The Buyer Has Been Watching You for Years

Welcome back to another edition of The Wise Exit newsletter. This week kicks off a new mini-series: lessons straight from our Exited Founders, the people who’ve built, grown, and sold companies of their own. Over the next few editions, we’ll share what they wish they’d known before they sold.

This week, we’re covering:

• Why the best buyers know your name years before you decide to sell

• 5 questions to find out who’s already paying attention to you

• 3 things you can do this week to start building those relationships

Let’s get to it.

💡 This Week’s Big Idea

In Their Words, Part 1: The Buyer Has Been Watching You for Years

We asked our Exited Founders what they wish they’d known before they sold.

A lot of their answers landed in the same place. The best buyers aren’t strangers. They’re relationships founders built long before they needed them.

Here’s what they told us.

1. The buyer has been watching longer than you think. An Exited Founder who has sold several consumer companies said the strategic acquirer who buys your brand has usually been watching you for two or three years. They’ve seen you at industry events. They know your numbers. Someone on their corporate development team has had your name in a spreadsheet since before you had a CFO.

2. Showing up cold costs you leverage. In her words: “If you show up cold on the day you decide to sell, you’re not going to market. You’re going to a room full of strangers and asking them to fall in love on a deadline.” That’s how you end up with one bidder and no leverage.

3. Casual relationships become decisive. An Exited Founder from fintech told us that relationships he built years earlier, through conferences, partnerships, or simple familiarity, often became decisive when an unexpected offer showed up. Many buyers only engage seriously based on trust built long before a process begins. His takeaway: companies are bought, not sold.

4. You can’t force a good deal. Another Exited Founder learned that you can’t force a sale on good terms. Founders are much better off building real relationships with likely acquirers early, understanding what they value, and creating leverage before they ever need a deal.

5. Your story takes years to sink in. One Exited Founder’s advice is to start telling your story as early as possible. It helps with recruiting and fundraising, and it also plants your strategic story with your ideal buyer, which takes years. He also learned not to be reactive to inbound interest. Assume most unsolicited M&A requests are information gathering, and run a process when you’re ready.

6. Options change everything. An Exited Founder who sold into the enterprise said that entering exit conversations without multiple options weakens your position more than most founders expect.

Not every buyer comes through a direct relationship, either. One Exited Founder was acquired by a company that had never worked with them. The buyer heard about them through the industry and followed their product publicly, then reached out cold with the intention to acquire.

Either way, the buyer was paying attention long before the first call.

None of this means you need to start shopping your company. It means making a few friends years before you need them. As one Exited Founder put it, it costs you almost nothing, and it’s worth an absurd amount of money later.

❓ 5 Key Questions to Ask Yourself This Week

1️⃣ If I decided to sell next year, could I name the companies most likely to buy my business?

2️⃣ Do the right people at those companies actually know who I am?

3️⃣ If an unsolicited offer landed tomorrow, would I have other options to compare it against?

4️⃣ What story would my ideal buyer tell about my company today?

5️⃣ When an inbound M&A inquiry shows up, do I treat it like a deal or like information gathering?

📋 3 Action Items for This Week

☑️ Write down your likely buyers: Strategics, competitors, private equity, family offices. Get names on paper, not just categories.

☑️ Pick two or three and start a real relationship: A conference conversation, a partnership, or a simple check-in. The goal is familiarity, not a pitch.

☑️ Make your story visible: Buyers follow what you put out publicly. Make sure what they see tells the story you want them to remember.

That’s all for this week. Remember, the deal you get often depends on the relationships you built before you ever needed one.

If your business is doing over $2M in annual revenue and you want to think through who your likely buyers are, book a free strategy call with me here.

Talk next week,

Brian Dukes

Managing Partner at Exitwise

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