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Exit
Exit strategy
What kind of exit could make sense for the company I am building?
Exit · The Journey
What SOE has for this problem
Start with what is actually available.
essential · 5 min
Startup Exit Strategies: Acquisition, Merger, Secondary Sale, IPO, or Wind-Down
A founder guide to the main ways a startup can create liquidity or transfer ownership, and the decisions that make an exit workable.
guide · 3 min
How Should Founders Compare a Full Sale and Partial Liquidity Option?
Compare ownership transferred, cash received, retained upside, control, risk, tax and post-closing obligations. Partial liquidity and a full sale solve different founder problems.
story · 10 min
Sabeer Bhatia and the Hotmail Sale: What Hindsight Can and Cannot Tell a Founder
A documented founder story about Sabeer Bhatia and Hotmail, and what the case reveals about exit decisions under uncertainty.
story · 9 min
Myles Glashier and the Phocas Exit: What Founder Transferability Looks Like in Practice
A documented Phocas founder story about bootstrapping, scaling, the 2025 sale to Accel-KKR, founder dependence and the personal realities of an exit.
What comes next
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