28A - Your Exit Strategy
Exit strategy
After successfully building Virtual Shopping to be the pinnacle of online shopping, I plan on moving on to another venture. I intend on that taking about 3-5 years. Although I am the founder of the app, I will appoint trusted people to serve as my CEO, COO, and CTO. Realistically, I know that I am not equipped with the right technological skills to continuously work on the technical side of the app. Therefore, I will appoint a CTO early on. Until I find the right candidate for CEO and COO, I will fulfill these roles as I will have the most information on what the purpose of the app is and where I want it to grow to be. Once all these positions are fulfilled and the app is running well without me, I will make my exit. Most likely I intend on selling the app, possibly to a huge retailing company such as Amazon. It seems that Amazon is trying to position themselves to have a part in every industry and I have no doubt that they would be interested in acquiring Virtual Shopping, as long as the app grows to its full potential.
I have selected this particular exit strategy because I will receive the necessary experiences that come along with growing a business venture from the ground up. I like new challenges and therefore feel like I would like to continue on to new ventures once Virtual Shopping has achieved its peak. As I've noted before, I do have philanthropic desires along with my business venture. I plan on taking half of the money I receive from selling Virtual Shopping and using the money to grow my charity. With that money I can provide even more clothing and shoes to children in developing nations.
My exit strategy has influenced how I plan on growing my business venture and my growth structure. By making the decision to leave my venture after 3-5 years, I must work hard to ensure that the app meets my satisfaction before I exit. It also means that I must feel comfortable with the top management and their growth strategies. In order to achieve this timeline, extensive vetting must be done to find qualified and passionate managers. I will not leave my business venture until I am happy with the projection, as well as feel like I have done everything in my power to take it to the next level. Once I am ready, I will more on to my next challenge.
After successfully building Virtual Shopping to be the pinnacle of online shopping, I plan on moving on to another venture. I intend on that taking about 3-5 years. Although I am the founder of the app, I will appoint trusted people to serve as my CEO, COO, and CTO. Realistically, I know that I am not equipped with the right technological skills to continuously work on the technical side of the app. Therefore, I will appoint a CTO early on. Until I find the right candidate for CEO and COO, I will fulfill these roles as I will have the most information on what the purpose of the app is and where I want it to grow to be. Once all these positions are fulfilled and the app is running well without me, I will make my exit. Most likely I intend on selling the app, possibly to a huge retailing company such as Amazon. It seems that Amazon is trying to position themselves to have a part in every industry and I have no doubt that they would be interested in acquiring Virtual Shopping, as long as the app grows to its full potential.
I have selected this particular exit strategy because I will receive the necessary experiences that come along with growing a business venture from the ground up. I like new challenges and therefore feel like I would like to continue on to new ventures once Virtual Shopping has achieved its peak. As I've noted before, I do have philanthropic desires along with my business venture. I plan on taking half of the money I receive from selling Virtual Shopping and using the money to grow my charity. With that money I can provide even more clothing and shoes to children in developing nations.
My exit strategy has influenced how I plan on growing my business venture and my growth structure. By making the decision to leave my venture after 3-5 years, I must work hard to ensure that the app meets my satisfaction before I exit. It also means that I must feel comfortable with the top management and their growth strategies. In order to achieve this timeline, extensive vetting must be done to find qualified and passionate managers. I will not leave my business venture until I am happy with the projection, as well as feel like I have done everything in my power to take it to the next level. Once I am ready, I will more on to my next challenge.
Hi Shannon,
ReplyDeleteOur exit strategies are very similar.. I also want to sell my app to a mainstream company like Yelp. I also want to assign at CTO early on. Although I intend to learn as much as I can, I am probably not as passionate about it as others might be. I think your exit strategy is smart and you seem to be confident enough about your venture enough to know it might succeed without you and that's okay because you will have been the pioneer for it.
I think it would be a great idea to sell to Amazon. They pretty much have their hand in just about everything and they are online based anyways so it would make sense. This would also allow other small businesses that sell on Amazon access to your technology. There are many things I see on Amazon that look appealing to me but I don’t typically purchase because I don’t know how I would look in it. It is also great that you are thinking about moving on to the next venture but are willing to do a lot of vetting before just handing it off.
ReplyDeleteShannon, selling to Amazon is genius! Do you have any other options? It definitely makes sense to reach in the direction of Amazon because they are so giant. I also think it's a great idea to bring a CTO on board. It makes sense to do this to ensure the safety and direction of your company.
ReplyDelete-L
Shannon,
ReplyDeleteI really liked the exit strategy that you chose as it was very similar to mine. Hiring people to run your company while you go on to bigger things is something ive always dreamed of doing. I also really liked your idea to possibly sell to Amazon, your Virtual Reality concept would do wonders for their company. Overall, i like both the idea and the strategy. Great Job!