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Ari Emanuel (the real-life version of Ari Gold from Entourage) says he and his team spent four months negotiating UFC rights with ESPN.

The deal was huge: ESPN was reportedly paying about $300 million a year to show UFC fights. Dana White still wanted more.

Ari called Dana with the offer: eight UFC shows on ESPN, with the rest on ESPN+. His team was “sweating bullets,” he says. Dana's response: “I'm not doing that unless we have 10.”

Ari's reply: “We have nobody else right now.” Not exactly the line you want to hear in a negotiation.

Side note: I, unfortunately, empathize. We have our fair share of irrational client demands show up right before closing too. 🙄

Emanuel went back to ESPN and, in his words, “went crazy,” literally screaming on the phone that they needed 10 instead of 8.

While the delivery was, questionable, Ari had a point: more events would help create stars, give fans a reason to pay for ESPN+, and help new viewers understand the sport. ESPN conceded, and Dana got his two extra shows.

The UFC and ESPN are worlds away from a $10 million HVAC company. But the same lesson applies: the person with the most leverage may not be at the negotiation table.

In a smaller deal, it might be the buyer or seller. More often, it’s the “advisor” who’s really just a golf buddy, or an accountant or lawyer too busy to get the deal closed (yes, we’ve actually heard this excuse for killing a deal before).

As M&A advisors, we’re the intermediaries. Some days it feels like being a kid while your parents fight. Except instead of hiding in our room, we have to jump into the middle and try to get them talking again. Ari’s tactic was a full regression to childhood: throw a tantrum to distract the parents and force them to make-up 😂

Lesson: before you celebrate the number, find out who else needs to say yes.

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fitness challenge: WOD “Leg Engine”

Did this workout on Tuesday and my legs are crushed 😅

8-minute AMRAP, one pair of DBs at the rack:

Use 50s as a starting point: one DB for the goblet squat, the pair for RDLs and lunges.

founder challenge: audit one price

Pick one service or product. Review three recent quotes or invoices, compare the price with the time and cost to deliver, then decide whether to keep it, raise it or change the scope. Done means the decision is written down and either applied or scheduled for this week.

want a full week of these? try the free 7-day founder fitness challenge →

This is an incredible clip from David Senra’s founders podcast:

every second counts

every second counts