Swami Kakarla CEO & Founder, Signitives IT Solutions.
When you start a company, everything feels urgent. You’re racing to build the product, land your first customer, hire the right team, ship the MVP, pitch to investors and keep the lights on.
The thrill is real. The energy is electric. And in that chaos, there’s one powerful question that too few founders pause to ask: “How will this end?”
It sounds odd, even negative, to think about exit when you’re just getting started. But after three decades of building businesses, mentoring founders and experiencing exits both graceful and painful, I’ve come to a simple realization: An exit strategy isn’t about quitting—it’s about clarity. It gives you a framework, aligns your investors, shapes your decisions and protects your team. And, most importantly, it helps ensure that your journey will lead somewhere meaningful, not just somewhere chaotic.
Why You Should Bake In An Exit Strategy From Day One
Founders often believe that an exit strategy can wait. That they’ll figure it out when the time comes. But by then, it’s usually too late—the momentum is lost, investors are misaligned, the cap table is messy and the opportunity has slipped.
Here’s why defining the end early can lead to a stronger beginning:
• Investor Alignment
Not all investors are built the same. Some aim for fast growth and a 10x return in five years. Others are patient capital, looking for steady dividends over a decade. If you don’t know your own endgame, how will you choose the right investor? How will they help you get there? Misaligned investors are not just a boardroom headache—they can be company killers.
• Product And Tech Direction
Your tech stack and feature roadmap should reflect your exit path. If you’re eyeing acquisition, you’ll want to build a product that fills a gap in a larger player’s ecosystem. If your goal is IPO, start with compliance, reporting standards and audit readiness from day one. I’ve seen too many startups build brilliant tech that’s hard to integrate, unscalable or simply unattractive to acquirers—not because the product is bad but because the strategy is missing.
• Culture And Team Structure
Do you want your leadership team to remain post acquisition? Or do you envision a clean exit? This should shape how you design your org chart, allocate equity and make hiring decisions. In my experience, the most successful transitions are those where team structures and culture are considered from the beginning.
• Strategic Partnerships
Sometimes, your future acquirer is already a customer or a strategic partner. If you’re paying attention, you can spot patterns. Startups that keep relationships transactional risk missing the long game. Conversely, I’ve found that founders who build trust and alignment early are more often the ones who get that surprise offer when the time is right.
• Crisis-Proofing
Startups are messy: Markets shift, cofounders part ways, fundraising dries up. If you’ve mapped out exit scenarios, you’ll have options. This can help you stay calm and lead with clarity. In the midst of chaos, that compass can be worth more than any valuation.
Real-World Examples That Make the Case
• WhatsApp: This company has focused relentlessly on user growth, simplicity and privacy—and ignored monetization. That made them the perfect acquisition target for Facebook, which paid $19 billion. Their “lack of revenue” wasn’t a bug—it was a feature, aligned with their strategic exit.
• Zappos: Tony Hsieh didn’t build Zappos to sell shoes; he built a customer service company that “happens to sell shoes.” That culture became so valuable that Amazon paid $1.2 billion—not for inventory, but for a company they couldn’t replicate internally.
• Countless SaaS Startups: I’ve seen beautiful platforms with solid traction fall flat during acquisition talks. Why? No due diligence docs. No clarity on IP. No clean financials. No relationships with strategic buyers. These teams built products but not companies that could exit.
A Personal Reflection
It took me nearly 30 years to understand this fully. In the early days, I was laser-focused on building, shipping and scaling. I made multimillion-dollar products. But I had no clue what the destination was. The outcome was missed opportunities, hard resets and years of doing things the long way.
Now when I mentor young founders, one of my first questions is, “How will this end?” And no, “We’ll figure it out later” is not an answer. Because when you’re clear on your exit, you can sharpen everything—every hire, every investor conversation, every line of code can be shaped by your purpose.
If you’d like to get an even deeper understanding of this concept, I recommend reading Built to Sell by John Warrillow. It reads like a story, but every page challenges how you think about your company. It shows you how to design systems, processes and teams that can run—and be sold—without you. If you’re a founder, I believe this is one of the few books that will actually change how you build.
Final Thoughts: Start With The End In Mind
If you’re building your first startup, here’s what I want you to do this week:
• Spend an hour thinking about your possible exits.
• Write them down—even if they change later.
• Talk to your mentors.
• Look at your product, team and investor list through the lens of that exit.
Because the best exits don’t happen by accident. They’re engineered—through foresight, discipline and clarity. And no, you’re not planning to leave. You’re planning to last.
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