Johanna Jaakola – Integration Lead, Corporate Development Integration Team, Cisco
Tesia Hostetler – Leader, Acquisition Integration Practice, Cisco
Johanna Jaakola, Integration Lead on Cisco's Corporate Development Integration Team, and Tesia Hostetler, Leader of Cisco's Acquisition Integration Practice, share how one of the world's most prolific acquirers structures deals for success. This episode breaks down Cisco's integration-led diligence model, where integration leads orchestrate due diligence from the deal thesis stage, ensuring strategic alignment and execution readiness before ink hits paper. Learn how Cisco's structured approach to integration strategy, two-stage approvals, and tight feedback loops between strategy and execution have transformed their M&A outcomes—with insights from their $28 billion Splunk acquisition.
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📅 October 30, 2025
🕚 11:00 AM – 2:30 PM ET
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[00:02:00] Cisco's Integration Leadership Team
[00:06:00] Role Clarity – Integration Lead vs. Integration Practice Leader
[00:10:00] How Cisco evolved from integration showing up late to embedding integration thinking at the earliest deal thesis conversations.
[00:15:00] Testing Assumptions Through Diligence
[00:22:00] How Cisco reorganized corporate development to eliminate silos between deal strategy and integration execution, creating tighter feedback loops.
[00:29:00] Two-Stage Approvals – Protecting Value with Structured Gates
[00:33:00] Integration Leads Diligence – The Air Traffic Controller Model
Questions, comments, concerns?
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Tim brings 29 years of private equity experience to this conversation about what actually works in buy-and-build strategies. After launching Brenton Point in 2024 following a 20-year run at CI Capital Partners, where he completed 200+ acquisitions across 12 platforms, Tim breaks down the independent sponsor model and why integration—not just aggregation—is the real value driver. He walks through building platforms from scratch, the executive-first strategy for fragmented markets, and how standardized integration playbooks turn acquired companies into cohesive, high-performing businesses.
Things You'll Learn
Why independent sponsors can outperform traditional PE funds through concentrated investments, longer hold periods, and direct alignment with management teams earning 15% equity upside versus the typical 10%
The difference between roll-ups and consolidation and why integration excellence separates winning platforms from aggregated disasters
How to build platforms from scratch
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The Buyer-Led M&A™ Summit is back.
The virtual event built for dealmakers who want to eliminate chaos and take control from sourcing through integration.
📅 October 30, 2025
🕚 11:00 AM – 2:30 PM ET
💻 Free & Virtual
Learn from leaders who’ve built scalable, repeatable strategies that keep deals on track - Register now.
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Today’s episode of the M&A Science Podcast is brought to you by Grata!
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[00:02:00] The GE Capital Training Ground – How Tim's early experience with expert networks shaped his approach to surrounding deals with industry advisors who invest alongside him
[00:04:30] Starting companies with zero revenue by hiring CEOs first, then building deal pipelines in fragmented industries like funeral services
[00:06:00] Why deal-by-deal capital raising enables longer hold periods, eliminates fund-driven decisions, and captures more value creation in the back half
[00:11:30] Finding and Aligning Operators – Sourcing executives through recruiting firms willing to co-invest, and structuring 15% management equity pools for maximum alignment
[00:22:00] Using buy-side search firms to validate thesis and create deal flow before platform acquisition, touching 2,000+ companies to close 200 deals
[00:27:00] Why acquiring is easy but integrating is hard, and how culture assessment, facility tours, and team retention determine success
[00:49:00] Hub, Spoke, and Route Strategy – Three acquisition types for platform building: regional hubs with management depth, spoke deals for synergies, and route buys for pure customer acquisition
[00:52:00] The 150-Point Integration Playbook
[00:58:30] One-Page Strategic Plans – Keeping teams aligned on priorities from monthly goals to five-year vision with a single dense but powerful reference document
[01:04:00] The Herd Mentality Warning – How quickly industries go from undiscovered to overcrowded, and why being the 30th platform in a space means you're already too late
Questions, comments, concerns?
Follow Kison Patel for behind-the-scenes insights on modern M&A.
Stefan Williams, Vice President of Corporate Development and Snowflake Ventures at Snowflake, leads the company's acquisition strategy, corporate venture capital, and startup accelerator programs. In this episode, Stefan takes us inside Snowflake's disciplined, culture-first approach to M&A—from building the corporate development function from scratch to executing 20+ acquisitions while maintaining breakneck organic growth. He shares hard-won lessons on integration accountability, why relationships matter more than auctions, and how to balance proactive deal-making with the realities of a fast-moving AI landscape.
Things You'll Learn
Start small and build M&A muscle – Why Snowflake began with sub-50 person acquisitions to prove integration capabilities before scaling to larger, more complex deals
Integration accountability drives success – The critical importance of assigning DRIs (Directly Responsible Individuals) with clear timelines at 30, 60, 90, and 180 days post-close
Buyer-led beats reactive – How investing time in proactive CEO relationships and strategic alignment dramatically improves deal outcomes versus responding to banker processes
___________________
The Buyer-Led M&A™ Summit is back.
The virtual event built for dealmakers who want to eliminate chaos and take control from sourcing through integration.
📅 October 30, 2025
🕚 11:00 AM – 2:30 PM ET
💻 Free & Virtual
Learn from leaders who’ve built scalable, repeatable strategies that keep deals on track - Register now.
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Join us for the 3rd M&A Science Fair IN PERSON
Get pure, off-the-record collaboration between corporate development, private equity, and integration leaders. Instead of passive listening, you’ll be sharing real frameworks, trading ideas, and testing what actually works in modern deal execution. Everything’s practitioner-led, and every topic is surfaced by the attendees themselves.
October 16th — NYC
8AM-7:30PM
Request an invite here: https://luma.com/khkuh6yw
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[00:02:30] From Banking to Building – Stefan's journey from investment banking to building corporate development teams at ServiceNow and Snowflake
[00:04:30] How the "amp it up" mentality shapes every aspect of operations, including M&A strategy
[00:07:00] Why high-growth companies must begin with digestible acquisitions to develop integration capabilities
[00:10:00] Week One Playbook – How to build a corporate development function from scratch by interviewing product leaders and aligning on strategy
[00:14:00] Managing internal relationships across product, engineering, and go-to-market to maintain strategic clarity
[00:21:00] Strategic Ventures, Not Financial Bets
[00:27:00] Integration DRIs and the Marriage Analogy
[00:37:30] Managing Three Concurrent Deals
[00:42:00] Why nearly all 20 Snowflake acquisitions involved prior relationships and how buyer-led strategy wins
[00:48:30] Navigating the AI Explosion – Staying current in a landscape where companies scale from zero to $100M in years, not decades
Questions, comments, concerns?
Follow Kison Patel for behind-the-scenes insights on modern M&A.