M&A Science Live - The Buyer’s Perspective on the Sell-Side
Most corp dev leaders have a theory about what bankers get wrong. Andrew Morbitzer has the receipts.
After 20+ years running acquisitions at Intuit and GoDaddy — where he led more than $2B in deals — Andrew crossed to the sell side to see the process from the other direction. Then he came back to the buy side as VP of Corp Dev at Life360. That round trip is rare. Most people pick a lane.
In this live conversation, Kison and Andrew unpack what buyers actually need from their bankers, why the sell-side model consistently fails corp dev, and what changes when an advisor has actually sat in the buyer's seat.
Live Q&A at the end — bring your deal questions.
What You'll Learn
Why bankers rarely understand buyer strategy — and what a specific example of that failure looks like in practice
What changes in deal quality when a sell-side advisor actually takes time to understand what the buyer is building
The biggest mindset gap between corp dev and banking — and why it persists
What Buyer-Led M&A applied to the sell-side model actually looks like
How AI reshapes the advisory model and what that means for corp dev teams today
Who Should Attend
Corporate development leaders, strategy and ops professionals supporting M&A, and anyone who has ever felt like their banker didn't actually understand what they were trying to build.
Speaker Bios
Kison Patel – Founder, M&A Science | Chairman, DealRoom
Kison built DealRoom to ~$10M ARR and has led M&A execution across hundreds of transactions. He founded M&A Science to extract and share the patterns strong buyers use to win deals, turning practitioner experience into searchable, reusable intelligence.
Andrew Morbitzer - VP of Corporate Development, Life360
Andrew Morbitzer is VP of Corporate Development at Life360. He spent 20+ years running corp dev at Intuit and GoDaddy, leading more than $2B in acquisitions before spending time on the sell side as an advisor. That round trip — buyer to advisor and back — shapes everything about how he thinks about deal process, banker relationships, and where the advisory model needs to go.
Member Access
M&A Science members get:
Full session recording access inside the Membership library
Session takeaways (key insights organized for practitioners)
Access to the broader M&A Science member library (plays, templates, and real-world frameworks)
If you want access: Become an M&A Scientist. Join the community of the best practitioners in M&A.
→ Membership: $1995/year → mascience.com/membership
FAQs
Will this session be recorded?
Yes. The recording will be available in DealPilot, powered by M&A Science, for members. Non-members can register to attend live.
What if I can't attend live?
Register anyway. The recording will be available through DealPilot. DealPilot members get access before public release.
What is DealPilot, powered by M&A Science?
DealPilot, powered by M&A Science, is the deal guidance layer for buy-side teams — practitioner-built playbooks, frameworks, certification programs, and primary source intelligence from 400+ practitioners who have actually run the deals. $1995/year at mascience.com/membership.