The economy has changed. Venture capital has changed. Financing and exit strategies for entrepreneurs have changed dramatically. Exit opportunities have changed dramatically in the past few years. Companies are getting sold early than ever before. Tech companies are often sold only one or two years from start up.

Exits are the least understood part of investing and entrepreneurship. Very little has been written about exits – the emphasis is usually on starting, financing and growing technology companies.

Almost all of the earlier books on exit strategies were for business owners who wanted to retire. Recently, there have been a number of books written about exit transactions for traditional venture capitalists. “Early Exits” is the first book about selling companies specifically written for entrepreneurs and angel investors.

Today, it’s most likely a company will be sold without ever having an investment from a venture capitalist. This is happening because the traditional venture capital model is badly broken and because new technologies make it possible for entrepreneurs to build companies with far less capital than ever before.

The reported median price of private companies that are sold is about $25 million. But this only includes the transactions where price is disclosed. Most often, the price is not disclosed for the smaller transactions. The median price for private M&A transactions is probably under $15 million.

Today, growth by acquisition is the best way for big companies to grow. Many large companies are spending more on M&A than R&D. Big companies know they are not good at starting businesses or growing businesses from zero to $20 or 30 million in value. Large companies are much better at growing businesses from $ 20 million to $200 million in value. This has created an environment where companies are being sold earlier than ever before.

These trends have created a golden era for entrepreneurs. Never before has it been so easy for entrepreneurs to build valuable companies on so little capital, and to sell them so quickly for so much money.

The first step in building a company that will have an early exit is to ensure all of the shareholders aligned on the exit strategy. Every company needs a clear exit strategy – right from founding. It doesn’t have to be complicated. Good exit strategies are often only a few sentences long. The important thing is to have all of the shareholders aligned on the exit strategy. “Early Exits” is about exit strategies that every entrepreneur and angel investor should be utilizing right from start up to maximize the chances of an early, profitable sale of their companies.

The goal of this book is to help entrepreneurs and angel investors have more successful, more frequent and more profitable exits.

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