18 natural ways to connect with potential acquirors
At Best Exit, we advise startups to play a long game when it comes to their exit. For the best outcome, line up relationships early in...
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THE EXIT
As a startup CEO, there’s a lot on your shoulders: You need to build a great team, design and engineer a market-leading product, sell it to customers, raise capital, attract partners, and ultimately deliver the best possible exit for your investors, your team and yourself.
Even though no one else bears these responsibilities quite like you do, you don’t have to face them alone. The best CEOs find and exploit the expertise they need to deliver a great exit. The Best Exit System helps you make it happen.
Our Approach
WHAT WE DO
Best Exit is a systematic approach to maximize your startup's acquisition potential.
BUYER DEVELOPMENT
Define a set of potential buyers and a plan to build relationships leading to a successful exit.
OPERATIONS
Ensure that your operational processes and software stack -- from dev-ops to people-ops -- aligns with potential buyers.
METRICS
Define, track and and drive the core operational metrics that will sell the deal. Align your team’s OKRs with exit priorities.
PEOPLE
Find and fill gaps in your team’s skills profile and exit incentives, aligning both with acquirer expectations.
BUYER DEVELOPMENT
We start by working with you to define your goals in an exit and define the universe of potential buyers. Within that context, we help determine:
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What will drive buyer interest in your company
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Their technical and operational alignment
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A plan to engage with each buyer
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A strategy be visible to additional buyers
OPERATIONS
We benchmark your company’s operational framework, including your processes and software stacks. We consider questions like:
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How does your development environment fit with likely buyers?
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Do your applications provide portability for data?
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Are legal and compliance processes ready?
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How will key agreements affect an exit?
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How will buyers view your IP and open-source profile?
METRICS
We help you define and refine the handful of operational charts that will be important to an exit. We look at:
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What drives the metrics that matter most to buyers?
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Does the product roadmap align with exit value?
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Are you collecting the right data in the right way?
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Do your management’s OKRs align with exit priorities?
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Are your privacy and security practices presentable?
PEOPLE
The team is a critical factor in almost every exit. We review your team, cap table, and compensation structure to address:
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What is the team’s retention profile in an exit?
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What is their equity opportunity at various exit outcomes?
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How could vesting acceleration affect a deal?
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How should you involve the team in exit planning?
ABOUT US
Deep operational and deal expertise to guide you.
About Us
ABOUT JIM BROCK, FOUNDER
Jim Brock has studied hundreds of exits first-hand, from nearly every perspective: As start-up founder and operator, big-company buyer, VC firm partner, angel investor and startup and M&A attorney. He understands how and why acquisitions happen from the inside-out. More than 20 years of operational experience in companies large and small underlie a realistic, results-driven approach to your exit.
ABOUT LEE LORENZEN, FOUNDER
Lee Lorenzen is a highly successful entrepreneur with more than 35 years of experience founding, leading, funding and selling dozens of companies. Lee founded shop.com (1997-2007) and as CEO led the company from a simple idea to its current place as one of the Top 10 most trafficked multi-vendor shopping sites. Lee also founded and engineered successful exits for Ventura Software (desktop publishing), Altura Software (application porting), Fractal Design (visual creation software), and PGSoft (system software).
Practical Advice
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To see if Best Exit is a good fit for your company, please upload a copy of your latest investor or partner pitch deck. We will not share it with anyone and will delete it if we do not engage.
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