The Exit Strategy Business Plan: Kill Your Darlings Today To Get Bought Tomorrow

One of the first things I say to every founder I work with is "Where, ultimately, do you want to take this business?".

Most companies come to our services because of a really acute problem that's impacting them today, so it may seem a little like bad customer experience that I immediately want to ignore today's issue and focus on something that could be 5-10 years in the future, if ever.

But it's so, so crucial to have an eye on tomorrow in everything that you're doing today - particularly when that comes to prioritising - if you ever want to get in sights of your end goal.

Another classic Milly phrase is "There are a million things you could be doing today. There are maybe one or two you actually should be doing today."

We're, all of us, overwhelmed with ideas and options and possibilities and it can feel so impossible to choose the right one at times. If you're anything like a lot of the founders and CEOs we've worked with over the last few years, you fear the opportunity cost of not exploring that thing you heard about at that conference last week - unfortunately, your team has some fears here too. If they're being a hundred percent honest with you, they probably mainly fear you going to that conference in the first place because they know it's going to cause some chaos over the subsequent weeks.

In the early days of a startup, these "wild ideas" that bounce around in your brain were the fuel. You stayed alive by being nimble, pivoting on a sixpence, and chasing every whisper of an opportunity. But there comes a point in the lifecycle of every successful company where the very thing that built the business - the founder’s relentless creativity - becomes the biggest threat to its entire purpose, namely its exit strategy.

To put it bluntly, because I'm nothing if not direct: if you want to be acquired, it's time to stop being a laboratory and start being a laser.

The myth of the "more is more" business plan and why it kills your exit strategy

The earlier stage Founders and CEOs that we work with often fall into the trap of thinking that a "bigger" product with "more" features and "varied" revenue streams is more attractive to a buyer.

It isn't.

When a major player looks to acquire a startup, they aren’t looking for a messy collection of "cool ideas." They are looking for a specific, high-functioning machine that solves a problem they cannot solve themselves. They are buying your strategic alignment with their own roadmap and the possibility that spins out of that - not a spinning wheel of different possibilities.

If you spending even 20% of your resources chasing a "wild idea" that sits outside your core mission, you aren't "diversifying", you're diluting. You are making your business harder to integrate and, therefore, more expensive and annoying to buy.

The true opportunity cost to your exist strategy of a "Wild Idea"

We often talk about the opportunity cost of ignoring an idea - the "FOMO" of missing the next big thing. But when you get to a certain stage of scaling your business, the opportunity cost of pursuing an idea is almost always higher than ignoring it.

Every time you green-light a tangential project, you aren't just spending money, you're spending:

1. Founder focus: Your most limited and valuable resource.

2. Engineering velocity: Your team's now maintaining two different visions instead of perfecting one.

3. Market clarity: You’re confusing your customers (and your potential acquirers) about what you actually stand for.

It is far more "expensive" to build a feature no one wants than it is to "miss out" on a trend that doesn't fit your core exit strategy business plan.

Kill Your Darlings (for the greater good)

The phrase "kill your darlings" originated with British writer Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch in his classic 1916 book "On the Art of Writing" and it's something that I try to hold in the back of my brain at all times.

"Whenever you feel an impulse to perpetrate a piece of exceptionally fine writing, obey it whole-heartedly—and delete it before sending your manuscript to press. Murder your darlings".

Essentially, it means that even if a sentence is beautiful, if it doesn't move the story forward, it has to go (something I, a painfully verbose amateur writer with a Philosophy and English undergrad degree hanging over my head, very much struggle with - I am not a friend to the delete button at the best of times).

The same applies to your business. You might have a "darling" idea - a project you’re personally obsessed with - but if it doesn't move you closer to being the "missing piece" for an acquirer, it is a distraction.

Acquirers want to buy a specialist company, not a generalist one. They have a specific gap to fill and to make the wedge that fills that gap, you have to have the discipline to say "no" to 99 good ideas so that the 1 great idea - the one they're going to pay millions for - is flawless.

Is your Strategy exit-ready?

If you’re struggling to decide whether to pursue that new, shiny idea, ask yourself these three questions:

1. Does this idea make us more or less attractive to our top 3 target acquirers?

2. Does this move us toward our defined strategic goal, or is it a side-quest?

3. If we spend time on this, what part of our core "exit-ready" product will suffer?

In short, focus is a choice

Day to day and longer-term prioritisation isn't just about making a list of what you're going to do, it’s also about making a "not-to-do" list. It’s about accepting that your business cannot be all things to all people.

If your goal is an acquisition, your exit strategy business plan must be your North Star. Everything else - no matter how brilliant - is just noise.

If you're ready to stop chasing the "new" and start perfecting the "valuable", give us a shout:

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