Member-only story
Here’s What Happens When You Decide to Sell Your Startup
Spreadsheets and hockey-stick charts probably aren’t enough to open checkbooks
Are you considering selling your company as a potential exit? Now? A year from now? Five years from now?
In over 20 years of working in the startup world, with over a dozen acquisitions under my belt as an entrepreneur, advisor, and investor, I can assure you that an acquisition is always a massive and complex transaction that you’re never 100% prepared for. In fact, the one regret I hear over and over again from my peers is that they got less than what they should have when they signed the deal.
Whether you’re a founder or you just have some equity, there’s a bunch of stuff you need to know before you decide to sell your startup, stuff that you won’t actually learn until you’ve been through it.
I sat down with a friend last week who is in a position to seriously consider selling her company. It’s her first startup, so we went over a high-level outline of the process.
How to know when it’s time to sell
There are basically four reasons to sell your company:
- Things are going poorly. This obviously isn’t good and, unless you’re in a position where…