Differentiate by bringing your 1yo baby to meetings with sellers.
"It's very disarming, and it immediately makes me more relatable and trustworthy. It creates this warm dialogue right away."
Of course, there's a time & place for everything. There's a million situations where bringing a kid would be inappropriate/unproductive/disastrous. It makes it hard to look like a sophisticated institutional buyer.
However, if you're meeting a female 80yo founder, who is contemplating the sale of her "baby," bringing your actual baby can apparently build a real relationship that sets you apart. It's probably an especially good move if you're on the search/operator-side of the scale, where you intend to be day-to-day and manage the team.
Thanks, Kristoffer Wihlborg, for this perspective.
Warning: Don't use babies as props. A babysitter is the gold standard, but if life happens then consider bringing the kid (especially if napping) rather than rescheduling.
