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I've sold 4 startups. Median time from starting the process to close was 6 months, with the quickest transaction taking 2.5 months and the slowest almost 9 months.

Diligence ranged from 3 weeks to 7 weeks.

Fastest transactions were private company acquisitions. Slowest were public company deals.

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Curious: were there any takeaways for the question "what to build for what outcome"?

As in, was there an association with time building + time in market = greater sales price? Did Higher Free Cash Flow or Higher Growth lead to a better ratio (cash v stock) for offers?

Very curious -- four successes is quite the batting average

Ironically (or perhaps interestingly), none were built for the actual outcome. The first, third, and fourth were all built with the dream of IPO in mind. The second was built as a lifestyle business.

Yeah... the batting average is why I've never done a fifth. I wanted to pull a Sandy Koufax and go out on top.

Wow that seems relatively quick. If you're comfortable, can you share the size of these sales and their geography?

All were less than $250M, all were US companies being sold to US-headquartered companies.

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