When To Consider M&A With Hilary Shirazi Of Zendesk

Episode Summary:
Hilary Shirazi may have had a more traditional path to corporate development, but it wasn’t what she had planned.  On this episode we learn more about Hilary’s various roles in corporate development from being an early member of LinkedIn's Corporate Development team and working through the Microsoft acquisition to her role at Zendesk today.  We uncover more on how she thinks about building relationships, how corporate development differs at Zendesk, and advice for entrepreneurs looking to get acquired.  

What is Uncovered: 

• Why the skills you acquire in your career take precedence over your previous job roles 
• Why Hilary decided to move to the west coast after several years in NYC and what led her to work at LinkedIn 
• The corporate development structure at Zendesk 
• The 3 stages of the corporate development funnel 
• How you get on a potential buyers radar & why it’s not always the corporate development team you should reach out to 
• The fine line between sharing too much and sharing too little 
• The red flags to look out for at pre & post-term sheet stages 
• When to make the decision on M&A or raising another round, and why your chances of getting acquired become smaller as you grow 

Learn More About:

Hilary Shirazi:
Hilary Shirazi is Director of Corporate Development at Zendesk. Previously, she held senior roles at LinkedIn and InVision after years of growth investing at Spectrum Equity in internet and software companies such as Grubhub and Lynda.com. She is also an active angel investor and was named one of Forbes 30 Under 30 for her work in education technology.

Zendesk:
Zendesk is a service-first CRM company that builds support, sales, and customer engagement software designed to foster better customer relationships. From large enterprises to start-ups, we believe that powerful, innovative customer experience should be within reach for every company, no matter the size, industry or ambition.  Zendesk serves more than 150,000 customers across hundreds of industries in over 30 languages. Zendesk is headquartered in San Francisco, and operates offices worldwide. 

This episode was recorded on September 11, 2020.