The Art Of Venture Exit Planning In A Tough Climate

  • 📰 ForbesTech
  • ⏱ Reading Time:
  • 64 sec. here
  • 3 min. at publisher
  • 📊 Quality Score:
  • News: 29%
  • Publisher: 59%

Technology Technology Headlines News

Technology Technology Latest News,Technology Technology Headlines

I’ve spent the last 20 years working in the technology sector as a founder, advisor, board member, and investor. As a Founding Partner of Concentric, the London & Copenhagen-based venture capital firm, I work with early-stage tech businesses (Seed through Series B) to support their development and accelerate growth. Current investments include Homehero, Houst, Huckletree, Hussle, Pockit, Public.io, SuperScript, Insly, Wiredirect and Memory.ai. We take a hands-on, founder focused approach to star

No matter how well you pick and nurture startups, it’s irrelevant if you can’t realize and maximize their value through a successful exit. Handing a portfolio company over to a new owner is the culmination of the investment lifecycle, converting the investment into cash, hopefully resulting in a profitable return for the VC firm, and the founders.

The last 12 months have taught investors a valuable lesson, which is that exit planning is a vital and continuous process, and getting it right is more art than science – with a fair dose of luck thrown in. Each company and exit scenario is different, depending on a variety of factors, including the economic environment, performance, and profile of the company, uniqueness, maturity of the investment fund, macroeconomic trends, alignment between shareholders, etc.

Investors have a vested interest as they are looking to generate a return on the money within a certain timeframe, and their investors are expecting their money back with healthy interest. Similarly, founders typically have most of their wealth locked up in shares in the company and hence it is also their interest to crystalize some of this wealth.

A big part of success therefore comes down to understanding trends and movements and having an instinct as to the right moment to move. A big mistake that some companies make is rushing to sell at the wrong time when the markets are negative towards a particular sector. Scenario planning can be helpful to envisage what could happen in different situations, i.e. what if the exit timing was delayed one, two, or three years.

 

Thank you for your comment. Your comment will be published after being reviewed.
Please try again later.
We have summarized this news so that you can read it quickly. If you are interested in the news, you can read the full text here. Read more:

 /  🏆 318. in TECHNOLOGY

Technology Technology Latest News, Technology Technology Headlines

Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.

A venture capitalist's take on San Diego's innovation economy and other wisdomA Q&A with Dave Titus, one of the co-founders of Silicon Valley Bank and founder of the Windward VC fund.
Source: sdut - 🏆 5. / 95 Read more »

MIT Endowment Declines 2.9% as Venture Capital Depresses ReturnsThe Massachusetts Institute of Technology, like other big colleges, has a large weighting in venture capital and other alternative investments.
Source: MarketWatch - 🏆 3. / 97 Read more »