OUR PROCESS
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Best Exit engagements typically have five steps.
Engagement
01
We confer to see if Best Exit can help you succeed.
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You submit an application, including a deck
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We sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement
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We schedule a complimentary Zoom consult (1 hour)
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Includes a 30-minute review of your investor or partner pitch
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If it's a fit on both sides, we sign an engagement letter
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You add a private channel for us in your Slack or Teams workspace
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We dig in
Discovery
02
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We start by gathering the materials we need to start the evaluation.
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We share a custom Smartsheet with you, which includes our playbook and provides a secure place for you to upload files and answer questions. We provide you with a short list of key materials and documents, which you can upload or provide to us on your shared drive. Ideally, you provide us with view-only access to cap table, project management, CRM, analytics and other operational systems.
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Over a few weeks, we have four discovery sessions to go deep across the key areas in your business. We'll also be chatting back and forth throughout this time.
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Session 1 - Potential Buyers (90 minutes)
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Purpose: Identify up to 10 potential buyers for your company in the next 36 months. For each, we will establish the rationales, likely objections and current and potential introductory relationships.
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Preparation: We will provide a pre-formatted Google sheet for your initial list (up to 20), with a 1-2 sentence rationale for why they would want to own your company.
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Session 2 - Operations (60 minutes)
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Purpose: Understand your company’s operational framework and systems, including project management, development environment, code management, design, CRM and other systems.
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Preparation: Create an inventory of your stack at StackShare and Siftery.
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Session 3 - Metrics (90 minutes)
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Purpose: Understand your key operational metrics, reporting processes and data collection. Review the team’s OKRs.
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Preparation: Provision us with read-only access to metrics consoles. Share current and last year’s OKRs.
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Session 4 - Team (60 minutes)
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Purpose: Review compensation structure of top employees, including equity positions, vesting and acceleration.
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Preparation: Provision us with read-only access to your Carta reports, if applicable.
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It is also useful for us to meet with your investors, so we can get the benefit for their experience with the company and their view on the exit plan.
Research and Analysis
03
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Based on the materials provided and the interviews, we assess and benchmark your acquisition profile. We ask questions over chat and additional calls, if necessary. Based on this, we will prepare a draft report and action plan over a few weeks.
Presentation and Discussion
04
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We provide a draft report and action plan for your review and discussion. We refine the plan with you over two meetings.
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Session 5 - Review of draft report and take-aways (90 minutes)
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Action items in priority order
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Buyer narratives
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Buyer attack plans
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Messaging refinements
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Social network plan
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Core metrics and charts
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Operational recommendations
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Team communication plan
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Session 6 - Review of revised report and action list (90 minutes)
Execution
05
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Our initial engagement is complete when the action plan is ready to execute. At your option, we can remain engaged for monthly or quarterly progress and realignment checks, as well as monitoring your potential-buyer cohort.
PRICING
The amount of our fee depends on the size, stage and complexity of your company and industry, with a minimum of $20,000 for the initial engagement and action plan. Half of the fee is payable at the start of the engagement and the remainder on successful completion, with a full refund if you are not completely satisfied.