2 Commas: The $multi-million exit show with Josh Comrie

Josh Comrie
  • 0.0 (0)
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Updated Weekly

Welcome to 2 Commas: The $multi-million exit show I've spent over two decades helping founders scale their businesses and achieve successful, multimillion-dollar exits. I've also achieved this myself on multiple occasions. With my experience as an entrepreneur, advisor, and investor, I’ve had the privilege of guiding companies through the highs and lows of business growth and exit strategies. Each episode will bring you the previously untold stories of entrepreneurs who have successfully scaled and exited their businesses for seven-figure (2 comma's) plus returns. You’ll hear more about the journeys, challenges, and pivotal moments that led to these transformative exits. My goal is to inform and inspire founders who are looking to scale their ventures to seven, eight or nine figures and beyond. Follow me on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/joshcomrie Download my e-book, "The Exit Factor" and sign up to receive the Business Growth Journal weekly: https://www.joshcomrie.com/the-exit-factor

  1. Why I left millions on the table | Carl Thompson with Josh Comrie

    1d ago

    Why I left millions on the table | Carl Thompson with Josh Comrie

    Carl Thompson flew to Singapore with $3,000, shared a pullout bed with his co-founder in a room so small he could touch the wall sitting up, and cold-called New York at 2am because that's when the market was awake. That was the start of TradeGecko. He left the company two and a half years in, halfway through his vesting schedule, because he needed to come home for his relationships and his health. He split his role into five people on the way out. A few years later, Cam checked his spam folder and found an email from Intuit saying they wanted to buy the business. The acquisition closed at $100 million US. Carl has ADHD, has been cycling in and out of burnout for 20 years, and now runs SortMe, a money management platform built around the uncomfortable fact that 60% of NZ households can't cover a $1,500 bill without borrowing. His clients aren't struggling. They earn $150K to $500K a year and spend every dollar of it. We get into: Why he walked away from millions in unvested equity and whether he regrets itThe dopamine science behind ADHD and why he thinks it's a competitive advantage for foundersHow a spam folder email became a $100M acquisitionWhat lifestyle creep actually looks like at high income levelsWhat he did with the exit money the day it landedIf you're building something and wondering what it looks like to choose the life over the money and keep building anyway, this one's worth your time.

    1h 23m
  2. Why I closed a business that fed 2,500 kids a day | Lisa King with Josh Comrie

    Jun 17

    Why I closed a business that fed 2,500 kids a day | Lisa King with Josh Comrie

    Lisa King had a goal from the very first day of Eat My Lunch: the business would be a success the day it became unnecessary. She built it in 2015 to solve a problem she couldn't stop thinking about, kids going hungry at school in a country of abundance. By week 12 she was making 2,000 lunches a day out of her own kitchen. At peak, nearly 5,000, with police officers, politicians, and grannies in their sixties all buttering bread before sunrise. Then the government launched its own school lunch program, and Lisa did something most founders never do. She closed the business on purpose. Before that happened, a media story accused her of personally profiting off hungry kids, at a time when she was being paid less than she'd ever earned. She had to show a reporter her payslip to prove it. We talk through what that period actually felt like, what New Zealand's tall poppy syndrome did to her willingness to talk to press afterward, and the identity crisis of letting go of a business that had defined her for five years. We get into: How Eat My Lunch scaled from 50 to nearly 5,000 lunches a dayThe media smear and what it actually cost her personallyWhy she built the business to make itself redundant from day oneWhat closing your first business does to your sense of who you areIf you're building something with real purpose behind it, or wondering what it takes to walk away from your own success on your own terms, this one's worth your time.

    1h 39m
  3. Would you sell 80% of your business to 5X its value? | Murray Schnuriger and Toby King with Josh Comrie

    Jun 10

    Would you sell 80% of your business to 5X its value? | Murray Schnuriger and Toby King with Josh Comrie

    Most founders won't give up 80% of their business. The ones who did walked away with more than if they'd kept 100%. Murray Schnuriger made the jump from 20 years advising founders on exits to actually owning the risk at 5V Capital, a mid-market PE fund across Australia and New Zealand. Toby King has spent his career at Cameron Partners, one of NZ's most established M&A firms, allied with Rothschild and Company. Together they've sat on both sides of more NZ business exits than almost anyone alive. The Education Perfect story is the one that sticks. Two brothers built an edtech platform into 50% of NZ secondary schools, hit their ceiling, and sold 80% to 5V. One went backpacking for a year. 5V brought in a new CEO, put sales teams on the ground in Australia, and tripled the business in three years. Exit to KKR. The 20% the brothers held at the end was worth more than their original 100%. That's the structure most NZ founders never think to ask about. Murray and Toby pull no punches on what founders consistently get wrong, pricing on EBITDA when buyers price on free cash flow, waiting one more year for growth when the multiple compression wipes out the gain, and showing up to a sale process without a narrative that holds up under serious due diligence. We get into: Why selling 80% can leave you wealthier than holding everything The EBITDA trap that costs NZ founders millions at the table Why "one more year of growth" is often the most expensive decision you'll make How PE investors actually think about your exit before they've even finished investing in you What your business narrative needs to nail to earn a premium valuation The succession wave hitting NZ baby boomer founders and why PE is filling the gap If you're building something and wondering what it actually looks like to sell part of your business, back yourself for one more run, and walk away with more than you started with, this one's worth your time.

    1h 25m
  4. I gave away half of my business on a handshake. Here's why. | Mark Zeman with Josh Comrie

    Jun 3

    I gave away half of my business on a handshake. Here's why. | Mark Zeman with Josh Comrie

    What if the most successful version of your company is the smallest one? This week I sit down with Mark Zeman, co-founder of SpeedCurve, who quietly built one of the most unusual software businesses I've come across. No VC. No sales team. No marketing function. A team that never grew beyond seven people, paid two to three times market salary, and shared the monthly profit with everyone. SpeedCurve had customers like Airbnb, the New York Times and the Guardian. They found him, not the other way around. And after 13 years, he exited to Embrace, not at the peak. We get into: - Why Mark turned down customers, capital and "grow at all costs" - How a UX designer in New Zealand ended up shaping global web performance standards - The handshake co-founder deal with Steve Souders and why it worked - Monthly profit share instead of equity and a someday-maybe exit - The moment the market shifted and SpeedCurve became the wrong shape - Selling a declining SaaS business and why Embrace still wanted it - What working inside a VC-backed company has confirmed and challenged If you've ever wondered whether there's another way to build a SaaS business and exit on your own terms, there is. Mark just lived it.

    1h 25m
  5. 67% of founding teams fail. Here's why | Logan Yonavjak | 2 Commas

    May 27

    67% of founding teams fail. Here's why | Logan Yonavjak | 2 Commas

    What if the biggest risk in your company isn't your product, it's whether your people are actually ready to lead? This week, I sit down with Logan Yonavjak, founder of the Readiness Engine, to explore how AI can now measure leadership capacity at scale. We get into coachability, the grit myth, the early warning signs a founding team is in trouble, and my own method for testing resilience and values in the room. Essential listening for founders, investors and operators.

    47 min
  6. John Bessey: His doctor said he was fine. The blood work said otherwise.

    May 20

    John Bessey: His doctor said he was fine. The blood work said otherwise.

    Most of us have no idea what's actually going on inside our body. John Bessey has been in the room for three major tech exits as CEO of Merkle (Davanti), head of revenue at Introgen, and on the executive team when Gen-I sold to Spark. He's also a certified metabolic and health coach who reckons most high-performers are flying blind on the things that actually matter and he's got the blood work to prove it. In this episode, John and I get into the overlap between building a high-performing business and building a body that doesn't quit before the game's over. He shares what actually worked when he stepped in as an external CEO and why most of those appointments fail, how Divanti's earn-out structure gave the founders real control through the sale, and the simple rituals he uses with executives to cut distraction and find the two or three things that will genuinely move the needle. On the health side, the four horsemen, why your GP's "you're fine" might be the most expensive thing you hear this year, and what John changed the day he stopped chasing biohacks and went back to basics. John's 55, thirteen kilos lighter than he was a decade ago, and building deliberately toward skiing Cardrona at 93. His book, Rituals of Impact, is available at ritualsofimpact.com (free shipping in NZ) and on Amazon worldwide.

    1h 7m
  7. Ken Crosson: From milking 1 cow to designing one of the word's best 400 houses

    May 13

    Ken Crosson: From milking 1 cow to designing one of the word's best 400 houses

    Ken Crosson nearly became a dairy farmer milking one cow in mid-Canterbury, instead, he walked into the Christchurch Town Hall at 16 and never looked back. In this episode of 2 Commas, I sit down with Ken, founder of Crosson and Co, one of New Zealand's most quietly celebrated architects, as the firm approaches its 40th year. We cover the pivot from farm kid to globally recognised designer, what it actually looks like to build a 40-year practice from scratch with no business training and one very young first hire, and why Ken still shows up to the office on weekends with a paper diary and a pencil. We get into the realities of partnership - how they form, how they end, and how the right recruiter talked Ken into a completely different hire than the one he thought he needed. We also unpack Plan Change 120, why building in New Zealand has gone from four drawings to 959 pages, and what AI is starting to do - and not yet do - to the profession. If you've ever wondered what four decades of designing spaces that move people actually teaches you about business, relationships, and the built world around us.

    1h 10m
  8. Dr. Catherine Stone: I created NZ's botox market then nearly lost it all

    May 6

    Dr. Catherine Stone: I created NZ's botox market then nearly lost it all

    She was asking people if they wanted Botox before most New Zealanders knew what it was, and they were asking her if their face was going to fall off. Dr. Catherine Stone pioneered cosmetic medicine in New Zealand in 2001, set up her first clinic in Vulcan Lane for $13,500, and built one of the country's most recognised aesthetic brands from scratch. In this episode of 2 Commas, I sit down with Dr. Cat to unpack what it looks like to front-run a trend before anyone believes in it, build a high-end boutique in a space that didn't exist, and scale it through TV deals, London clinics, and a few very well-timed pivots. We also get into the stuff nobody talks about - buying 23 properties in 24 months right before the GFC, the burnout that nearly ended everything, and three separate cancer diagnoses that ultimately forced the question: what actually matters? The answer led to an eight-week exit to someone she trusted, not the biggest multiple on the table. If you're building something and wondering what it looks like to lose nearly everything, rebuild it bigger, and walk away on your own terms. This one's worth your time.

    1h 21m
See All (84)

Trailer

About

Welcome to 2 Commas: The $multi-million exit show I've spent over two decades helping founders scale their businesses and achieve successful, multimillion-dollar exits. I've also achieved this myself on multiple occasions. With my experience as an entrepreneur, advisor, and investor, I’ve had the privilege of guiding companies through the highs and lows of business growth and exit strategies. Each episode will bring you the previously untold stories of entrepreneurs who have successfully scaled and exited their businesses for seven-figure (2 comma's) plus returns. You’ll hear more about the journeys, challenges, and pivotal moments that led to these transformative exits. My goal is to inform and inspire founders who are looking to scale their ventures to seven, eight or nine figures and beyond. Follow me on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/joshcomrie Download my e-book, "The Exit Factor" and sign up to receive the Business Growth Journal weekly: https://www.joshcomrie.com/the-exit-factor

Information

You Might Also Like