Ep 1: Very Smart Brotha’s Co-Founder Panama Jackson on Selling Your Company & Life After an Exit

In this episode, Minimum Viable Podcast host Amanda Spann speaks with Panama Jackson. He is the Co-Founder of Very Smart Brothas and the author of Your Degrees Won’t Keep You Warm at Night. We talk about what it is like selling his company and how his life changed after the exit.

Very Smart Brothas

VSB is the brainchild of Panama Jackson, along with his colleague and “brotha of anotha motha,” Damon Young. Their blogs have a huge following. The blog even won grand slam awards in Black Weblog Awards in 2011.

In this episode, Panama shares how they initially got together, since both came from the same male, black blogging community.

“So met each other just naturally. Then over time, we both got a little bit burned out on the individual blogging process, but we also had been talking about writing a book together. It’s just one of those things that everybody who starts writing decides they want to do. Also, we were like ‘in order to keep our names out there and during the time that we’re working on his book, let’s start a group blog.’” – Panama Jackson

Acquisition of VSB

With the success of VSB in terms of website traffic and engagement, Panama narrates multiple stories about different entities who planned to acquire VSB. It was tedious in a way, as they initially dealt with people who dragged the process so long.

“I don’t take anything for granted. It is dope to be able to do these things and be in a position where you’re now, but it’s been a long process 90% and positive, only like 10%. Like ‘what in the world is going on here?’ Like ‘what is this nonsense.’” – Panama Jackson

After The Exit

From the failed transactions up until they finally got acquired, Panama shares how life-changing and educational the whole process was. He is very happy as he gets the chance to write and be part of the creatives.

“I did learn a lot through the process of the negotiations and everything. Like I learned so much, I learned how others, how you can screw yourself. I learned about trusting your instincts. I learned about making sure that I read everything the lawyers were reading. I learned that if you have a question, you need to ask it. Listen, they wanted us and I walked into those negotiations with that in mind, right?” – Panama Jackson

To know more about Panama Jackson and his experience selling his company and how he is enjoying his life after, download and listen to this episode.

Bio:

Panama Jackson is a freelance writer from Washington, DC.

He is the co-founder of the award-winning blog VerySmartBrothas.com and co-author of Your Degrees Won’t Keep You Warm At Night: The Very Smart Brothas Guide To Dating, Mating, and Fighting Crime.

He believes the children are our future and likes really long book titles. He is Malcolm X, too.

Links:

https://verysmartbrothas.theroot.com/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/very-smart-brothas-is-the-blackest-thing-that-ever-happened-to-the-internet-period/2016/11/21/9b62b5aa-8719-11e6-a3ef-f35afb41797f_story.html

Follow MVP on Instagram: @MVPodcast

Follow Amanda Spann on Instagram: @TheAmandaSpann

Contact Amanda Spann: AmandaSpann.com