Phil Castro

This topic headline is kinda ridiculous with the “quick exit” wording. Startup exits usually take 8-10 years if you’re lucky and sometimes 10-15 years if you aren’t as lucky. The 2-5 year “quick exits” are such a small % of venture if we are taking about “meaningful” exits and multiples. Founders, you are in it for the long haul, don’t believe tech crunch headlines with $1.8B exits in 4 years time with $300M raised in venture….they are .04% of startups (which is why they made headlines in the first place).

Every VC says their value add but the real question is what % of their portco founders say the same thing? VC’s can add value in many ways (networks, assistance, intros, education, follow ons, etc) but I’m wary of the VCs who say they add value in all areas.

VCs always have an exit strategy but some of the best founders do not. They simply aren’t intentional about building a business for exit vs building a meaningful business for scale. But let’s pretend the founder and investor are on the same page with an exit in mind, it’s often advantageous as the founder to look at offers that A. Could be strategic B. Could be beneficial for a competitor as the acquirer. These both usually have a lot of upside for the shareholders because the value prop is through the roof and the founders are often times riding on momentum = higher valuations = better returns.

We at Kamp have over 680 (5 star) testimonials. But I care most about the 10-15 negative reviews we got in the last 3 years. These are GOLD! In fact, the people probably thought I was a bit strange since so eager to talk with them while being the owner of the company. Reach out (non confrontational) and ask the people to unpack more; asking what went wrong or how they would change it. Take their suggestions with a grain of salt but take their concerns very seriously. And if you get many of these within the same category, it’s time to iterate your processes. Our NPS score (look up what that means and how to evaluate it) is through the roof and every business owner should be obsessed with this metric + customer service.

Understand your morals, mission, culture and goals. Then do the following that matches the above voice: - create meaningful content consistently - engage on social platforms with audience - follow all people who align with your vision - speak on platforms that focus on your niche - start a newsletter that delivers tangible value - throw events that raise awareness And always be authentic and have fun! Your personal brand will tie back to your company brand whether you like it or not!

The easy answer is vision and equity. To unpack a bit more: most great candidates can demand high pay at big companies, which you, as a startup founder don't have. But, you do have a little thing called equity that is a promising financial incentive if your company has crazy good growth in the upcoming years. So, if you can sell your vision to the great candidates, they will work for $50K/yr instead of $200K/yr because they believe in you and where the company will be heading soon. Of course the candidate must align with your values, mission, and culture as well.