The Exit - Presented By Flippa

• Hard Truths, Growth Stories, and Bulletproofing Your Business for Sale with Heather Schuck

  Want a quick estimate of how much your business is worth? With our free valuation calculator, answer a few questions about your business and you’ll get an immediate estimate of the value of your business. You might be surprised by how much you can get for it: https://flippa.com/exit -- In this episode of The Exit: Heather Schuck shares her journey from neuropsychology to baby fashion mogul to co-founding Elevated Exit, where she helps founders build sellable businesses. Drawing from her own burnout-driven exit, she reveals hard truths about SOPs, real business assets, and the power of a compelling growth story. She discusses timing, AI integration, and why many founders regret PE earn-outs. Whether you're planning years ahead or already itching to move on, Heather’s straight-talking advice offers a smart, strategic lens on what it really takes to exit well—and why you should start preparing long before you think you're ready. -- Heather Schuck is a dynamic sales and marketing strategist with over 20 years of experience helping businesses optimize their internal sales and marketing systems to increase their valuation and position them for successful exits at higher multiples. She works closely with CEOs and founders to refine their go-to-market strategies and create a robust, data-driven sales pipeline to support near-term growth projections, positively impacting investor confidence. With over $300 million in attributed revenue, Heather has a keen ability for identifying new growth opportunities, deep insight into customer behaviors, and a proven track record of aligning marketing with sales to close high-ticket deals faster. Her ability to create actionable growth plans and implement efficient, lean operations to maximize revenue without overspending on customer acquisition or retention makes her an invaluable asset for companies looking to boost their valuation before an exit. Heather on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/heatherlschuck/ Website: https://elevatedexitpartners.com/ -- The Exit—Presented By Flippa: A 30-minute podcast featuring expert entrepreneurs who have been there and done it. The Exit talks to operators who have bought and sold a business. You’ll learn how they did it, why they did it, and get exposure to the world of exits, a world occupied by a small few, but accessible to many. To listen to the podcast or get daily listing updates, click on flippa.com/the-exit-podcast/

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• One Patent Away: How Smart IP Strategy Can 10x Your Exit Valuation with Craige Thompson

  Want a quick estimate of how much your business is worth? With our free valuation calculator, answer a few questions about your business and you’ll get an immediate estimate of the value of your business. You might be surprised by how much you can get for it: https://flippa.com/exit -- In this episode of The Exit: In this tactical and deeply personal episode, patent attorney and engineer Craige Thompson shares how a devastating loss in his family sparked a lifelong mission to help entrepreneurs protect—and profit from—their innovations. From protecting EBITDA during an exit to engineering “commercially valuable choke points,” Craige reveals how patents can give you a monopoly-like edge and even solve for all five of Porter’s Five Forces. You'll learn when not to file a patent, how to evaluate whether your idea is truly novel, and why licensing your IP with “field of use” carve-outs can lead to surprising monetization wins. Whether you're startup-curious or exit-ready, this episode is packed with frameworks, red flags, and real-world examples to rethink IP as a strategic weapon, not just legal paperwork. -- Craige grew up in his father’s entrepreneurial small business in Fond du Lac, WI, where he learned the importance of protecting small businesses and helping them thrive. At Thompson Patent Law, Craige built a firm that focuses on creating Litigation Quality Patents® services—intellectual property assets designed to drive measurable business value. Their team ensures clients avoid unnecessary costs by focusing only on patents with real strategic potential. Through his Amazon #1 best-seller Patent Offense and the Litigation Quality Patent Podcast, Craige shares strategies to maximize IP value. Craige on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/craigeothompson/ Website: https://thompsonpatentlaw.com/ -- The Exit—Presented By Flippa: A 30-minute podcast featuring expert entrepreneurs who have been there and done it. The Exit talks to operators who have bought and sold a business. You’ll learn how they did it, why they did it, and get exposure to the world of exits, a world occupied by a small few, but accessible to many. To listen to the podcast or get daily listing updates, click on flippa.com/the-exit-podcast/

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  30:27
• Exiting in Silicon Valley: Derek Collison on Cloud Wars, Kubernetes, and Synadia

  Want a quick estimate of how much your business is worth? With our free valuation calculator, answer a few questions about your business and you’ll get an immediate estimate of the value of your business. You might be surprised by how much you can get for it: https://flippa.com/exit -- In this episode of The Exit: Derek Collison, founder and CEO of Synadia and previously Apcera and creator of Cloud Foundry, explores his storied career in tech, entrepreneurship, and building platforms that shaped modern cloud computing. From starting with a Commodore 64 at age 12 to working at Google, VMware, and founding Apcera—Derek shares how he turned distributed systems challenges into billion-dollar ideas. He unpacks the high-speed growth, fundraising challenges, and exit to Ericsson, before launching his latest venture, Synadia, built on the NATS open-source tech now downloaded over 300 million times. Derek opens up about: Getting into tech as a teenager in the 1980s Building Cloud Foundry at VMware after a call from Paul Maritz Starting Apcera and scaling to 150 employees in 12 months Navigating an acquisition by Ericsson amidst Kubernetes disruption How to survive the VC game: from seed to Series B His playbook for product-led platform companies and why most fail The emotional toll, decision-making pressure, and rewards of being a founder Why introverts need to lean in and chase serendipity How Synadia is powering AI at the edge, connected cars, and Industry 4.0 "Be humble, lean in, and don’t delay hard decisions" — Derek’s advice rings true for every founder navigating the speed and pressure of today’s tech ecosystem -- Derek Collison is a 30 year industry veteran, entrepreneur, and pioneer in secure and large-scale distributed systems and cloud computing. He helped change the way financial, transportation, and logistics systems fundamentally worked while spending over a decade at TIBCO, designing systems that still power much of those industries today. During his time at VMWare, Derek designed and architected CloudFoundry, the first open-source enterprise PaaS. He then founded Apcera, a company designed to drive security and policy into easy to use platform technologies. After the successful sale of Apcera to Ericsson, Derek took the messaging technology he designed to power the CloudFoundry and Apcera systems, NATS.io, and created Synadia. Synadia is pioneering secure and global messaging as a digital utility to help drive security and powerful communication and collaboration into IoT, edge, and cloud computing systems. Derek on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/derekcollison/ Website: https://www.synadia.com/ -- The Exit—Presented By Flippa: A 30-minute podcast featuring expert entrepreneurs who have been there and done it. The Exit talks to operators who have bought and sold a business. You’ll learn how they did it, why they did it, and get exposure to the world of exits, a world occupied by a small few, but accessible to many. To listen to the podcast or get daily listing updates, click on flippa.com/the-exit-podcast/

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  37:11
• From Founder to Fortune: How to Exit Without Regret with Chris Vanderzyden

  Want a quick estimate of how much your business is worth? With our free valuation calculator, answer a few questions about your business and you’ll get an immediate estimate of the value of your business. You might be surprised by how much you can get for it: https://flippa.com/exit -- In this episode of The Exit: Chris Vanderzyden, founder and CEO of Legacy Partners and a former CPA turned entrepreneur, doesn’t just talk about selling companies—she's lived it. Twice. After experiencing the good, the bad, and the "wish-I-knew-that-earlier" of business exits, she set out to reinvent the process. Her mission? To help business owners walk away from their life's work not just with a check, but with peace of mind. The Wake-Up Call: Chris shares how too many entrepreneurs are caught off guard—often approached by buyers with zero preparation. Letters of intent in hand, they’re suddenly scrambling to understand their business’s true value and what the deal means for their future. Her message is clear: Don’t wait for a knock at the door. Start planning today. Chris built Legacy Partners around a simple idea: exiting a business is personal. It’s about money, sure—but it’s also about identity, timing, legacy, and life after the deal. Her team helps owners develop a “master exit plan” that includes: Valuation early and often: Not just to know what your business is worth today—but what can be done to intentionally increase that value before selling. Tactical tax planning: Like estate freezes and trusts—moves that take time and can’t be done in the eleventh hour. Team building: From M&A attorneys to wealth managers, having the right specialists matters. (Spoiler: your real estate lawyer isn’t the one to negotiate your exit.) What are Chris’s top takeaways? Biggest mistake you can make? Waiting too long to plan—and failing to understand your EBITDA is more important than just growing revenue. Timing is everything—externally (sector roll-ups, interest rates, market trends) and internally (don’t wait until you’ve “maxed out” the business). Growth potential matters: Buyers want a runway ahead. If it looks like there’s no room left to scale, it can hurt your valuation. It’s not about the top-line number—it’s what’s left after taxes, debt, and fees that really counts. -- Chris Vanderzyden is the President & CEO of Legacy Partners, LLC, an exit planning and M&A advisory firm dedicated to serving privately held, middle-market business owners, in creating and executing successful exit strategies resulting in the harvesting and preservation of wealth. She began her career as a CPA for Coopers & Lybrand, the company that later became PricewaterhouseCoopers following a merger, and subsequently served as an asset manager with Northwest Asset Management in Los Angeles. Following her positions in the corporate world, Chris became an entrepreneur and has successfully built and sold multiple businesses. She has over twenty years of experience consulting for M&A firms and privately held businesses as they grow and ultimately execute their exit plans. Chris’s Latest Book on Amazon: https://a.co/d/2M2dWDc Chris on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisvanderzyden/ Website: https://legacypartnersllp.com/ -- The Exit—Presented By Flippa: A 30-minute podcast featuring expert entrepreneurs who have been there and done it. The Exit talks to operators who have bought and sold a business. You’ll learn how they did it, why they did it, and get exposure to the world of exits, a world occupied by a small few, but accessible to many. To listen to the podcast or get daily listing updates, click on flippa.com/the-exit-podcast/

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  33:36
• Maximizing Value, Minimizing Stress: Sarah Hawley on Financial Planning Business Exits

  Want a quick estimate of how much your business is worth? With our free valuation calculator, answer a few questions about your business and you’ll get an immediate estimate of the value of your business. You might be surprised by how much you can get for it: https://flippa.com/exit -- In this episode of The Exit: Sarah Hawley’s entrepreneurial journey started at 18 when she joined her family's financial planning business. By 25, she was leading the company, building a successful 17-year career before expanding into multiple ventures. From her first financial planning exit to multiple million-dollar successes, Sarah has mastered the art of business growth, high-value exits, and client relationship management. Along the way, she navigated burnout, built a thriving community for women entrepreneurs, and faced the challenges of fundraising for her latest venture. Her story is a powerful testament to resilience, strategic transitions, and the realities of scaling businesses. -- Sarah Hawley is a serial entrepreneur and investor in startups, having founded 8 companies since 2009. Following three successful exits, she is currently the Founder & CEO of growmotely.com (the first global platform for sourcing, growing and leading remote teams), and the Co-Founder of the League of Extraordinary Women. She's personally fueled by a passion for challenging the status quo of how we work, conscious culture and leadership, community, diversity and equality, and living life on one's own terms. Website: https://www.leagueofextraordinarywomen.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theleaguewomen/ Sarah on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahriegelhuth/ -- The Exit—Presented By Flippa: A 30-minute podcast featuring expert entrepreneurs who have been there and done it. The Exit talks to operators who have bought and sold a business. You’ll learn how they did it, why they did it, and get exposure to the world of exits, a world occupied by a small few, but accessible to many. To listen to the podcast or get daily listing updates, click on flippa.com/the-exit-podcast/

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  38:35

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