under a new owner, and whether Underwriters Laboratories' acquisition of kVA was ultimately a success. ⏱️ Chapters 0:00 Background on Bill Taylor and kVA 2:08 Origins of kVA 5:06 kVA's Winning Culture 9:19 Intentionality Behind Empowering the Team 11:55 Weighing the LOIs 15:09 Why UL Was the Right Fit 17:21 Handling Exhaustive Buyer Due Diligence 23:48 Post-Closing Shift: Owner to Employee 29:06 Wisdom to Owners Contemplating Selling 35:20 kVA Owners: Where Are They Now? 🎬 Watch the trailer:    • Watermark at 25! Ep. 2 Trailer — Selling a...   🌐 Watermark Advisors — Greenville, SC | Experts at navigating the M&A Bridge #WatermarkAt25 #MergersAndAcquisitions #ExitPlanning