Exit Planning & Liquidity Strategy
Written 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, which 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
Go deeper on this topic: On Rubric Financial (our sister practice for personal planning): Estate and Gift Tax Valuation Discounts→
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About the author
Harry PrabandhamFounder & CEO
Founder and CEO of StartupCFO. MBA from Wharton, MS in Computer Science, and decades of experience building and advising venture-backed startups.
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