NUESTRO ROL EN LA FERIA

If you raise outside funding then you need to understand how and when you can exit. It’s less important if you’re the only shareholder.

Then you only have to please you. In this latter case, you likely run an ongoing, operations-focused business. This is sometimes called a lifestyle business, meaning a business that throws off enough cash to provide for you and your family. But even lifestyle businesses may need to exit. An exit is almost always the end game.

In the two sections below let’s take a look at exits for the different types of businesses: lifestyle and investor-driven.

Lifestyle exits. A lifestyle business can be anything from a coffee shop to a multi-million dollar family-owned gas company. Either way, you don’t need an exit to pay back investors because you

don’t have any. But you might want an exit to get out yourself. It can be a difficult transition that may or may not involve a significant financial transaction. In my experience, owner-owned and owner-operated businesses are often highly profitable over a long period of years. As the owner ages, he/she may view the business like an annuity. That is hard to beat. If you’re coming in from the outside, hoping to purchase the business, the owner can be unrealistic about value – sales price – because they don’t want to lose the annual annuity. They may over-value the business. Usually an incoming owner wants to revamp the business. In other words, they intend to invest in the business in order to take it to the next level. They don’t view the business as an annuity. Thus, the purchaser and seller are not aligned in their goals, and the deal may fall apart.

However, there are instances where owner-operators are more realistic. Often they hope to transition the bulk of the ownership and the responsibilities to someone (or a team) on the inside. They already have a working relationship, and their goals are aligned because they’ve been working together to make the business successful for some time. The original owner may stay on in the business but in a reduced role. The transition can be gradual with certain milestones triggering the steps of the transition.

This type of transition also can occur with an outside buyer who steps in and learns the business from the ground up from the person or people who know it best. Regardless of the exact terms of the transition it’s vital that both sides have realistic expectations and establish excellent communication.

There are lots of resources out there that help with lifestyle business transitions. I would visit a Small Business Development Center (SBDC) in your region, or get an experienced advisor.

Investor-driven exits. For most high-growth, technology-oriented businesses, investors were necessary at some point. And you made promises. Well, you didn’t call it that, but that’s what they were. You promised to grow your company and build value towards an exit that would provide a positive return to your investors.

There are only three exit options for investors:

• Initial public offering (IPO)

• Merger or acquisition (M&A)

• Cash flow payback or buy out

I won’t go into detail about the first and the third exit options listed above. IPOs are its own breed and rarely does a firm go public without significant institutional investment support, which means that there are experienced folks on the team who have taken companies public and know how it’s done. Suffice it to say that going public is expensive and a company has to be pretty far along on the value creation path.

Paying back early-stage investors through cash flow hardly ever happens. Why? Because investors want you to use their cash to build value inside the venture. If, by some miracle, you have a business that throws off lots of excess cash, then you might want to consider buying out your investors or paying dividends. But this is so unusual that we’ll leave it at that.

Let’s focus on M&A. Investors hope for a 10x return. When you pitch to them you have to tell them how you’re going to increase the value of your company by a factor of 10 AND find a buyer for your business. Increasing value is easier to understand than exits for entrepreneurs and investors. They’re more tangible. Value building steps include:

• Creating intellectual property

• Gaining customers and traction in the market

• Achieving revenue and profitability goals

• Overcoming regulatory or compliance hurdles

• Beating the competition in market entry and market share

• Building the team through new hires

• Adding domain or other expertise to the BoD or advisors While it’s not easy to achieve these steps, they are common milestones that are part of ongoing operations no matter what. In other words, an early-stage venture might achieve these milestones

as they grow and prosper whether or not they’re focused on selling the company. But I’ve seen many entrepreneurs and investors get excited because the company is building value, only to realize that doesn’t necessarily translate to a sale.

Selling a company is a big deal. Put yourself in the shoes of the acquirer. Why do they want you, your company? There are several reasons why one company might want to buy another:

• To increase revenues and profits through new product lines, customers or markets

• To increase the value and/or scope of existing products through adding new technology, capability, functionality (which translate to increased revenues and profits)

• To add skill sets to their team

• To gain access to new technology (yours)

• To become more competitive

• To grow

You’ll have to attract potential acquirers just like you did for customers. They have to benefit by buying you, so you’ll need to understand why they need you. You must DO YOUR

HOMEWORK on the acquirer. Understand what you have that they might want and why they might want it. Companies don’t buy other companies for no reason. There has to be a compelling story behind your opportunity for them to be really interested.

You’ll need experienced help to make your way through M&A, so make sure that in your wheelhouse you have a strong network of folks who have been through multiple deals. Your lawyer should be a key player in this realm.

Matt understands that his exit for Forest Devices will depend on de-risking his product and business. That’s another way of saying that he has to meet multiple milestones to make potential acquirers want to buy his company. Every step that Matt takes today is aimed towards that goal. As CEO he focuses on advancing the company and building value so that he can reach the goal post. Along the way he is developing strategic relationships that may well lead to

them becoming the A in M&A.

IV-8. Lessons learned

To climb the startup stairs you have to do a few important things:

• Develop a solid team that are aligned with company goals and mission.

• Enlist advisors who provide value and guidance.

• Recruit board members who will be active engaged in overseeing the strategic goals and directions of the company.

• Learn how to pitch effectively for various audiences.

• Network always and everywhere so that you know who to contact when you need them.

• Originate marketing, sales and operations processes and procedures to move forward and measure success.

• Learn financial basics so you’re not a dumb-dumb about finance, financial terms and financial statements.

• Reach towards an exit no matter what because it will make you focus on growing your company, building value and lowering risk.