Randy Wilburn [12:35] No, absolutely. I appreciate that insight. That was something I was not aware of and I didn't know about those retention bonuses going to non-principal or non-stock shareholding employees. So that's interesting. What are the benefts of M&A is that you get to grow, you get to maybe bring on in one fell swoop a lot of people to join your frm, or to come on to your side of the M&A that most frm owners never consider? Jamie Claire Kiser [13:15] I would say that one of the biggest benefts that don't really get noticed or aren't really advocated for very often, is the power of the mentorship that can come from combining frms with great leadership teams. There are a lot of companies where there's a motivation to sell, for example, maybe there's not a second in command. Maybe we got somebody whose exit is pretty imminent and fguring out how to get the folks below them to a point where they can run the company. You can hire people to do that you can fgure out how you can work on the fnancial aspects. But having someone that you can trust to teach you how to be a good business owner and a good business partner, doesn't come easy. And one of the benefts of joining with a company is just bringing more of those mentors onto the team, and it doesn't just apply to sellers either. Finding those great partnerships that make it less lonely at the top, it can relieve a lot of burden for both sides of the table. Just having other folks who've been in your position, owned a business understand what that's like. We talked to a lot of people again on the buy and sell-side that will talk about having somebody to talk to who's been there and who's on the team. Randy Wilburn [14:20] There was another statistic that I saw that ties into this, which is like 92 percent of non-tech companies are owned by boomers, ages 57 to 72. And a lot of these people are in a position where they hadn't necessarily accounted for what was next. And M&A does provide an option for them to consider as they determine what their next steps are so they don't have to fold up the company. But that they can fnd a suitable suitor that can partner up with them and extend the life of the vision that they had created earlier on in their career. Jamie Claire Kiser [15:01] And do so in a way that creates an opportunity for everyone else in the company. I know in M&A, where I focus is defnitely the people that own the company and are making the buy and sell decisions. But the motivation to enter any of the discussions is almost never just to let me get my money and leave. People are proud of what they've built and they're proud of the people whose careers they are in charge of, and there's a lot of thought process, and how joining a company that can
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