Define Your Exit Strategy

Güçlü Talu

Co-founder @ Smartup Network

Linkedin Profile

Transferring the ownership of your business to your children is pretty old school these days.  Whether it is partial or full, most entrepreneurs want to exit.   It is never too early to start planning your exit strategy, if you're dreaming of cashing out for an early retirement or to create capital for your new venture.

First of all let's tackle the question, how is it beneficial for your business to set your exit strategy in the earlier phases of your startup?  You might be wondering why you need to do this now, when you already have a ton of things to do on your plate.

The answer is simple: because who you are going to sell to defines what you need to accomplish.  The person who buys your company will decide on whether to invest in your business or not according to some metrics and the nature of those metrics will depend on what the investor wants to do with your business.  For example, the investor might be  interested in your technology because he's planning to use it for the benefit of his company  so it would be a good idea to focus on perfecting your technology in this case.  The investor might be interested in your user base because he has a related business that can sell to your users.  If so,  it might be a good idea to focus on the number of your users.  This means if you face the “monetization or users” dilemma that most entrepreneurs come across sooner or later,  you should prefer the latter in this case.  If the investor is solely interested in adding another profitable  company to his/her portfolio,  that means you need to focus on monetization, which means you have to  excel at everything mentioned above technology and number of users.

Most investors will focus on monetization although a considerable number of startups are bought at very high evaluations without even a penny to their names.  You just have to decide what game you're playing and your end goal so you know which path takes you there.

SMARTUP NETWORK

Smartup Network is a team of entrepreneurs that have experience in building, raising funds and selling startups. Our mission is to support entrepreneurs with bright ideas who don't have the proper team to turn their ideas into products. Our three main areas of expertise are:

Technical
We build their products for entrepreneurs whether they are at idea stage or post-MVP stage.

Product Management
We work alongside entrepreneurs to find the ideal product user experience for their target markets.

Finding Investment
Once our entrepreneurs' products begin showing traction, we get them in contact with the right investors.

So far, we have had the opportunity to build startup 35 products in 16 countries, for entrepreneurs from all over the world including San Francisco, Seattle, Amsterdam, Berlin, Dusseldorf, Copenhagen, Dubai, Johannesburg, Accra, Quito and Istanbul. You can find some of the latest successes of our entrepreneurs' apps through this link. Smartup Network partners with well known startup hubs all over the world. Including but not limited to, Switzerland based Seedstars, which supports startups in developing countries, Boston New Technology Group in the United States and Impact Hub Istanbul, the world-renowned startup hub for social entrepreneurs. Startup experts from all over the world such as. Trivago founder and CEO Rolf Schrömgens and Sina Afra, who was named One of Top 100 Most Influential Tech People in the world by Wired Magazine. Our goal is to support as many entrepreneurs as possible realize their dreams.

Smartup Network
Technical Partner For Your Startup