August. The worst possible time to need anything done quickly, especially executing on a strategic acquisition!
Praveen Karadiguddi had spent years building Scrumconnect into a consultancy of over 360 people, delivering critical digital services for the DWP, Home Office, Ministry of Justice, and Passport Office. He’s not someone to accept “no”, and he knows how to make things happen. But right now, he was stuck.
A strategic opportunity had appeared, but the window of opportunity was tight. To move on it, Scrumconnect needed to acquire another company. Not in six months. Not after the summer. In weeks.
Praveen picked up the phone and started calling solicitors.
Five said no. Six said no. Seven said no. Every single one put their foot down.
"It's August. Half the team are on holiday. We just can't support an acquisition in that timeframe."
You could hear the professional discomfort down the phone. These weren't people being difficult, they were being realistic. A proper acquisition takes months. Due diligence, legals, negotiations, contracts - you don't rush that process without risking mistakes, and who wants their name on sloppy work? Asking to do this in weeks would raise eyebrows any time of year. Asking during August? Borderline insanity.
But September would be too late.
"I Just Happened to Text Rachel"
Praveen had been following Rachel Murphy, founder of The Grafter, for a while. Her posts about acquisitions and exits kept catching his attention, the deals she helped founders navigate, the network she'd clearly built. But he'd never actually worked with her.
With options running out, he sent a text.
"We're in the middle of an acquisition. We might need help speeding up the due diligence."
The Grafter's due diligence service helped Praveen validate what he needed to know about the target company. But the real unlock was something else entirely: Rachel opened her network. She connected him with solicitors who heard the timeline and didn't flinch. Where others had seen an impossible ask, these people saw it as a challenge.
"If it wasn't for Rachel and her network, I wouldn't have acquired this company," Praveen says. "Multiple solicitors told me they couldn't do it. Her contacts took it on as a challenge and completed the deal in ten days. Rachel reckons it's one of the fastest acquisitions she's seen."
Ten days. From the first conversation with Rachel to a signed acquisition deal.
Founder to Founder
Speed alone didn't get this done. What made it work was trust: built fast, built deliberately.
The target company was small. The founder had built something genuinely valuable. Negotiations could easily have dragged out, especially with the timeline pressure and the gap between what each side initially had in mind.
Praveen cut through all of it. He dropped the posturing and went straight to honesty.
"I went and personally met the CEO, nothing about ego, right? It was a founder-to-founder chat," he explains. "He wanted to hear why I was buying. Once he understood that, the whole negotiation became easy and straightforward."
They met a few times. Had lunch together. Praveen laid his cards on the table: he wasn't buying them to absorb the business or extract their profits. They'd built a specific capability that Scrumconnect needed. That was it. The founder could keep running things the way he always had.
"I told him straight - I don't mind you continuing your business. I'm not interested in your profits. All I'm buying you for is this one thing." No games, no hidden agenda. Just clarity about what each side actually needed.
"Those one-to-one conversations, that people-to-people touch, it always matters," he reflects. "Always. Once you have that, negotiations become very different."
When you're racing against a deadline and everyone's telling you it can't be done, simple is exactly what gets skipped. Honestly even without the deadlines, we often see people miss this.
On Their Own Terms
The strategic outcome Praveen was working toward is still playing out. They moved fast when speed mattered; now it's a waiting game. He's not ready to share specifics until things have progressed further, and that's fair enough when the stakes can be high.
What he will say is that the acquisition put Scrumconnect exactly where he wanted them.
"We execute the way we want now, without always looking back."
Seven solicitors said it couldn't be done. Ten days later, it was done. Sometimes the difference between impossible and achieved is finding people who match your energy in urgency, rather than seeing it as an inconvenience, and being willing to sit across a table, founder to founder, and say exactly what you need.
The Advice He'd Give
When asked what he'd tell other founders considering an acquisition, Praveen doesn't reach for frameworks or legal strategies. He talks about people.
"The practical tip? Have those one-to-one conversations. Go meet them. Founder to founder. Let them understand your why."
It's advice born from experience, from sitting across a table, building trust in days that usually takes months, and closing a deal that seven solicitors said couldn't happen.
"I'd wholeheartedly recommend The Grafter," he adds. "Rachel's network, her contacts, her support throughout, it's going to be helpful for any founders looking to buy or sell companies."
Thinking about making an acquisition? Most don't happen in ten days, but with the right support and the right network, yours doesn't need to drag on for months either. [Get in touch.]
