P514 - Knowing your “ideal buyer profile” is critical to planning a great exit, with David Eldridge, SaaS Founder, NED and Chair

“The Art of Exiteering”, or taking the long term view, in order
to maximise the value of an M&A or IPO — building long term
readiness to have a significant and positive impact on that
outcome.


Highlights:
- If you are building a great tech company you must have a
thorough understanding of the ecosystem you are disrupting
- Partnerships are very important in long term value creation for
distribution, innovation, and ultimately exit
- Creating optionality for stakeholders is critical in the exit
process


The companies Notion invest in share much in common: they all
want to build businesses that dominate categories, that scale and
endure. At some point in their journey, they will want to realise
the value of their hard work, allowing themselves as founders,
and us as funders, to realise our investments. They may end up
listing on the public markets or being acquired – the latter
being more likely for European companies.  


That exit may well be far in the distance for many founders, even
as they achieve significant success. Some people will say, “build
a great business and the outcome will take care of itself” and
while that is true to an extent, we also believe that long term
readiness can have a significant and positive impact on that
outcome. We call this “The Art of Exiteering”; taking the long
term view, in order to maximise the value of an M&A or IPO


Stephen Millard and Paul Papadimitriou discuss with David
Eldridge. David founded Alterian which he led through
IPO and subsequent acquisition of four companies; Alterian was
then acquired by SDL in 2011. He Chaired Idio, a Notion company
for six years which was acquired by Episerver in 2019. David is
now the Chair, formerly CEO, and joint founder of 3radical, Chair
of Apperio and Non-exec Director at Neighbourly and Precision
Point.

Read more:
https://notion.vc/resources/knowing-your-ideal-buyer-profile-is-critical-to-planning-a-great-exit/