‘Exit Early – Exit Often’ Keynote Speech
Keynote at the Capital Connects! Southeastern Regional Angel Capital Association Meeting, Greensboro, North Carolina – October 1, 2009
Highlights of the ‘Exit Early – Exit Often’ Video – Part 3:
- Is it ever a good idea to have traditional Venture Capital Funds invest in an Angel backed company?
- Checklist to determine whether an individual company should be financed with Angels only or VCs.
- It depends on how much money the company will need, how long before the exit and the likely exit value.
- I believe this era will be called a ‘golden era’ for entrepreneurs and angel investors.
- Never before has it been so easy to build such valuable companies on such small amounts of capital – or to sell them so early.
- Angel investors can finance at least 95% of companies today.
- It’s possible to sell a company much earlier than most people believe – all you really need to do is prove the model.
- That can be before the first million of revenue or even before its profitable. It’s also often the best time to sell.
- Most of the time, entrepreneurs wait too long to exit. They end up ‘riding it over the top’.
- Entrepreneurs and Angel investors would have more fun, and make more money, if they build more companies for early exits.
- The first step is to build alignment on the exit strategy – and only then contact the first prospective investors.
- The exit is just another business process – just like a product development plan, sales plan or financing.
- An exit strategy can be pretty simple – often just a few sentences. The optimum strategy depends on the type of company.
- Developing the optimum exit strategy is one of those things that requires experience. Angels, directors and coaches can help.
- It’s critically important to check the alignment on the exit strategy and then to reaffirm it annually.
Part 4, the Q&A is online here.
Part 4, the Q&A is online here.
Many of the lessons I’ve learned are described in my new book on exit strategies for entrepreneurs and angel investors – www.Early-Exits.com.