The importance of asking the right questions

By Emma Peterson. 

Mergers and acquisitions can be complicated and emotional — that’s why Maven Group is here to help make the process as smooth as possible. 

As the year continues, we are seeing more and more mergers and acquisitions in the roofing industry. To understand how these types of consolidation operate, Karen Edwards hosted Dominik Sachsenheimer and Carson Bombara of Maven Group for an episode of Roofing Road Trips®. Dominik founded Maven Group around seven years ago and Carson joined at the beginning of 2023.  

Dominik got his start in corporate finance in Europe, moving into the U.S. field two decades ago. He explained how that translated into starting Maven Group, “I realized that many of the independent contractors that were bought by the company I was working for were extremely unprepared for the transaction. The deals used to be very difficult for all sides, the sellers, the independent guys and for us.” Carson came to a similar realization in his work in the financial department of a private-equity-backed company. He explained, “Before I joined Maven, I was the person buying or at least helping to buy some great contractors out there also on the elevator side. But, just like Dominik, I found that a lot of the sellers, a lot of the entrepreneurs just weren't ready to take the company to market to find the best partner.” The goal of Maven Group is to address the issues both Dominik and Carson saw in this process and make it much smoother. 

One of the  Maven Group’s biggest tasks  is to ask the important and inevitable questions. When entering into a merger or acquisition, the integrating company will have many operations that have become second nature. They often don’t know what to tell the other company, who also often don’t know what to ask. This causes friction and challenges in the process because there isn’t a clear picture. That’s where Maven Group comes in. Dominik shared just a few of the questions that many don’t consider, “What percentage of your revenue comes really from commercial companies versus residential? How do you go about your sales activities? Do you just have an ad in the newspaper? Is it all online? Do you have people knocking on doors Which of the vendors do you use? What's your labor situation? Do you have W-2 employees, or is it all 1099s? And so forth.” 

Read the transcript or Listen to the full episode to learn more about how Maven Group prepares both buyers and sellers better for the acquisition and merging processes.