Early Exits Quotes

“Built to flip' should not be a dirty phrase or unnatural act. I believe that to succeed today, entrepreneurs must not only aspire to early exits, but design that objective into their corporate structures and corporate DNA.”
― Basil Peters, Early Exits: Exit Strategies for Entrepreneurs and Angel Investors

“Angels also often want to contribute more than money to a young company. Angels have the experience, and inclination, to be great mentors and valuable directors.”
― Basil Peters, Early Exits: Exit Strategies for Entrepreneurs and Angel Investors

“It is highly desirable to have all the due diligence documents in the electronic data room before the rest of the selling process gathers momentum.”
― Basil Peters, Early Exits: Exit Strategies for Entrepreneurs and Angel Investors

“In the most successful exits, the company should be delivering its peak performance for the months leading up to the final price negotiations and closing.”
― Basil Peters, Early Exits: Exit Strategies for Entrepreneurs and Angel Investors

“It's much easier to understand the pricing mechanisms for exit transactions if you look at it from the perspective of the professionals doing the business.”
― Basil Peters, Early Exits: Exit Strategies for Entrepreneurs and Angel Investors

“From the time that all of the sales collateral is complete until the cash is in the bank, the exit process can take as little as 4 to 5 months and as long as 18 to 24 months.”
― Basil Peters, Early Exits: Exit Strategies for Entrepreneurs and Angel Investors

“Today, the optimum financial strategy for most technology entrepreneurs is to raise money from angels and plan an early exit to a large company in just a few years for under $30 million.”
― Basil Peters, Early Exits: Exit Strategies for Entrepreneurs and Angel Investors

“Every company needs an exit strategy and an exit plan. Ideally, the exit strategy should be agreed upon by the founders before the first dollar of investment goes into the company.”
― Basil Peters, Early Exits: Exit Strategies for Entrepreneurs and Angel Investors

“VC bias toward swinging for the fences means companies that could have exited easily in the $20 to 30 million range will end up being 'ridden over the top' and eventually worth much less—or possibly nothing at all.”
― Basil Peters, Early Exits: Exit Strategies for Entrepreneurs and Angel Investors

“As VCs invest more and more money in each company, they have to wait longer and longer before they can exit.”
― Basil Peters, Early Exits: Exit Strategies for Entrepreneurs and Angel Investors

“Nobody can predict the future. We may be near the peak of the tech M&A market or the trend may last several more years. If you have been thinking about selling your business, now looks like a very good time.”
― Basil Peters, Early Exits: Exit Strategies for Entrepreneurs and Angel Investors

“Exits are the best part of being an entrepreneur or investor. It’s when we get financially rewarded for all of the creativity, hard work, investment and risk we put into our companies.”
― Basil Peters, Early Exits: Exit Strategies for Entrepreneurs and Angel Investors

“Exits are the least understood part of investing—as often by the investors themselves as by the entrepreneurs. This book is about the large number of other exits—the ones that are not driven by the VCs.”
― Basil Peters, Early Exits: Exit Strategies for Entrepreneurs and Angel Investors

“provide”
― Basil Peters, Early Exits: Exit Strategies for Entrepreneurs and Angel Investors

“In a typical VC portfolio, all the returns are from 20% of the investments. These are the two out of ten investments that are winners. A minimum respectable return for a VC fund is a 20% compound return. For a ten-year VC fund, the fund needs to pay investors 6x their investment to generate a 20% compound return. So those two winners each have to make a 30x return on average to provide investors with the 20% compound return—and that’s just to generate a minimum respectable return.”
― Basil Peters, Early Exits: Exit Strategies for Entrepreneurs and Angel Investors

“My premise is that startups and emerging companies should adopt a new, simple approach—start small, stay lean, raise only the funding you really need, grow the business judiciously and then execute an early exit.”
― Basil Peters, Early Exits: Exit Strategies for Entrepreneurs and Angel Investors