The Exit Club Fratzke Media

Michael Joseph is the founder and former CEO of GreenChef, a mealkit business that was acquired earlier this year by HelloFresh. The deal called for Michael to remain with the company, but, like many an entrepreneur, Michael quickly discovered that working for a big company was not for him, and lawyered his way out of his agreements within weeks after the deal closed. He’s prohibited from talking about the details of his departure, but he did share some behind the scenes on the way the deal went down, including the controlling role a board plays and the stress that entrepreneurs go through during the sale process. He also talked about how he has worked on recuperating from his business, while also thinking about what he’ll start next. It was really a treat to speak with Michael. I hope you enjoy our conversation.


What you’ll learn:

That it’s not super advisable to run two companies at once, since one of them ultimately will have to shutter. The stronger one won out, of course.

- Who calls the shots in a sale, depending on how your company is structured.

- Why it’s important to take time off after selling a business.

- How to start thinking about the next venture.

Dave Will founded Peach New Media, an online learning business, in 2001, with a little bit of borrowed funds and hopes of customers -- enough, he said, to put "Cheerios on the table" for his family. In 2015, his business was acquired by a private equity firm for eight figures. The path to exit began when the phone started ringing with potential suitors and one of them got as far as a closing date. Then, Dave did a less than common thing: He told his employees about the deal that was about to close -- except that it didn't. The buyer put the deal on indefinite hold and employee morale took a hit. Great lessons from Dave on how he pulled the deal back from the brink and saved every employee’s job. After the deal closed, Dave stayed on as part of the deal, with the intention of bringing his company's culture into a bigger entity. When his vision clashed with the other senior executives', he left. Once out, Dave spent too much time "saying yes," something he regrets and says that next time, he’d build in more time to grow bored.

Jud Valeski founded social data analytics company Gnip, which he sold to Twitter in 2014 after six years for $134 million. Unlike many founders, Jud did not stay with the company past the sale, but the decision to leave was less about whether he wanted to stay or go and more about the one-time opportunity to cash in his founder’s equity. On this episode of THE EXIT CLUB, Jud opened up about leaving the company he founded and what has followed, though he fervently believes you don’t have to have an answer to “what are you going to do next.” He talked about that as well as what he has been up to since the sale.

Julie Clark is the schoolteacher and mom turned entrepreneur who launched Baby Einstein, which many parents know for the way their videos seem to magically soothe their infants.


From its start in 1996, Baby Einstein was a huge hit, and after just five years, Julie sold the business to Disney for $25 million -- and in the course of that, discovered what many founders do -- that the buyers take over and start making the decisions, sometimes in a far different direction, and sometimes to the great despair of the original founders. For Julie, there was a lot of sadness and anxiety in the period that followed the sale.


Julie is also amazingly a two-time cancer survivor -- or assassin, as she likes to say -- so on top of the transition she was going through with her business, she was also attacking breast cancer.


She’s now on her second startup -- a preschool prep program called Wee School -- and she says it’s nothing like the easy early days of Baby Einstein, something a lot of entrepreneurs face on round two.

In 2014, Heidi Ganahl sold her doggy daycare chain Camp Bow Wow to Veterinary Centers of America for $20 million. She hit her goal on sale price, but, like many entrepreneurs, encountered challenges post-sale when other executives became involved in decision-making. On this episode, Heidi shares with Laura about the painful road to launching the business, navigating through finding the right advisors for the sale process, and the steps she took to accept the change in control of her business.

About Laura Rich: Veteran journalist and serial entrepreneur Laura Rich exited her business in February 2017. She is also the author of the Paul Allen biography The Accidental Zillionaire and a former columnist for the New York Times.

About Fratzke Media: We are solution engineers who specialize in telling stories in the Eight Channels of Digital Marketing. Our team of storytellers excel in leading digital transformations, and exceeding your expectations is our top priority.

Our guest on this episode of THE EXIT CLUB podcast is John Georgis, the former founder of Banjo Billy’s Bus Tours, a local tourism company in Colorado. John built Banjo out of an old school bus into a fixture in the Boulder-Denver area. He sold the business in 2015 to an employee because, in his words, he was tired of being a bus driver. He was ready to go -- but surprised by what he found on the other side: Attempts to launch new businesses failed, and even finding a job proved extremely challenging. He shared these experiences, as well as how he got to a place of satisfaction in a new job he loves.

About Laura Rich: Veteran journalist and serial entrepreneur Laura Rich exited her business in February 2017. She is also the author of the Paul Allen biography The Accidental Zillionaire and a former columnist for the New York Times.

About Fratzke Media: We are solution engineers who specialize in telling stories in the Eight Channels of Digital Marketing. Our team of storytellers excel in leading digital transformations, and exceeding your expectations is our top priority.