How to Sell Your Startup with Mark Achler

Innovation and the Digital Enterprise

Between confidentiality agreements, polite manners, and ego, it can be difficult to get a real story of what selling a company is like. Breaking that taboo was the inspiration for Exit Right, a book co-authored by today’s guest Mark Achler, Managing Director at MATH Venture Partners.

In this episode, Mark shares the hard-earned lessons captured in Exit Right about key actions that lead to successful exits. He makes the case for viewing these transactions not as a moment in time but as an opportunity to build relationships and value over a long time horizon. Mark emphasizes the need to deeply understand the rationale for the transaction, the value of maintaining empathy for all stakeholders, and why trust is everything.

• (01:36) – MATH Venture Partners
• (04:23) – Exit Right: how to sell your startup
• (10:29) – FAIR framework for successful acquisitions
• (18:53) – Start early & build relationships
• (21:03) – Mark’s empathy rules
• (25:40) – Upcoming debt apocalypse
• (28:52) – Are economic interests aligned?
• (31:25) – The inevitable economics of trust
• (39:00) – Widening your lens beyond a single deal

Mark Achler is the Managing Director at MATH Venture Partners, an early to growth-stage venture capital fund focusing on technical and digital companies. Mark is a faculty member at Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management in entrepreneurship and innovation and co-authored Exit Right with Mert Iseri. He earned a bachelor’s degree in history and economics from Purdue University.

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Podcast episode production by Dante32.