Episode 218

The Art of Exit Preparation: Kirk Michie’s Advisory Insights

This week on The Exit: Kirk Michie, managing partner at Candor Advisors, shares insights from his 30-year career in capital markets and M&A advisory.

He discusses his transition from financial advising to helping founders navigate successful exits.

Kirk emphasizes the importance of understanding your “why” as a founder before pursuing an exit, noting that matching with the right buyer depends on understanding one’s core motivations and objectives with your exit.

Regarding valuations and buyers an owner will face, Kirk speaks through how the multiples and types of buyers will change according to characteristics of your business and variables including EBITDA size, revenue sources, and risk factors.

Kirk heavily stresses the need for proper preparation and protection, which includes professionalizing financials before sharing with potential buyers, avoiding sharing raw QuickBooks data, and being cautious about revealing too much information too soon.

For more details and insights from his entrepreneurial journey, listen to the latest episode of The Exit.

Personal Bio: 

Kirk Michie is the managing partner of Candor Advisors, which are consultants to founder-led businesses contemplating capital events and value enhancement.

For more than 30 years, Kirk has worked with entrepreneurs, closely held business owners, and high-net-worth families to achieve their strategic planning, liquidity, and legacy objectives. Kirk has raised and deployed more than $1 billion of capital, been involved with evaluating more than 2,000 direct investments, and participated as principal or advisor on dozens of buyout, refinancing, or sale transactions.  

Websites – https://candor-advisors.com/

https://www.ebitdauniversity.com/

LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/kirkmichie/

Check Out Flippa’s Data Insights Tool: https://flippa.com/data-insights

The Exit—Presented By Flippa: A 30-minute podcast featuring expert entrepreneurs who have been there and done it. The Exit talks to operators who have bought and sold a business. You’ll learn how they did it, why they did it, and get exposure to the world of exits, a world occupied by a small few, but accessible to many. To listen to the podcast or get daily listing updates, click on flippa.com/the-exit-podcast/

YOUR HOST

Steve McGarry

An entrepreneur, content creator, and investor based in sunny Tampa, Florida. In 2015, while living in San Francisco, Steve sold his first fintech startup LendLayer to Max Levchin’s (founder of PayPal) consumer finance company Affirm.

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