I participated in a panel last week at the IMPACT 2011 conference in Philadelphia. The panel was all about the technology exit environment and VC’s perspective on how their companies are getting to their desired exits.
The one key point I tried to drill into the audience was about the need to proactively architect your exit. There are several reasons why I stressed this point:
1. “Companies with great exits are bought, not sold.”
Which means that you need to find a way to get a strategic buyer to notice your company, to see the opportunity in acquiring it, to want your company bad enough, and to make a great offer. It takes a lot to get an acquirer to that point. And you can’t bank on building one relationship. You need to build the relationship with several potential acquirers in order to even hope of landing one. These types of relationships take 12-18 months to build. Unless, that is, you get lucky. You could build something that is so obvious and strategic, that you wouldn’t have to lift a finger to pursue an acquisition. The rest of us have to work a bit harder than that.
To read the full, original article click on this link: 5 Tips for Architecting Your Company's Exit | OpenView Blog
