The Exit Question Most Founders Aren’t Expecting
Most founders don’t spend their early years thinking about exits. They’re focused on winning clients, building the team, and making the business work.
But somewhere along the way – often around the £5–10m revenue mark – that changes. The business has real momentum. The value created over years of hard work is tangible. And for the first time, M&A starts to feel like a genuine option rather than a distant concept.
When that moment arrives, the question founders usually face isn’t simply should I sell? It’s more nuanced: Do I sell in full now, or do I de-risk and keep building? What many discover is that those aren’t the only two options.
Why Concentration Risk Starts to Matter
Whether you’ve built a software platform, a specialist services firm, or a media business, the journey to this point often looks similar. Years of reinvesting in growth – hiring, developing your proposition, expanding your client base – usually at the expense of taking meaningful cash out of the business.
As a result, a large proportion of personal wealth ends up tied up in what’s been built. That works while momentum is strong. But as the business scales, many founders start to think about reducing that concentration risk without walking away from something they’ve spent years creating.
Taking Money Off the Table Without Stepping Away
A partial exit lets founders realise some of the value they’ve created while continuing to participate in the next stage of growth.
For many, this creates a real shift. Financial pressure reduces, long-term decisions become easier, and the focus can return to building rather than managing personal risk.
But in our experience, the most important part of these transactions isn’t just financial – it’s what happens to the founder’s role.
At this stage, founders are typically doing everything: leading the business, driving revenue, shaping the proposition, managing the team. That breadth is often necessary early on, but it isn’t always sustainable as the company grows.
From Wearing Every Hat to the Right Hat
Not every founder wants the same role as the business scales. In a services business, a founder might step back from delivery to focus on client relationships and growth. In a media business, they might shift from running operations to shaping strategy and new revenue streams. In a software business, they might move from managing everything to focusing on product and market expansion.
Some stay on as CEO. Others focus on the areas where they have the greatest impact. In some cases a new CEO comes in while the founder remains a key shareholder and strategic voice.
With the right partner, leadership can evolve in a way that reduces pressure on the founder while strengthening the business – fewer hats, clearer roles, and support in areas like hiring, governance, and scaling revenue.
Choosing the Right Path
Some founders sell in full, and that can absolutely be the right call. But many find that de-risking while continuing to build is the more attractive option – securing the value they’ve created, focusing on what they enjoy most, and scaling with an experienced partner alongside them.
The best exit isn’t always about stepping away. Sometimes it’s about building the right platform for the next chapter.