I’m here for founders and owners who are stuck, scaling or still deciding where the business goes from here.
Between Startup and Exit shares the core lessons learned from hard-won experience across hundreds of companies that are required for a business to thrive and an owner to master their business. The result is a valuable asset and the freedom to choose whether to grow, step back, sell – or just have a healthy relationship with it. You don’t need to know which path you want to get value here.
I’ve spent 16 years in M&A as a buyer, integrator and advisor, evaluating companies from startups to $1b organizations and working on transactions valued between $3m - $800m. I’ve also started multiple businesses, run a $150m P&L inside a Fortune 200 company, and led transformations for public, private and PE-owned companies.
That range of vantage points taught me something most founders and owners never get to see: the businesses that hold up best under strain are the ones that are structurally sound. They don’t depend on one person to keep running.
Fast growth, a leadership change, a health scare, an unexpected opportunity and an exit all test the same thing: does this business work without you?
Most don’t, but rarely because something started out wrong; it just didn’t evolve. The instincts that build a $5m business are the same ones that keep it from reaching $10m or $20m. Staying close to every decision, personally carrying business relationships, being the place where every problem – or even the work itself – lands. It works…until it doesn’t.
If you’re reading this, you probably know the feeling – buried, bumping against a ceiling you can’t quite name, or just sensing there’s another gear you haven’t found yet.
You’re not behind. You’re not doing it wrong. You’re exactly where a lot of good, smart founders end up, and there’s a way through it.
If you’re building something you want to grow, hand off or simply stop carrying alone, you’re in the right place.
I write plainly and I don’t hedge. If something isn’t working, I’ll tell you what I see and why it matters. What I won’t do is hand you a checklist and call it a day – the way through starts with seeing your business differently, not adding more tactics.
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