Exit Strategy Bootcamp
41 Weeks
·Cohort-based Course
Successful acquisitions happen when companies are bought, not sold. That is why savvy entrepreneurs prepare for an acquisition in advance.
Exit Strategy Bootcamp
41 Weeks
·Cohort-based Course
Successful acquisitions happen when companies are bought, not sold. That is why savvy entrepreneurs prepare for an acquisition in advance.
Course overview
Learn how to sell your startup − on your own terms
For every IPO, there are 30 acquisitions each year. Yet few entrepreneurs take the critical steps to prepare for an acquisition.
The Exit Strategy Bootcamp is a 2-week virtual course and private community for those who want to take charge of the ultimate fate of their startups.
Who is this course for?
01
VC-backed startup founders who want to create viable strategic options and maximize their chances of success in a sale to an acquirer
02
Investors aspiring to deliver outsized strategic value to the startups in their portfolio and supercharge their exit performance
03
Business / corporate development leaders seeking to optimize their impact in selecting, approaching, and negotiating with strategic partners
Why take the Exit Strategy Bootcamp?
Discover what it takes to build a startup that is bought, not sold
Learn the ways to identify and build the requisite relationships with potential acquirers and best create a dynamic whereby you are pursued by the top acquirers on your wishlist. Find out what works and avoid common pitfalls and traps for the unwary.
Learn how to create a winning exit strategy
A winning exit strategy addresses the most critical strategic questions for your startup and helps you achieve alignment with your key stakeholders on what is a successful outcome. You will learn how to run an effective strategy offsite and create your exit strategy canvas.
Acquire the skills to approach and cultivate strategic partnerships
Companies don't do deals, people do. And in today's hypercompetitive and interconnected world, startups that know how to create alliances have an unfair advantage. Learn how to network like a pro, build trust, and open doors to game changing opportunities with strategic partners.
Maximize your chances of success during the exit sale negotiations
Even smallest of startups can negotiate successfully with trillion dollar companies to obtain desirable terms. Learn the pillars of successful negotiation so you can best prepare for the most important strategic transactions in your startup's lifecycle.
Exit Strategy Bootcamp
Meet your instructor
Touraj Parang
Serial entrepreneur (4 exits), advisor at Pear VC (DoorDash, Gusto, Branch, etc), bestselling author, and 7-year VP Corp Dev at GoDaddy
Touraj is a veteran Silicon Valley dealmaker. He is a seasoned entrepreneur, investor, advisor, and M&A expert who has sat in almost every seat around the table structuring and negotiating strategic transactions since late 1990’s, including as a corporate attorney at legal powerhouses WSGR and O’Melveny & Myers.
He has been a founder, executive, and trusted advisor to several fast-growing technology startups with exits to LinkedIn, Instacart, Vistaprint, Postmates, and Amplitude among others. He has also spent nearly a decade on the acquirer side of M&A deals as a corporate development executive at Webs and GoDaddy.
In his new book Exit Path, Touraj draws on his decades long unique experience involving his startups including Jaxtr, UpCounsel, and Lox, as well as hundreds of M&A transactions, strategic partnerships, and venture capital investments totaling billions of dollars in aggregate value. He is currently the President and Chief Operating Officer at Serve Robotics, which he helped spin out of Uber, and an Operating Advisor at Pear VC, an early-stage venture capital firm (early investor in DoorDash, Gusto, Branch, Aurora Solar, etc), where he enjoys collaborating with and providing strategic guidance to mission-driven entrepreneurs.
He earned his JD from the Yale Law School and his AB in Philosophy and Economics from Stanford University.
What others say...
Lily Sarafan
Haroon Mokhtarzada
Jeff Seibert
Hooman Radfar
Acquire the tools and techniques to attract strategic partners to your startup
Learn how to create and implement an effective exit strategy that will tilt the odds of startup success and survival in your favor.
Course syllabus
01
Foundations for Success: Exit Facts, Myths, and Taboos
A number of myths and biases about selling a business have rendered exit planning discussions a taboo topic. This session prepares you to dispel those myths and open the communication channels with your key stakeholders because creating and executing an exit strategy is not a solitary endeavor and requires close collaboration with them.
02
Creating Your Exit Strategy: Offsite, Brainstorming & the Exit Strategy Canvas (ESC)
Learn the best practices, tools, and techniques to running an effective strategy session that best aligns your exit plan with your startup's values, mission, and aspirations. The output of this exercise provides you with the orientation and framework by which to assess and prioritize how you will build and nurture future strategic relationships.
03
Playing the Long Game: Momentum, Strategic Partnerships, Leverage
This session provides you with guidance on how to develop your strategic relationships, champions, exit team, and leverage to maximize your startup's chances for success and survival.
04
Winning the Short Game: From Courtship to Closing
This session demystifies the entire process of selling your startup and provides you with the knowledge on how to obtain and negotiate acquisition offers. You will learn how M&A deals are structured and valued, the deal killers to avoid, and the guiding principles to successfully navigate some of the most challenging aspects of a sale.
I intend to keep this course small to maximize opportunity for interactions and Q&A.
If interested in current cohort, be sure to reserve your seat today
Course schedule
4-6 hours per week
Tuesdays & Thursdays (Oct 18- 25)
1:00pm - 2:30pm EST
Each 1.5 hour live session is recorded for future viewing. However, participation is highly encouraged to benefit from instructor and peer feedback during Q&A and breakout sessions.
Optional Reading
2-3 hours per week
Each session will reference material from the instructor's book Exit Path assigned as optional pre-reading
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