CFO & Strategy
Exit Planning & Liquidity Strategy
Collated by Harry Prabandham
Curated by Rubric Financial
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Types of Exits
- Acquisition: another company buys yours — the most common exit for venture-backed startups (90%+ of exits are acquisitions, not IPOs)
- IPO: going public on a stock exchange — requires significant scale ($100M+ ARR typically), strong governance, and readiness for public market scrutiny
- Secondary sale: founders or employees sell shares to private buyers before an IPO or acquisition — provides partial liquidity without a full exit
- Acquihire: a company acquires yours primarily for the team, not the product — often structured as earn-out, which can be challenging for founders
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