Julian Riedlbauer

START WITH THE EXIT: WHAT YOUR FUTURE SELF WISHES YOU KNEW TODAY

The core message of the session was that founders should “begin with the end in mind”: not by building a company only for an exit, but by making early decisions that will not block a good exit later. The moderator framed the discussion around a practical founder question: what would change today if you already knew how your company ends? Niels Doerje and Julian Riedlbauer positioned the session as a backward-looking exercise from exit, through boardroom and fundraising, back to the founding phase. Julian brought experience from entrepreneurship and more than 80 advised tech transactions since 2008, while Niels spoke from the founder, board member, adviser, and chairpeople perspective. Julian emphasized that most founders sell a company only once, even if they spend many years building product, customers, and market position. Because an acquirer can appear unexpectedly, founders should stay “somewhat exit ready” rather than waiting until a buyer calls. He described exit readiness across three dimensions: operating quality, strategic alignment, and technical housekeeping. Operationally, companies should focus on customers, product, KPIs, tech stack, and building a great business rather than shaping everything around a sale. Strategically, they should understand growth plans, road maps, and how the company could fit with future buyers, including the possibility that strong business partners become the best bidders because they already trust the team and understand synergies. The session then detailed what buyers scrutinize in due diligence and valuation. Julian warned that reporting, annual accounts, tax filings, legal documentation, software documentation, share transfers, capital increases, and IP ownership can all create problems if not clearly documented. He explained that strategic buyers consider not only the standalone company but also synergies, while sophisticated acquirers benchmark companies against many others on metrics such as Rule of 40 performance, revenue retention, cash EBITDA, scalability, technology, customer concentration, and whether an AI product is truly AI native. He also noted that buyers are risk averse: not buying is often safer for a corporate manager than buying a company that later fails. The discussion also compared valuation dynamics in AI-native companies and slower-growing enterprise software. Julian said very fast-growing AI-native companies can command valuations of 30x to 50x ARR when growing 3x, 5x, or 10x year on year, while slower-growing enterprise software valuations have dropped after public-market resets affecting companies such as SAP, Salesforce, and Workday. The Flight Keys case study illustrated why governance and shareholder alignment matter early: with seven founders, one early-stage VC, and no later rounds, two founders wanted to sell after eight to ten years while five did not. Because no clear sale-trigger agreement existed, the process nearly created a stakeholder conflict, even though more than 10 offers were received and Inside Partners ultimately became the buyer everyone accepted.