At some point, you’re going to hand the keys to your business to someone else. That’s true whether you’re hiring employees or contractors or planning for succession. Life happens. And it’s just not in the cards for you to be able to run your business, by yourself, forever.
For many entrepreneurs, selling big is the dream. In the startup space, they call it an “exit” — the point at which some big fish gobbles up your smart idea and pays you handsomely for it. But the unicorn exit is a rare thing (that’s why they call it a unicorn, after all) and lots of firms out there need to think about life after the founder.
Even if you’re running a mid-sized company, chances are, one day, you’ll want to sell off your business and enjoy the fruits of your success. So what do you do when you have a business for sale? That’s trickier than you might think. Fortunately, there are people out there who can help.
Jude David, getting a business ready for sale is a bit like getting your house ship-shape before selling it, but you’ve only got 90 days to sell because “time kills all deals”
Jude David is co-founder and Vice President of Mergers and Acquisitions for Final Ascent, a firm that specializes in helping mid-market businesses find buyers.
Jude has a background on the legal side of finance. And he his co-founder Steve Conwell realized that mid-level businesses — those with valuations between $10 million and $200 million — weren’t served by the investment banks that typically helped the big companies find buyers and partners for mergers. So they launched Final Ascent in 2017 to fill that void. They’ve grown to acquire clients all over the U.S., and primarily do their client work remotely.
The company helps business owners think through how to prep their business for sale, making sure the company’s profile is as attractive as possible to bump the value of the sale.
Jude David, Christiaan Mader, audio engineer Dylan Babineaux, Out to Lunch at Tsunami Sushi
Out to Lunch Acadiana was recorded live over lunch at Tsunami Sushi in downtown Lafayette. Photos by Astor Morgan.
