The Exit Podcast

This week on The Exit: Helene Guillaume, a dedicated athlete and founder of Wild AI, aims to revolutionize women’s sports by addressing their unique needs. Recognizing gaps in female sports experiences, she established Wild AI to research training aligned with women’s bodies and menstrual cycles, securing $2.5M in funding. Helene draws parallels between sports and business challenges, emphasizing the value of failure in both spheres. Her insights on failure’s role in success and the intersection of sports and entrepreneurship make for an intriguing discussion.

This week on The Exit: Eric Marcoullier went through college wanting to be a DJ, but when he bought a copy of Wired magazine, a lightbulb went off and he knew that the internet was where he would make his money. He transitioned into online publishing and played a key role in IGN’s launch, which later went public and sold for $650M to News Corp. Eric also co-founded MyBlogLog, a social network for the blogger community, acquired by Yahoo for $10M. The episode explores his insights from two major exits and his efforts to assist other founders in achieving their exit goals.

This week on The Exit: From the Japanese ice cream industry to US Federal Defense, Sascha Mornell has worked in vastly different industries, but throughout his career, achieving an exit has been the common denominator.

This week on The Exit: Adam Lippin is a master at launching and excelling in diverse industries, achieving two remarkable exits. First, he introduced Buffalo wings to NYC before an exit to Dunkin Donuts. Then, he founded Cuddlist, turning it into a network of solace providers before another successful exit. Now, with Hear Me, he’s fighting loneliness and promoting mental health. This episode offers invaluable lessons to entrepreneurs, celebrating relentless experimentation and following one’s passions no matter where they lead.

This week on The Exit: Jaime Schmidt’s entrepreneurial journey began when she left her dissatisfying corporate job to create products in her kitchen. She initially made Kombucha and hot sauces but shifted focus when she became pregnant, developing skincare and natural deodorant. She went from local markets to major stores in 30 countries, including Costco, Target, and Walmart. An offer from Unilever marked a significant milestone. Tune in to learn about Jaime’s remarkable journey, scaling products from her kitchen, and the lessons she’d apply if rewriting her entrepreneurial story.

In this week’s episode of The Exit, Greg Sloane shares his journey of scaling his financial services business for an exit. After surviving the Global Financial Crisis, he decided to grow the business and later plan for retirement. Facing a lower-than-expected external valuation, Greg identified and improved 12 key factors, doubling the business’s value in three years. However, finding a suitable buyer proved to be the most challenging aspect of his exit journey. Tune in to discover the ups and downs of his acquisition discussions and the lessons learned.

This week on The Exit: Meet Andrea Inokon, a former lawyer turned entrepreneur, who confronted gender and racial discrimination head-on. Her journey led her to create Cadence Cash, a game-changing solution that empowers underrepresented founders with access to capital. Discover how Cadence Cash is bridging the funding gap for women and minority entrepreneurs, shedding light on the challenges they face in securing funds. Join us to unravel Andrea’s inspiring story of innovation, and breaking barriers in the business world.

This week on The Exit: Sergio Ribeiro, founder, and CEO of Radiolife, shares his journey of entrepreneurship. With a computer science background, he tackled the monopolized Brazilian telecom sector, revolutionizing it with a cost-cutting product. Despite being unprepared, Sergio and his team accepted an enticing acquisition offer. Listen for the captivating exit story, Sergio’s exit preparation tips, and his current efforts to disrupt the diagnostic industry.

This week on The Exit: We welcome back Lara Morgan, a prominent investor in health and wellness. After two years, we catch up on her journey, explore the gender gap in entrepreneurship, and delve into her exits. Lara, with a track record dating back to 1991, shares insights on her £20 million exit, her portfolio of brands, acquisition motivations, decision-making, business growth strategies, and offers valuable advice for female entrepreneurs aiming to address the gender gap in entrepreneurship.

This week on The Exit: Delilah Panio, founder of Fortuna Funding, with over 25 years in capital markets, aims to rectify the gender imbalance in VC funding. Her mission is to close the funding gap, offering practical guidance to founders. Listen to this episode to gain insights into venture capital, crowdfunding, and fundraising.

This week on The Exit: Brecht Palombo turned a 90% post-financial crisis business slump into opportunity. Needing income for his growing family, he began selling lender data he had researched in a PDF format. The demand was high, prompting him to expand into a successful SaaS business with subscriptions, ultimately resulting in a 7-figure exit. Hear his journey in this episode.

This week on The Exit: Sarah’s path to entrepreneurship has been one of many twists and turns, eventually leading her to co-found an investment fund with the goal of putting $1 Billion in the hands of female founders.

This week on The Exit: Maria Hedengren shares her passion for financial analysis and exit preparation, including preparing for an IPO. When Maria was the CFO of iZettle, a fintech company, she was tasked with preparing the business for an IPO.

Tami Holzman started out in the entertainment industry, from talent agency to movie studios. It was during this time she  cut her entrepreneurial teeth. Tami quickly learnt that with determination and perseverance, anything was possible in the world of film and television and this mindset  has never left her. When she built her first business this philosophy played an integral role in it, leading her to great success, ultimately achieving a significant exit

Stuart Prestedge, a seasoned software startup coach and successful entrepreneur, founded his first business in gaming at 18. Later, he achieved great success with a productivity software suite which became the top app in 20 countries. The company had over 11M users when him and his business partner decided to exit. Tune in to learn how the exit unfolded and how he landed a job where he was tasked to ‘go and do what you do best’.

When Sarah joined her father’s company straight out of high school she never expected she would go on to carve out a brand new niche: supply chain media. When she found herself without a job after her father’s business shut down, she decided to focus on the podcast she had created and went on to build it into a community for people working in the supply chain. Listen to find out about the sale of a concept and how it differs from selling a revenue generating business.

Dean van Zyl, turned to entrepreneurship after being fired three times, and achieved multiple successful exits in three countries. His first business grew too big for him to exit easily, but after making changes, bringing on a partner, and establishing a management team, he successfully exited. With better initial preparation, the process could have taken just one year instead of five. Dean has since built and exited several businesses designed for exits from the start. Tune in to hear Dean’s experience and advice on setting up an exit-focused business.

In this episode, Rod Feurer shares his journey from pursuing awards and accolades, to finding creative growth that ultimately resulted in a successful exit. After an unfulfilling career in Wall Street, Rod found his passion creating products to help businesses grow. He left Wall Street and co-founded a tech company to help sales professionals manage deals more effectively. Listen to find out how their exit resulted in their product reaching a larger audience and the challenges they faced throughout the exit process.

In this episode of The Exit, Andrew Christodoulides shares his remarkable journey. Andrew started his own successful call center outsourcing company, Acena, after doing research for his previous boss. Acena grew and thrived, with 75 employees and a strong client base in the Ecom niche. As the exit offers emerged, Andrew couldn’t resist an opportunity that yielded an impressive 13x multiple. He reflects on his experience, the birth of his new venture Applaudable, and more.

In this episode, Matt Heiman shares the exit details of one of the first mobile digital video production and social media companies. Matt has numerous exits under his belt, including the one of Mobix Interactive, which exited to a Nasdaq-listed business for $20M, and Diagonal View, a digital company best known for producing the football YouTube channel, The Football Daily. The company was acquired by British Broadcasting empire Sky PLC in 2017. Listen to discover the ups and downs of the process and invaluable insights into the video production industry.

A Fortune 50 Marketer with an incredible career spanning over 14 years, Beau has overseen over $250M of ads, and has orchestrated some of the most viral marketing campaigns in early 2000s. Beau experienced an exit and merge as an employee, and that was the push he needed to become an entrepreneur. So he moved back to Colorado, and started a marketing agency with his friend and business partner. Tune in to discover the intricacies of exiting a marketing agency, navigating struggles and triumphs along the way.