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Episode 152

Exiting to PayPal One Week Before IPO with Maria Hedengren

This week on The Exit: Maria Hedengren shares her passion for financial analysis and exit preparation, including preparing for an IPO. When Maria was the CFO of iZettle, a fintech company, she was tasked with preparing the business for an IPO. But one week before the business was set to IPO, they were acquired by PayPal. Maria’s career has seen her continue to work in the tech space with small, start-up businesses where she thrives on pace, innovation and fast decision making. Maria did go on to successfully take a mediatech company to IPO, and now she is a Venture Partner with Eight Roads who have $11BN in assets under management. Listen to find out what advice Maria has for entrepreneurs looking to exit or for investment advice to grow their businesses.

Maria Hedengren has over 25 years of experience in leading roles within the tech sector, across both B2B and B2C, with highly data driven and rapidly growing companies who drive digital disruption. Her most recent operational roles include CFO of iZettle, a fintech company that was about to IPO but ended up acquired by PayPal, and CEO of the mediatech company Readly, that she IPO:ed in 2020. Nowadays she calls herself “pluralists” as she divides her time between several board seats and angel investments and she is also a Venture Partner with Eight Roads, a global venture capital firm backed by Fidelity with a presence in China, Europe, India and Japan, $11BN in AUM and over 300 portfolio companies.

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/mariahendengren 

Instagram @maria_hedengren: https://www.instagram.com/maria_hedengren/

Website: https://www.booky.se/sv/profiler/maria-hedengren

Flippa’s First Access: https://flippa.com/product/first-access

For a Free Flippa Business Valuation: flippa.com/freevaluation 

YOUR HOST

Steve McGarry

An entrepreneur, content creator, and investor based in sunny Tampa, Florida. In 2015, while living in San Francisco, Steve sold his first fintech startup LendLayer to Max Levchin’s (founder of PayPal) consumer finance company Affirm.

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