- Introduction
- Conversations: Maria Giudice, Who Founded Hot Studio and Sold It to Facebook in 2013
- Advisor Teams & Specialized Roles
- Conversations: Gavin Lew, Who Founded User Centric and Sold It to GfK in 2012
- Valuations & Multiples
- Conversations: Christian Barnard, Who Was the COO at T3 When It Was Acquired by LRW/Material+ in 2019
- The Roadshow
- Conversations: Sue and Alan Cooper, Who Founded Cooper and Then Sold It to Wipro/Designit in October 2017
- The Letter of Intent
- Conversations: Phil Barrett, Who, With His Wife Debre, Founded Flow Interactive’s African Presence and Sold It to Deloitte in 2014
- Retention Agreements & Earnouts
- Conversations: Matthew Robinson, Who Was Responsible for Integrating Idean Into Capgemini After It Was Acquired in 2017
- Getting It in Writing
- Conversations: Crystal Rutland, Who Founded Particle Design and Sold It to Wind River in 2021
- Diligence
- Conversations: Chris Conley, Who Founded gravitytank and Then Sold It to Salesforce in 2016
- Secrecy
- Conversations: Max Burton, Who Founded Matter and Then Sold It to Accenture in 2017
- Losing Control of Your Brand
- Conversations: Doreen Lorenzo, Who Was the CEO of frog design When It Was Acquired by Aricent in 2006
- Cultural Collisions
- Summary
- The End to End Acquisition Journey
- Example Letter of Intent (LOI)
- Sample Diligence Requests
- Sample Earnout Language
- Thank You
Jon Kolko
Jon is a partner at Narrative, a design strategy consultancy. He is also a co-founder of Modernist Studio, which was acquired in 2021, and is the founder of the design school Austin Center for Design.
He was previously the Vice President of Design at Blackboard, the largest educational software company in the world. He joined Blackboard with the acquisition of MyEdu, a startup focused on helping students succeed in college and get jobs.
Jon has also held the positions of Executive Director of Design Strategy at Thinktiv, a venture accelerator in Austin, Texas, and both Principal Designer and Associate Creative Director at frog design, a global innovation firm. He has been a Professor of Interaction and Industrial Design at the Savannah College of Art and Design, where he was instrumental in building both the Interaction and Industrial Design undergraduate and graduate programs. Jon has also held the role of Director for the Interaction Design Association (IxDA), vand Editor-in-Chief of Interactions magazine, published by the ACM. He has taught at the University of Texas at Austin, the Center for Design Studies of Monterrey, in Mexico, and Malmö University, in Sweden.
Jon is the author of a number of other books, including:
- Exposing the Magic of Design: A Practitioner’s Guide to the Methods and Theory of Synthesis, published by Oxford University Press
- Creative Clarity, published by Brown Bear Press
- Well-Designed: How to Use Empathy to Create Products People Love, published by Harvard Business Review Press
