Exit Mode · Editorial
Practical guides. Real deal insight.
Useful answers to the questions you face when building, valuing and selling a business, alongside analysis of the deals shaping M&A.
24 articles to explore
Practical guideHow much is my business worth? A practical guide for UK founders
Work out what your business could be worth, understand EBITDA multiples and see how debt, cash and deal terms change what you actually receive when you sell.
Practical guideCan you sell a business that depends on you?
Can you sell a business that depends on you? Learn how buyers assess owner dependency and build a handover plan that reduces risk before you approach them.
Practical guideDue diligence checklist: what documents do you need to sell a business?
Prepare for buyer due diligence with a practical checklist of financial, legal, customer, people and IP records, plus a plan for organising your data room.
Practical guideHow to prepare your business for sale: a practical 12-month plan
A practical 12-month business sale preparation plan: strengthen your numbers, reduce owner dependency, organise diligence and decide when to approach buyers.
Practical guideEBITDA add-backs: which adjustments can you justify when selling a business?
Learn which EBITDA add-backs a buyer may accept, which adjustments need deductions and how to build an evidence-backed bridge before selling your business.
Practical guideHow to negotiate an earn-out when selling your business
Negotiate an earn-out with clear targets, accounting rules and payment protections. Compare cash at completion with conditional value before accepting an offer.
Practical guideHow to use the Exit Mode connector in Claude
Use Exit Mode in Claude to explore business value, assess buyer readiness, build a 90-day plan and find published acquisitions. Setup steps and example prompts.
Deal analysisAI Is Buying AI: What 30 Deals in 2026 Tell Founders
The acquirers in AI are now AI companies themselves, most of them private and barely three years old. Thirty verified deals from the archive: who is buying, what gets a published price, and what it means if one of them comes for your business.
Deal analysisTwo Customers, a Quarter of the Revenue, and a $2 Trillion Price Tag
Anthropic’s leaked IPO prospectus contains three findings that would reprice a normal mid-market deal: customer concentration, channel dependency, and profit measures struck before recurring costs. Why it may get away with all three, and why you would not.
Practical guideWhy Founders Use Exit Mode Academy Before They Speak to Buyers
A practical guide to why the best exits are prepared before the buyer appears, and how the full Exit Mode course supports the founder journey from interest to deal control.
Practical guide11 Warning Signs Your Business Is Not Ready to Sell Yet
A practical checklist for founders who want to know whether buyer interest would create a premium exit, or expose weak numbers, founder dependency and diligence gaps.
Deal analysisSpaceX’s Trillion-Dollar IPO: How Musk Weaponised Stock as Currency
Two all-stock roll-ups, the largest IPO in history at $1.77 trillion, and a $60B all-stock acquisition four days after the bell. How Musk built an equity currency and what founders can learn from it.
Deal analysisMicrosoft × Activision: Anatomy of a $69B Megadeal
Why Microsoft did it, the regulatory journey through CMA, FTC and EU, the financing and structure, and what every founder can learn from how a megadeal actually closes.
Practical guideThe £50M Valuation Gap
Why founders and buyers see the same business so differently, and the seven specific levers that close the gap.
Deal analysisWhat Adobe’s Failed Figma Deal Tells Us About CMA Scrutiny in 2026
How the regulatory environment has shifted post-Brexit, and what UK founders should know about competition review when selling to a US strategic.
Deal analysis5 Boring SaaS Exits That Made Founders £100M+ in the Last 18 Months
The deals nobody writes about are the ones making founders rich. Five recent acquisitions of unfashionable, vertical, profitable UK and European SaaS businesses, and what the founders did differently.
Deal analysisAI Roll-Ups Are the New PE Playbook
What’s actually being acquired in AI right now, who’s paying the premium, where the fire-sales are, and what UK founders should learn before raising another round.
Practical guideThe 7 Questions Every Buyer Asks (And Most Founders Fumble)
A short, tactical guide for founders heading towards exit. The seven questions every buyer asks, what they’re really asking, and how to answer them.
Deal analysis2025’s Blowout Market: When M&A Blew the Doors Off
2025 was the hottest year in the archive. The deals show what a true seller’s market looks like, where premiums compress judgment, and how founders should act inside it.
Deal analysis2024’s M&A Rebound: The Year the Market Came Back
2024 brought M&A back to life. The year’s deals show how founders should read an early recovery, where conviction returned first, and why discipline still mattered.
Deal analysis2023’s Pivot to AI Rollups: The Seeds of Today’s Market
By 2023, buyers had already started repositioning around software, data and automation. The year’s deals show how the AI narrative reshaped M&A before the labels caught up.
Deal analysis2022’s Rate-Hike Chill: When Buyers Walked Away
2022 raised the bar for exits. The deals that still reached signing show what founders should learn when rates rise, financing tightens and buyers hesitate.
Deal analysisThe 2021 SPAC Moment: What We Got Right and Wrong
2021 rewarded buyers and founders who believed cheap capital would last. The deals from that year show what peak-market behaviour got right and where it failed.
Deal analysisWhat 2020 Taught Founders About Distressed M&A
COVID turned 2020 into a stress test for exits. The deals that still closed show what distressed M&A taught founders about liquidity, speed and buyer behaviour.
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