Founded in 2013 by Jonathan Black, Black & Black Creative is a small design and development e-commerce agency designing, developing, and optimizing e-commerce stores, websites, apps, and experiences. Specializing in working with notable luxury e-commerce brands like Chanel, Estee Lauder, Salvatore Ferragamo, and Nili Lotan, Black & Black has won awards from AWWWARDS & Site Inspire for their best-in-class work. Combining strategy, customer insight and technology engineering, the Black & Black team crafts digital experiences that change the game for luxury brands and their customers.

Selling Black & Black To Pursue Other Interests

Jonathan was getting offers for his business all the time when he approached us at Barney. He wanted to sell Black & Black to pursue other interests in the digital space, but he had a bad experience with someone selling his business in the past where he spent a ton of time and money just to end up with no deal.

Unfortunately, it’s super common for entrepreneurs to waste tons of time, money, and energy just to end up back where they started: with no deal. But at Barney, selling agencies to highly qualified strategic buyers is all we do. So you never have to walk away from months of negotiation with no deal and a bunch of legal fees ever again.

Recognizing that he was at his capacity in terms of scaling the agency on his own, Jonathan was interested in a buyer with robust business experience to keep up with the rapidly growing demand in the e-commerce space. He reached out to us to make it happen.

A Small Agency With High-Quality Name Brand Clients

We quickly saw that there was a lot to love about Black & Black. As a small agency with high-quality name brand clients, strategic alliances with the best tech platforms and a wide array of expertise and service offerings in their niche, they were a perfect target for acquisition. We saw big opportunities for them to continue growing in the booming e-commerce space and to provide the same high-quality services at scale by adding off-shore talent to their US-only team.

Their list of notable clients was a mile long, featuring names we love like Estee Lauder, Salvatore Ferragamo, Moet & Chandon, Givenchy, Harry Winston, Balmain, and the Lincoln Center. Offering sophisticated e-commerce solutions, mobile first user-experience design, and data migration, they were well-positioned to continue growing within the e-commerce space. With a winning team, a great culture, a focus on growth mindset, and a commitment to their team, clients, and partners, Black & Black was the perfect agency for a buyer wanting to expand into luxury brands and/or the e-commerce space.

Identifying Black & Black’s Ideal Buyer

Jonathan built Black & Black into an incredible, profitable agency poised for continued rapid growth in a booming industry in just 8 years. The last thing he wanted to do was sell Black & Black just to watch it crumble to the ground. Black & Black’s buyer needed to be experienced in the e-commerce industry and able to support the agency’s growth at scale. And after his last experience trying to sell his business, he was looking for a fast, painless acquisition…not one that dragged on for months just to end with no deal.

Getting To Work Finding Black & Black’s Perfect Buyer

With Barney’s shorter timeline, industry specialization, pool of awesome buyers, and a simple, personalized process, Jonathan’s trust in us was well-placed. We founded Barney because we were frustrated with the same-old, same-old way of selling agencies that Jonathan had experienced before. He was right: it sucked. So we made a better way and since 2015 we’ve guided over 150 media, marketing & tech companies through fast, painless acquisitions.

Once we understood the magic of Black & Black, we got to work valuing the company and putting together amazing marketing materials to help our pool of pre-vetted, strategic buyers understand the magic, too. We tapped into our network, identified high-potential buyer targets, and quickly found the perfect buyer for Black & Black.

A California-Based Entrepreneurial Buyer

Enter Savera, an entrepreneur based in the Bay Area who was interested in diversifying her portfolio. Black & Black made the perfect investment for her as an expanded position in the rapidly growing e-commerce industry, and Black & Black would benefit from her robust experience and ability to add off-shore talent to help them continue to scale. A win-win if we ever saw one!

“Jonathan built an amazing agency with a stellar portfolio of high-end e-commerce brands. We were so excited to help guide him through an exit to pursue his next great idea and Savera was the perfect buyer. Her robust experience and ability to add off-shore talent to deepen Black & Black’s service offerings and quickly scale was exactly what the agency needed to continue on its path of rapid growth.”

Amanda Dixon, Barney team

Closing the Deal In 90 Days

Within 90 days, papers were signed and money changed hands. Jonathan walked away ready to pursue his other interests with cash in the bank and the knowledge that Black & Black was positioned to thrive for years to come. Savera got to diversify her portfolio and support the growth of Black & Black at scale, and Barney added another successful acquisition to our long list of media, marketing & tech companies we’ve supported through fast, painless acquisitions to perfect-fit buyers.

Because at Barney, that’s what we do: help entrepreneurs sell their agencies so they can pursue their next big idea (or just chill out on a beach somewhere). Whatever your post-sale dream is, we make it happen as the largest acquisition firm for agencies in the US. With a database of more than 25,000 buyers, offices from Los Angeles to London and a dynamic portfolio saturated in marketing, technology and digital mergers and acquisitions, we promise: you and your agency will be in good hands.