Can't Find a Clear Buyer for Your Niche Business? Reframe the Story to Create an Exit Path

What happens when a business becomes successful, but not “exit-shaped”?

In this episode of From Angel to Exit, Bruce Eckfeldt interviews Johnny LeHane, an exited founder and investor who helped grow WAKA (World Adult Kickball Association) from a bar-napkin idea into a national social sports company operating across 70+ cities and 35 states, reaching roughly $10M in revenue. Johnny didn’t start with a traditional entrepreneur story. With an engineering background and early career at America Online during the rise of consumer internet, he expected a stable corporate path. Instead, a single line, “why don’t people play kickball?”, turned into a side project that became a full-time business. He describes a smart “off-ramp” into entrepreneurship: build the business while employed, then transition with savings and risk controls (including a leave of absence request) rather than leaping from zero.

As WAKA scaled, new problems replaced early momentum. A three-founder structure created decision friction, forcing the team to hire (and eventually fire) a CEO. They explored franchising as a growth and “entanglement” strategy, trying to lock in local operators, but discovered that as technology became commoditized, it got easier for competitors to replicate operations. Later, they pursued acquisitions and a potential roll-up strategy, but a key acquisition dragged out, was undercapitalized, and immediately created cash strain, an issue worsened by market headwinds.

Johnny’s exit ultimately became a negotiated buyout from partners rather than a massive sale. He’s blunt about the real negotiation: not just price, but terms, payout horizon, front-loading, promissory risk, and what happens when “worst case” hits (like COVID’s impact on outdoor social sports). He also highlights the emotional cost: partner relationships change, identity shifts, and earnout-style payouts keep founders psychologically tethered long after they “leave.”

The closing lesson is bigger than the business: founders should build optionality early, financially, strategically, and personally, so the next chapter is something they’re moving toward, not something they’re forced into.