The Podcast
From Angel to Exit
The exit stories founders don't usually tell.
Selling your company is supposed to be the win. Yet roughly three in four founders regret it within a year. On From Angel to Exit, I talk with founders, investors, and advisors about what really happens when you build, scale, and sell a company, including the parts no one prepares you for.
Never Miss an Episode.
Know the moment a new episode goes live. Subscribers also get a say in future guests and the topics we cover.
Featured Episodes.
New to the show? Start with these three conversations, then browse the full archive by topic.
David Lekach
How Dream Water created a new consumer category and carried it all the way to a successful exit.
Listen and ReadCarl Kutsmode
The leadership hiring strategy that helped him scale a company and exit successfully, twice.
Listen and ReadLawrence Kaplan
How an ESOP can create liquidity, tax benefits, and real wealth for your employees.
Listen and ReadWhat You Will Learn.
I built and sold my own company. This show is the honest version of what happens around a deal, so you can prepare earlier.
- What buyers actually look for, and what quietly lowers your valuation.
- How to make the business run without you before you go to market.
- How deals really get done, from the LOI through diligence, earnouts, and the close.
- When to start planning an exit, and why most founders start too late.
- How other founders chose their buyer, from strategics to private equity to an ESOP.
- What life after the sale looks like, and how to prepare yourself for it.
Suggest a Guest.
Know a founder, advisor, or investor with a story worth hearing? Suggest them, or yourself. If it is a fit, we will reach out.
Suggest a Guest
Tell us who they are and why founders should hear their story.
We read every suggestion and reply when it is a fit.
Working Toward Your Own Exit?
The podcast shows what an exit really looks like. If you are working toward one, here are two ways to go further.
Schedule a Strategy Call
A 30 to 45 minute working conversation about where you are, what is in the way, and what the right next move looks like. We look at the company and at you, because a good exit needs both.
- 30 to 45 minutes on video
- A few prep questions so the call starts on the real issue
- A written follow-up either way
- No pitch at the end of it
You leave with a sharper plan either way.
Read Springboard
My book on preparing yourself, not just the company, for an exit. Built from my own sale and years of advising founders through theirs.
- Three parts, from preparing yourself to life after the close
- Foreword by Verne Harnish
- More than 22 tools to apply to you and your business
- The first three chapters free to download
The conversations on the show, turned into a plan.