{"podcast":{"title":"21 Hats Podcast","slug":"21-hats-podcast-502638","podcast_index_feed_id":502638,"rss_url":"https://www.spreaker.com/show/4439758/episodes/feed","website_url":"https://www.spreaker.com/show/21-hats-podcast","image_url":"https://d3wo5wojvuv7l.cloudfront.net/t_rss_itunes_square_1400/images.spreaker.com/original/27e8ec21209a6c9a99a0f0963132b13e.jpg","author":"21 Hats","episode_count":568,"summary":"The 21 Hats Podcast presents an authentic weekly conversation with small business owners who are remarkably willing to share what’s working for them and what isn’t. Unlike many business podcasts, which tend to talk to highly successful entrepreneurs whose struggles are in the past, the 21 Hats Podcast features a rotating cast of business owners who are still very much in the trenches fighting the good fight. Every week, our regulars gather to talk about the kinds of important issues many owners won’t even discuss behind closed doors: whether their businesses are as profitable as they should be, whether they are willing to give up some control to an investor in order to grow faster, why they had to lay off employees, how they wound up with way too much inventory, why they don’t have a succession plan, and even why they are concerned about their own mental health. Visit 21hats.com to hear all of our podcast episodes, read episode transcripts, and learn more. The show is produced by Jess Thoubboron, founder of Blank Word.","last_synced_at":"2026-09-18T20:17:08.095147+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/21-hats-podcast-502638"},"episode":{"title":"Dashboard: It’s Not That Earnouts Are Bad. It’s That Bad Earnouts Are Bad","slug":"dashboard-it-s-not-that-earnouts-are-bad-it-s-that-bad-earnouts-are-bad","published_at":"2026-08-14T09:02:49+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/21-hats-podcast-502638/dashboard-it-s-not-that-earnouts-are-bad-it-s-that-bad-earnouts-are-bad","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/21-hats-podcast-502638","url":"https://www.spreaker.com/episode/dashboard-it-s-not-that-earnouts-are-bad-it-s-that-bad-earnouts-are-bad--73916496","audio_url":"https://api.spreaker.com/download/episode/73916496/utf_8_q_dashboard_it_e2_80_99s_not_that_earnouts_are_b_utf_8_q_ad_it_e2_80_99s_that_bad_earnouts_are_bad_mp3.mp3","summary":"Conventional wisdom about selling a business is pretty clear: If at all possible, get your money at closing. Don’t leave a big chunk of the purchase price dependent on the future performance of a business you no longer control. David C. Barnett, who helps people buy and sell businesses, has challenged that conventional wisdom, arguing that earnouts and other forms of deferred payment can sometimes help buyers and sellers get better deals done. Josh Patrick, who has owned and sold businesses himself and advised many other owners through transactions, is more skeptical. Which is why I was kind of hoping for a fight.Instead, Dave and Josh end up agreeing on quite a lot—including that once a seller decides to leave money in a deal, choosing the right buyer becomes every bit as important as negotiating the right price. Can the buyer actually run the business? What happens if things go wrong? What information should the seller continue to receive? And how can the deal be structured so that both sides have an incentive to make the transition work? So no, this isn’t quite the earnout cage match of my dreams. It’s actually far more insightful than that. The episode is brought to you by Grasshopper Bank .","meta_description":"Conventional wisdom about selling a business is pretty clear: If at all possible, get your money at closing. Don’t leave a big chunk of the purchase price…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":2202,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/21-hats-podcast-502638/episodes/dashboard-it-s-not-that-earnouts-are-bad-it-s-that-bad-earnouts-are-bad/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/21-hats-podcast-502638/dashboard-it-s-not-that-earnouts-are-bad-it-s-that-bad-earnouts-are-bad.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}