Buying an ecommerce brand when the deal starts in a founder’s Instagram DMs
Ecommerce founders live on Instagram and X. Brokers post listings in Telegram groups. How an acquirer keeps a brand acquisition from scattering.
This walkthrough is an illustrative composite built from common dealmaker workflows. Names, firms and figures are invented. It is not a customer story.
The target
Maya acquires small direct-to-consumer brands. Her best deal this year started with an Instagram DM to a founder whose product she had bought twice. Others come from brokers posting listings in Telegram groups, and from operators on X.
Diligence brings its own threads: the founder on Instagram, their accountant on WhatsApp, the broker on Telegram.
Keeping the acquisition together
Founder, broker and advisers in one list
Every conversation about the brand sits in one list, whichever app each person uses.
The brand on the Deal Desk
Maya files the brand as a deal and attaches the founder conversation that started it. Listings from broker groups can be suggested by Claude and filed or dismissed after review.
Advisers in the Rolodex
The founder’s accountant and lawyer, introduced over WhatsApp, go into the Rolodex with the message they came from.
Documents with the right names
The NDA and LOI go out from her own DocuSign account inside Merger, with founder and entity details inserted from the Rolodex.