Selling your business for maximum value starts long before the deal reaches the closing table. In this episode of Build It to Billions, Brett Swarts sits down with Todd Sullivan, serial entrepreneur, four-time exited founder, and CEO of Exitwise, to discuss what business owners can do to prepare for a successful exit and position their companies to attract the right buyers.
Todd shares lessons from his own entrepreneurial exits, including how to increase enterprise value, build the right M&A advisory team, understand what buyers are looking for, and avoid common mistakes during the sale process. Brett and Todd also explore private equity, deal structure, tax planning, AI in M&A, and why a great exit is about more than valuation—it’s about creating greater freedom and preparing for what comes next.
Episode Highlights Here:
Intro
Before we jump into this episode, I want to invite you to join our community to help you become a better steward, scale to billions, and ultimately give more or all of it away. All I want
you to do is to click the subscribe button right now. I love your support. It’s incredible to see your comments, and we’re just getting started. I can’t wait to go on this journey with you.
Thank you so much for subscribing; it means the world to me.
Brett
Welcome to the Build it to Billions podcast, where we guide successful entrepreneurs and investors on their journey from millions to billions. We believe the key to scaling and compounding your wealth in life starts every single day with the mindset and practice of stewardship over ownership and applying billionaire biblical principles. Our ultimate goals help you scale and compound your wealth and life, so you can give more all of it away to help MVPs. My name is Brett Swarts. Each and every episode, we’re joined by the world’s top entrepreneurs, millionaires, or billionaires, and they share their secrets and insights with us, so we can all level up and make a bigger impact. Hey, we’re also streaming on Capital Gains Tax Solutions podcast on a YouTube channel. So, if you have a huge exit coming up and you’re facing huge capital gains taxes or estate taxes. You want to make sure to go to capitalgainstaxswitches.com to book a time, to schedule a way, to exit in a way that you’re not going to regret. Hey, I’m excited about our next guest. Most M&A advisors have never built and sold their own company, and he has built and sold four. Which, if you’re a business owner thinking about selling your company, then you’re going to want to meet our next guest because he’s not only going to help you potentially sell your company, but he’s also been in your shoes, and that’s really important, right? I think I really believe you’re best positioned to serve the person you once were, and this next guest is definitely that. His company is exit-wise, and he prepares business owners and their and their companies for exits well before the sale process begins. He reconstructs financials, prepares data rooms, and positions the company’s marketing materials to attract the top buyers and create real, real competition for every transaction, and so much more. Please welcome the show with me, Mr. Todd Sullivan. Todd, how are you doing,
Todd
Brett? I’m doing really well. Thanks for having me. I was I was excited. Appreciate the invite. Yeah, let’s dive in.
Brett
Let’s rock and roll. If our listeners get to know you for the first time, a tell us where you’re from exactly. I would like to figure out from this from the when we started the show, and then a little bit about your story and your focus.
Todd
So sorry, I’m struggling a little bit with the mic. Yeah, so I’ve lived in a lot of cities, but originally from Boston. Grew up in a very entrepreneurial and athletic centric family. My dad was a professional athlete, professional tennis player, and he was also an entrepreneur. And I say those two things because entrepreneurship was very much accepted form of a career for us growing up, and so was professional sports. So, before I built companies, I was I was an athlete. I played hockey and tennis throughout high school. Played college hockey and then played one year professionally. So, I think a lot of what I learned in in building companies came from the locker rooms and the and the effort to become a pro a pro player. I don’t know how much you want, but I built and sold four companies over the last 25 years. My last exit was in 2015, and really the goal now is to give back to my fellow founders, trying to make that entrepreneurial journey a little bit easier, and really decided the right place to do that is kind of the end of your journey, right? The M and A event. As business owners and founders, we don’t we don’t get to know too much about that unless we go through it. And even then, right, we’re going to make a lot of mistakes. So, I built a company exit wise really to teach people about M and A, and we did that for a few years. And then all of a sudden, the demand was really just too high to not actually help you sell your company. So, we’re the only firm in the world, M and A firm in the world, a firm that sells companies that leads every one of our engagements with an exited founder. So, the person that leads your M and A team has built and sold a very large business in your space before, and it creates an enormous advantage. Gives incredible credibility and opens doors to buyers that like no banker can do.
Brett
I absolutely believe that, and I have a mentor, and he says you’re best positioned to serve the person you once were, and it totally makes sense, right? If you’re if you’re growing up and you’ve played you know hockey, basketball, football, jujitsu, whatever it might be, and you’ve been in the trenches for the 10,000 hours and you’ve been proficient in that part of the world of athletics, as an example, you’re very well positioned to coach. Doesn’t mean you’re going to be a great coach, but you’re at least really well positioned 10,000 hours ahead of everybody else, so I couldn’t agree with you more on that. There are some outliers there, like I got I think like a Bill Belichick, you know, or some other some other guys. But I still think they played. They just maybe didn’t play it at the pro level. So, it’s just I think that’s I think that’s great. By the way, you can learn more about Mr. Todd Sullivan by going to Exitwise.com, Exitwise.com. So, let’s keep diving in on that. What’s the number one biggest myth for a business owner who’s listening right now, thinking they can just hire an M and A advisor that doesn’t have that unique skill set of having exits in the past?
Todd
Wow, I don’t know what the number one is
Outro
So, if you like this little, short clip of the interview I just did, click over here to watch the full interview, and please don’t forget to subscribe. Thanks so much, everybody.
Watch the episode here:
Important Links:
About Todd Sullivan
Todd Sullivan is a serial entrepreneur, four-time exited founder, and CEO and Managing Partner of Exitwise, an M&A advisory platform that helps business owners prepare for and navigate successful exits. With more than 25 years of entrepreneurial experience, Todd brings a founder’s perspective to the M&A process, helping entrepreneurs understand business valuation, prepare their companies for sale, and assemble the right team of industry-specific advisors.
A Yale graduate and former professional hockey player, Todd later earned his MBA from the University of Michigan. Today, he uses the lessons from building and selling his own companies to help other founders maximize the opportunities surrounding one of the most important transitions of their entrepreneurial journey.
Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share!
- capitalgainstaxsolutions.com
- Capital Gains Tax Solutions Facebook
- Capital Gains Tax Solutions Twitter
- Capital Gains Tax Solutions Tiktok