TechCrunch: Is Entrepreneurship Just About The Exit?

Vivek Wadhwa asks a great question on TechCrunch: Is Entrepreneurship Just About The Exit?

Vivek and I had a long discussion on this topic last weekend, and he extensively references that discussion in the piece. You have also read my recent piece, Built To Enjoy, on this topic.

Vivek offers a number of good examples. You have also read others here, especially stories of Sridhar Vembu of Zoho, and Girish Navani of eClinicalworks. At a smaller scale, Sean Broihier’s FineArtAmerica is also a very good built to enjoy business.

In general, there are many more small business opportunities out there – $5 million, $10 million, $20 million – that are not great for exits, but be excellent built to enjoy businesses, supporting the livelihoods of a vast number of people. This segment is what Vivek and I have been trying to put some focus back on.

In 1M/1M, we are relentlessly encouraging built to enjoy businesses, offering them advice on how to structure these, and what decisions to make to keep the interests aligned, so that a square peg doesn’t need to fit into a round hole.