We are bringing this Executing Exits workshop to the Carolinas for the first time because exits are so integral to angel investing, and so crucial to all the efforts aiming to develop our early stage community.
We’re also personally interested in the workshop, as “executing exits ourselves” has been an important part of our “prior lives.”
To blow our horns for three paragraphs, Mac has sold five companies himself – including KYCK.com to NBC Sports and Mountain Khakis to Remington. He is an exceptional resource to help companies create a long-term exit strategy – and execute it. Start with his blog here.
Paul began his career at NM Rothschild & Sons in London – one of the oldest, active, and most prestigious M&A advisory firms in Europe. He helped advise on sales of companies sold for in total almost $10 billion – including the largest sale of a chain of hospitals in the UK.
And under Matt’s stewardship VentureSouth’s investors have already seen 9 investment rounds fully exited (and 11 more partially exited). You can see a list of these exits on our portfolio page.
VentureSouth’s exits have included some stellar returns – including several returns above our target 50% IRR.* In aggregate they have generated a 1.4x return, and quickly enough to create an IRR overall of 60%. These have ranged from one at 6% IRR (not amazing, though still beating those indices) to one at 2817% IRR (amazing). Please refer more of those to us!
But even with this long expertise and positive track record, we have plenty more learning to do. We have several companies that are not as close to reaching an exit as they could have been by now. How can investors encourage / cajole / help / compel their portfolio companies to drive to an exit? Perhaps this workshop is the first step.
*IRR = Internal Rate of Return = an annual rate of return. 50% IRR compares to around 7% annual return from owning public equities.