Growth by Acquisition: How to Buy, Sell & Scale a Business | How Was I Supposed To Know That?

Cass Bailey, CEO and founder of Slice Communications, joins host Bernard A. Williams to get real about buying, selling, and scaling a business. Cass Bailey shares her accidental path into PR and crisis communications, why she founded Slice in 2008 to bring social media and PR together, and how relentless networking carried the company through the recession. She and Bernard dig into the deal side: selling the company in 2012, the acquisition that fell apart, and buying her own company back in just 23 days. From there, Cass Bailey breaks down Slice's growth-by-acquisition playbook — the red-flag/green-flag criteria, why buyer due diligence matters as much as seller due diligence, and why 70–80% of M&A communications should be aimed at internal audiences. If you are a business owner thinking about an exit, an acquisition, or simply protecting your company's reputation through change, this conversation is full of hard-won lessons. ▶ Presented by Company Counsel — fractional general counsel and business law for growing companies. ▶ Connect with Cass Bailey on LinkedIn: Cass Bailey, Slice Communications. Chapters (timestamps are real SRT cue points; VERIFY alignment before publishing — they were estimated from topic flow, not exact caption text) 00:00 Welcome & introducing Cass Bailey 01:30 What Slice Communications does 02:24 Crisis communications: stories from the field 04:30 Cass Bailey's unexpected path into PR 07:30 Founding Slice in 2008: PR meets social media 10:30 Surviving the early days by networking relentlessly 13:00 Selling Slice in 2012 — the acquisition that failed 17:00 The three reasons M&A deals fall apart 20:00 Why internal communications drive M&A success 24:00 Buyer due diligence: questions sellers forget to ask 28:00 Buying the company back in 23 days 32:00 Goldman Sachs 10KSB & finding resources 33:30 Growth by acquisition: the strategy 36:00 Inside the acquisition & integration playbook 40:00 Lessons learned: culture is how you work