Andrew GazdeckiSerial Entrepreneur Driving Startup Acquisitions

The Exit Advice Every Founder Learns Too Late

15 Nov 2025 · 1 min

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0:34

A short interview-style conversation (host Andrew Gazdecki and another speaker) offering exit advice for founders: businesses are typically bought, not sold, so founders should cultivate long-term relationships with potential strategic acquirers years before an exit; building trust and familiarity simplifies acquisition negotiations and sponsor approval.

Chapters

My best advice to like any founders or people looking to get their business acquired would be businesses are bought, not sold. And so like if you're trying to spend a lot of time to sell your business, what I would say you can definitely run a whole process and that's helpful and use a platform like Acquire. But I would say the best thing you can do is start to build those relationships and partnerships with potential acquirers years in advance. Like a lot of the acquisitions we've done have been with companies we've known for some period of time other than like Bench, but we've at least known people that work there or people that we familiar with the products and services with those companies. So that makes a big, big difference. Right. It makes it much easier. The trust is and everything else. And I think that goes a long way with sponsors internally.
Completely agree. I think a lot of entrepreneurs underestimate just how long a strategic acquisition can take, how important that relationship is when the time comes to sell their business. So. Completely agree.
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