Jodie Cook started JC Social Media in 2011, at 22. Ten years later the agency had 16 full-time staff supporting about 50 clients.
Like many owners, she had been the person everyone came to with questions. Selling the business meant changing that first.
What JC Social Media did
Cook built processes, a manual and a team that could run the agency day to day. Her advice to other owners, as They Got Acquired quotes it: "Create your processes manuals, iron out case-by-case and try to remove yourself from answering questions you have answered before."
She told the site: "It was only after I had created processes, a manual, and had a very self-sufficient team that I realized this agency was now very attractive to a buyer." In March 2021 the agency was sold to Low&Behold. Darren Low, who leads Low&Behold, said publicly that he was impressed with the agency's team and its "solid processes".
What it already gives the business
Built to Sell Radio describes two scenarios. Before: the first offer was five times EBITDA, with about 20% of the proceeds tied to a three-year earn-out. After: Cook received two more offers and accepted one at the top end of the range she had hoped for, without an earn-out.
These are reported deal terms, and Business Live notes that the price was not disclosed. They show what the buyers paid attention to: a business that ran without its owner.
The ExValu perspective, a hypothesis
Where a Company Brain could take it next
Processes and a manual record how the work is done. In an agency, much of the value also sits in judgment: why a client left, which content worked for which industry, how a difficult account was saved.
A Company Brain could keep that experience next to the manual, so the team answers the harder questions without the owner too. We think that would strengthen the same story buyers responded to here. It remains our hypothesis.
What an owner and a buyer would look for
Track how many decisions still need the owner, how many clients have a second contact in the team and how well the business runs while the owner is away.
A buyer checks whether revenue and client relationships stay when the owner steps back. Written processes, plus evidence that the team uses them, make that case far better than promises in a pitch.
The problem behind this case
Facing the same problem?
About this analysis
* The image is AI-generated and does not show JC Social Media staff. The facts and figures on this page come from the published source named below.
This is an independent ExValu analysis of a published case. Facts, figures and names are as reported in the source below, which our team checked on October 12, 2026. The ideas for next steps are our own perspective and make no claim about conditions inside JC Social Media. To request a correction or removal, write to [email protected].
Primary source: Deal coverage, They Got Acquired, 2022, and Built to Sell Radio, 2021. Available at theygotacquired.com/agency/jc-social-media-acquired-by-lowandbehold.