The Exit Podcast

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.

From politics to eggs, David Radlo has had big exits and done business with big leaders like Fidel Castro. David has had an incredibly diverse entrepreneurial journey that has seen him work in biotech, shipping, as well as riding the cage-free, free-range egg boom. Listen to this week’s episode to discover what tips David shares for negotiating, exit planning and the importance of building relationships with your competitors.

Wayne Slavitt has spent half his career as an entrepreneur, and the other half as an advisor for companies. At 23, he made his debut in the M&A world, and over five years in his first-ever role, he helped merge three companies into one. Then he was involved in selling the world’s largest manufacturer of hot tubs. After that he caught the exit bug as he says. Listen to discover invaluable exit tips and tricks, as well as crucial business advice from an experienced entrepreneur.

Nathan Hirsch describes himself as a long-time entrepreneur: he decided he didn’t want to work for a boss at the age of 15. From experimenting with dropshipping before it was a popular sales strategy to founding what became a $12M marketplace for hiring pre-vetted freelancers and then exiting it, listen to discover both his entrepreneurial and exit journeys.

Get the inside word from Flippa CEO, Blake Hutchison. Blake shares insights from the largest marketplace to buy and sell online businesses, why Flippa is seeing huge growth in buyer registrations, what a multiple crunch means for business valuations and so much more. Listen to uncover it all.

Nick Bradley is an exit-extraordinaire. With 117 acquisitions, 20 exits and many years of experience, Nick gives us a masterclass in entrepreneurship, and shares the details behind his most successful exits, including his latest $2.3B exit.

This week on The Exit: From Tehran to Berkeley all the way to creating the first Learning Management System, Bobby Yazdani shares his incredible life and exit stories.

This week on The Exit: After building a solar powered race car that raced from Chicago to LA with his uni friends, Will Sacks realized his call was to build things… Including a platform that would revolutionize women’s reproductive health, helping them understand their bodies, tracking their cycles and analyzing their fertility data. Listen to hear his exit story.

This week on The Exit: Don McLaughlin was working as an inhouse lawyer for a consulting firm that served the Fortune 500 when he decided to start his own legal tech startup. After turning down two multi-million offers, and learning how to manage the emotional toll that heading a fast-growing business had on him, Don successfully exited his business. This is his story.

This week on The Exit: John Knific started Wisr.io, a digital platform allowing colleges and universities to create private, university-branded networks for their students. Being one of the only virtual connectivity solutions available for students, Wisr.io saw astronomical growth when COVID hit. In 45 days, the business generated double the revenue they had made in the past three years. In 2021 a potential partner made them a compelling acquisition offer that ultimately resulted in an exit.

Heikki Haldre’s entrepreneurial journey had a bumpy start, but continued with numerous successful exits, including one to Japanese technology conglomerate, Rakuten, the sixth largest Ecommerce company in the world. With four exits under his belt, Heikki has a wealth of knowledge to share about how to find potential buyers. Listen to find out more.

Eddie Whittingham left the police force to become a lawyer. He never expected to eventually leave law to start his own cybersecurity business, which he then sold to Proofpoint, one of the biggest SaaS-based cybersecurity companies in the world. This is his exit story.