Surviving an acquisition as an SEO — Micah Fisher-Kirshner // Turn/River Capital

Quotes

• "During acquisition, theres the potential of duplication of workers, where that bandwidth can be sufficed by a single person, in that new organization." -Micah Fisher-Kirshner, Turn/River Capital, VP of SEO & Content

• "When a startup gets acquired by a larger company, if there's no SEO, the potential for your growth expands dramatically in that new business environment." -Micah Fisher-Kirshner, Turn/River Capital, VP of SEO & Content

• "When the larger company already has an SEO, you need to either switch to a PM role, figure out if they are senior to you, or if you have the same skill set." -Micah Fisher-Kirshner, Turn/River Capital, VP of SEO & Content

• "When one company is buying another, people should get familiar with what kind of acquisition is going on " -Micah Fisher-Kirshner, Turn/River Capital, VP of SEO & Content

• "Acquisitions can be hard because you're not allowed to talk to the other party. Look at the organizational structure so youre able to justify your role." -Micah Fisher-Kirshner, Turn/River Capital, VP of SEO & Content

• "Roll-up scenarios vary depending on the private equity firm that's buying. What's the goal that they're looking at, essentially from a PE perspective?" -Micah Fisher-Kirshner, Turn/River Capital, VP of SEO & Content

• "Turn/River focuses on operational inefficiencies, where they're not as good on the marketing, CS, and sales side. What we're trying to do is really grow those teams further." -Micah Fisher-Kirshner, Turn/River Capital, VP of SEO & Content

• "In a roll-up, when two companies have an SEO, I provide strategic input. They can implement things in turn, and its a great cooperative, idea-generating kind of environment." -Micah Fisher-Kirshner, Turn/River Capital, VP of SEO & Content

• "There's next to no SEOs in PEs. Turn/River provides these experts in their specific role who are there to help everybody in the business do a better job." -Micah Fisher-Kirshner, Turn/River Capital, VP of SEO & Content

• "A lot of PEs will focus entirely on how they can save money and less on the growth side. " -Micah Fisher-Kirshner, Turn/River Capital, VP of SEO & Content

• "When large brands merge, there's going to be a lot of time to figure out where everybody sits and how it needs to be." -Micah Fisher-Kirshner, Turn/River Capital, VP of SEO & Content

• "Does the business buying you have a business unit structure? That's a good sign you're still going to be there after the merger. They need people to run and optimize it." -Micah Fisher-Kirshner, Turn/River Capital, VP of SEO & Content

• "When large companies merge, if teams arent structured by business units, your individual skillset is questioned in terms of supplementing the current SEO team." -Micah Fisher-Kirshner, Turn/River Capital, VP of SEO & Content

• "In large company mergers, there's specific anti-competitive lines you cant cross. Talk to your current boss to get a sense of what will help you in this kind of future." -Micah Fisher-Kirshner, Turn/River Capital, VP of SEO & Content

• "There's many unknowns when it comes to large organization mergers. Having a sense of what they've done and built, gives you a good idea of the likely outcome." -Micah Fisher-Kirshner, Turn/River Capital, VP of SEO & Content

• "For SEOs, during large company mergers, the anxiety is not so much about job security as it is about the things you're interested in doing as an SEO suddenly getting blocked." -Micah Fisher-Kirshner, Turn/River Capital, VP of SEO & Content

• "You don't want to be beholden to the slow pace or large organization mergers. That can affect the way you work, and how you do things with SEO." -Micah Fisher-Kirshner, Turn/River Capital, VP of SEO & Content