Exit Algorithms

Peter Vera

Unlock growth, streamline operations, and prepare your business for a high-value exit. Exit Algorithms features founders, 3PL leaders, and forward-thinking execs who share proven strategies for leveraging technology, automation, and AI to maximize value so you can scale smarter and sell stronger. Tailored for business owners who want to grow, scale, and plan a successful exit.

  1. 11h ago

    Owner Dependent Business? Why Buyers Won't Pay for It | Peter Boolkah (#119)

    Nobody is paying for your 30 years of hard work. Peter Boolkah has coached founders across five continents and spent more than 60,000 hours inside businesses, and his verdict is blunt: 99 percent of solo operators will never sell because they own a job, not a business, and 80 percent of employer businesses will sell for nothing at all. Peter is an award-winning business coach, keynote speaker, and Amazon best-selling author of Your Business Sucks: Build a Business That Works Without Destroying Your Life. He spent 15 years at McDonald's before buying and exiting an Italian restaurant, then built a 20-year coaching practice and created The Hamster Wheel Trap framework for diagnosing founder dependency. Want to know what makes your business worth more? Download the free Business Value Cheat Sheet: 10 Steps to Increase the Value of Your Business: https://bizexitgrow.com/cheat-sheet Peter's rule: you get the exit you deserve. If you want a higher value exit, be a higher value CEO who structures the business to earn it. In this episode: – Why a McDonald's restaurant is the definition of exit ready, and why Peter tells every founder to watch The Founder – The restaurant exit that taught him to vet his business partner and the partner's money – UK numbers: 5.6 million SMEs, 4.2 million sole operators, and why 99 percent will never sell – The house analogy: why buyers do not want the founder living in the business after the sale – Build for the buyer: family succession, management buyout, PE, VC, and trade sale all want different businesses – The Hamster Wheel Trap: how year one trains the business to depend on you and year five is when you have everything to lose – Why 97 percent of small businesses still have the founder driving 90 percent of revenue – "You cannot exit what is in your head": SOPs, Checklist Manifesto, and why telepathy is not a hiring strategy – Bankruptcy as the biggest exit nobody talks about, and why the economy only knows competent or incompetent – How Peter used Read AI, ChatGPT, and Claude on five years of recorded client sessions to write books two and three – The lifelong learner case: 300 business books in five years makes you very hard to screw up Connect with Peter: https://boolkah.com | https://www.linkedin.com/in/boolkah Get the book, Your Business Sucks (Kindle 99 cents): https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0H4T66C2C Take the Hamster Wheel Assessment: https://boolkah.com/the-hamster-wheel-trap/ Chapters 0:00 Welcome and guest introduction 1:14 Fifteen years at McDonald's and why it is the model for exit ready 2:05 The Italian restaurant: buying it, hating it, and getting the money out 4:03 Lesson one: choose your partner, and ask where the cash comes from 5:11 Why 99 percent of sole operators will never sell 6:29 The founder still living in the house: discounting your own valuation 7:41 Build for the buyer you want, not the business you want to give them 8:58 The Hamster Wheel Trap, from day one to the year five squeeze 12:08 Founders are not business educated, and the image you created 14:53 You cannot exit what is in your head: SOPs and hiring 15:50 Bankruptcy is the biggest exit nobody talks about 17:48 AI, micro apps, and the fastest change curve in 100 years 20:08 Five years of recorded sessions turned into three books 22:04 Your Business Sucks: the prison is normal, staying in it is not 23:04 Why lifelong learning is the real complete solution 25:08 Peter's practical takeaway: you get the exit you deserve #ExitAlgorithms #FounderDependency #BusinessExit

  2. 3d ago

    Clean Books or Lower Multiple: A CPA Firm Owner Explains | Gretchen Roberts (#118)

    Every owner deduction you take today may be costing you three times as much at exit. Gretchen Roberts explains the math: $20,000 in personal expenses run through the business saves roughly $5,000 to $6,000 in tax, but at a 3x multiple it removes $60,000 from your sale price when the buyer refuses the add-back. Gretchen is CEO of Red Bike Advisors, a national tax, accounting, and advisory firm headquartered in Wilmington, North Carolina. A former marketing executive at Autodesk and Alteryx, she bought the firm in 2023 at age 45 without an accounting background and now leads an 18-person remote team serving healthcare practices and $1M to $15M service businesses. Want to know what makes your business worth more? Download the free Business Value Cheat Sheet: 10 Steps to Increase the Value of Your Business: https://bizexitgrow.com/cheat-sheet Gretchen's rule: three years before you sell, everything going forward is squeaky clean, and you think twice about every owner benefit you run through the books. In this episode: – Why Gretchen left a public tech company at 45 to buy an accounting firm, and what her intentional seller taught her – The two kinds of sellers: burned out and unprepared, or planned and sophisticated – Why accounting firms sell on revenue multiples and why that bothers her as an operator – Clean, defensible financials that tie to three years of tax returns as the number one exit prep item – The "me chart": CEO, HR, finance, and all the work, all you, and why buyers with SBA loans and personal guarantees will not touch it – The add-back argument: why buyers say "I need a cell phone too" and refuse your deductions – Why your tax accountant should review the LOI before you sign, not just your attorney – The risk continuum on payment structure: cash up front versus earnouts and installments – How Red Bike finds profit leaks: COGS versus opex benchmarking, with a 50/35/15 service business example – Where AI helps in accounting and where the human conversation still wins Connect with Gretchen: https://redbikeadvisors.com | https://www.linkedin.com/in/gretchenroberts Free 20-minute strategy session: https://redbikeadvisors.com Chapters 0:00 Welcome and guest introduction 1:14 From marketing executive to acquiring an accounting firm at 45 2:21 Why accounting firms sell on revenue, not profit 3:05 Two kinds of sellers: burned out or intentional 5:45 Clean books: the number one exit prep item 7:08 The "me chart" and owner dependence 8:46 The add-back math: $20K in deductions, $60K off your price 11:29 Why your tax accountant should review the LOI 13:19 Cash up front versus earnouts: the risk continuum 15:19 Finding profit leaks with COGS versus opex benchmarking 18:46 AI in accounting: the intern that frustrates you 21:37 From tax resolution to exit ready: the owner lifecycle 23:11 Gretchen's practical takeaway #ExitAlgorithms #BusinessExit #TaxStrategy

  3. Nov 5

    The 3 Levers That Raise Your Exit Valuation | Linh Adelaida Johansson, M&A Value Creation (#117)

    Only 20 to 30 percent of businesses that go to market with a broker actually sell. Linh Adelaida Johansson says sellability is not a yes or no, it is a probability, and every risk you leave in the business shrinks the pool of buyers who will look at it. Linh is an M&A and value creation advisor with buy-side experience at Lantheus, a large pharma, and sell-side experience with Livmo and Flippa. She holds an MBA and a Master's in Finance from Hult in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and is a Certified M&A Advisor. Want to know what makes your business worth more? Download the free Business Value Cheat Sheet: 10 Steps to Increase the Value of Your Business: https://bizexitgrow.com/cheat-sheet Linh's framework: valuation moves on three levers, revenue, EBITDA, and the multiple, and the multiple is where buyers price your risk and attractiveness. In this episode: – Why financial statement quality is a deal killer in the SME space, and the six-to-twelve-month cleanup that fixes it – Why revenue trend can matter more than profit when a business is reinvesting to grow – Customer concentration: why 20 percent from one account takes longer than a year to fix – The owner dependency audit: list every task, ask who else does it, and score how hard it is to replace – What Linh heard when she cold-called 100 buyers: the seller's character ranked first – The number one reason deals die: the valuation gap between what sellers want and buyers will pay – Buyer pools explained: strategics, experienced owners, first-time buyers and search funds, and private equity – Why serial entrepreneurs must fully separate the business they are selling from the rest of the portfolio – How Linh uses Claude, Perplexity, and Fathom, and how owners can use AI for OTE dashboards and revenue per employee Connect with Linh: https://www.linkedin.com/in/linhadelaida Free 60-minute Value Creation Diagnostic: https://valuecreationdiagnostics.com Chapters 0:00 Welcome and guest introduction 1:03 From Microsoft consulting to M&A at a large pharma 3:27 Financial statement quality as a deal killer 5:05 Customer concentration and transferability 7:08 Financial readiness: external accountants and three clean years 11:21 The three levers: revenue, EBITDA, and the multiple 14:40 The number one deal killer: the valuation gap 16:19 The owner dependency audit 17:40 What 100 buyers said matters most 20:25 Balancing trust and leverage in negotiation 22:47 How Linh uses AI for research and analysis 25:05 OTE dashboards and revenue per employee 28:58 Separating a business from the rest of your portfolio 31:04 Linh's practical takeaway 33:00 Sellability is a probability game #ExitAlgorithms #BusinessValuation #ExitPlanning

  4. Nov 2

    Why WMS Implementations Fail (And How to Get Floor Buy-In) | Amy Dean, SC Codeworks (#116)

    Why do warehouse management system rollouts fail even when the software is good? Amy Dean has sat on both sides, as a 3PL VP of IT running startups and onboardings, and now as VP of Operations at a WMS vendor, and her answer is the same every time: the people on the floor, not the platform. Amy was named a 2025 Women in Supply Chain Rising Star and a 2026 Supply & Demand Chain Executive Trailblazer, and she writes for SupplyChainBrain on data and operations. Want to know what makes your logistics business worth more? Download the free Business Value Cheat Sheet: 10 Steps to Increase the Value of Your Business: https://bizexitgrow.com/cheat-sheet Amy's rule: get close to the people doing the work before you try to improve the work, then use technology to solve the problems they name, not the other way around. In this episode: – What a good WMS implementation looks like: floor buy-in first, then clean data down to the location labels – How to build the implementation team: ops, customer service, systems, and sales in the room – Must-haves versus the wish list, and why the wish list is your technology roadmap – The two bottlenecks that stall 3PL growth: space and inflexible systems – The license plate rollout that worked because of forklift-driver champions, not the project plan – Best-of-breed versus all-in-one platforms, and why neither answer is wrong – When building your own software makes sense, and the point where it caps your scale – Cody, SC Codeworks' AI assistant, and how it answers "where is this order" in plain language – The over-customization trap: plan for the general rule and allow exceptions Connect with Amy: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amydeantx | https://sccodeworks.com Chapters 0:00 Welcome and guest introduction 1:03 From 3PL rotational program to VP of IT to WMS vendor 2:33 What a good WMS implementation looks like 4:49 Building the implementation team and the wish list 6:00 The two bottlenecks that stall 3PL growth 7:24 Rolling out new tech without breaking operations 9:30 Best-of-breed versus all-in-one platforms 11:22 When to build your own software and when to stop 13:04 Cody: SC Codeworks' AI assistant for the floor 15:12 How Amy uses AI and why she is cautiously optimistic 16:33 Robotics, automation, and keeping warehouses human 18:36 What a client engagement looks like 19:48 The over-customization trap 21:08 Amy's practical takeaway #ExitAlgorithms #WMS #3PL

  5. Oct 29

    Why He Said No to Private Equity and Sold to His Staff | Chris Burke (#115)

    Private equity circled his firm with lucrative offers, until he read the fine print: five-to-seven-year tie-ins and clawbacks that wiped out everything if he was not there at final exit. So Chris Burke sold Brickendon to his own employees instead, through a UK Employee Ownership Trust, and paid no capital gains tax. Chris started Brickendon in 2010 with a mortgage advance, a laptop, and no clients, and grew it to more than 300 professionals and over $250 million in revenue with no outside funding. He founded HybridHero in 2018, now in 40+ countries, and runs Aduvo, an operator-led advisory for founder-led businesses with £5 million to £50 million in turnover. Want to know what makes your business worth more? Download the free Business Value Cheat Sheet: 10 Steps to Increase the Value of Your Business: https://bizexitgrow.com/cheat-sheet Chris's test: if you cannot step away for two, four, or eight weeks, you do not have a business. You are the business, and you have a job. In this episode: – From a farm town of 286 people to losing everything in his twenties on a business he did not control – Why the PE offers had a sting in the tail, and how the EOT (the UK cousin of an ESOP) worked instead – Running a cash-hungry consultancy where banks pay in six months and governments in a year, and why he kept two years of cash on hand – When organic growth stalls and acquisition becomes the only way to the next level – Ego as the first obstacle to exit: the founder who had champagne on ice and walked away – Spend an hour to save five minutes: the documentation rule that turns your business into McDonald's – How buyers price redundancies and merged overhead, and why a 6x can become a 4.5x – AI as an enabler for experts and a trap for everyone else, plus the AI echo chamber problem Connect with Chris: https://theaduvo.com/podcast | https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-burke-uk Mention Exit Algorithms when you reach out and Chris will offer a discount on Aduvo engagements. Chapters 0:00 Welcome and guest introduction 1:12 From a farm town of 286 to London 2:20 Losing everything in his twenties 3:26 Why private equity offers had a sting in the tail 4:15 Selling Brickendon to employees through an EOT 5:20 Who stepped up to run the business 6:31 Running a cash-hungry business with slow-paying clients 8:09 When to acquire instead of grow organically 9:49 The three things Aduvo looks at first 10:53 If you cannot leave for 8 weeks, you have a job 12:09 Ego: the founder who walked away with champagne on ice 13:34 Spend an hour to save five minutes 15:32 How buyers price redundancies and merged overhead 16:50 AI: an enabler for experts, a trap for everyone else 19:48 The AI echo chamber 21:10 Chris's practical takeaway #ExitAlgorithms #EmployeeOwnership #BusinessExit

  6. Oct 26

    Buy an Asset, Not a Job: Franchise Exit Rules Every Business Owner Should Steal | Greg Mohr (#114)

    What can a non-franchise business owner learn from how franchises are bought and sold? Greg Mohr says almost everything: franchisors force clean books, documented SOPs, and buyer vetting, and those are exactly the things that raise any company's multiple. Greg is founder of Franchise Maven, a two-time Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestselling author of Real Freedom and Expert Resilience, co-author of From Idea to Empire with original Shark Kevin Harrington, and twice named Franchise Consultant of the Year. Want to know what makes your business worth more? Download the free Business Value Cheat Sheet: 10 Steps to Increase the Value of Your Business: https://bizexitgrow.com/cheat-sheet Greg's rule: if you treat it like a job, it will be a job. Treat it like an asset, put a manager on it, and make sure your name is not on a single line of the ops chart. In this episode: – From Taco Bell shift manager at 16 to microelectronics engineer to franchise owner and advisor – Why Greg sold his telecom consulting franchise too early and what more recurring revenue would have done to the multiple – How franchise resales work: the franchisor vets your buyer the same way they vetted you – Why a franchise P&L has to be clean (royalty audits) and how questionable line items kill buyer confidence – Reading an FDD: Item 20 growth rates and why buyers pay for your growth backed by the system's growth – Horizontal versus vertical empire building: one brand across territories, or lawn, pest, gutters, and cleaning for the same customers – AI as a force multiplier for research and content, and why home services and senior care still need a human Connect with Greg: https://www.franchisemaven.com | greg@franchisemaven.com | https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregorykmohr Real Freedom on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09WC963Q8 Chapters 0:00 Welcome and guest introduction 1:11 From Taco Bell at 16 to engineer to franchise owner 3:35 Greg's first exit and the recurring revenue lesson 5:46 How franchise resales and buyer approval work 7:33 Asset, not a job: the first thing Greg tells every client 8:24 Get your name off the ops chart 10:40 What buyers look for: system growth plus your growth 12:18 Why a franchisor-audited P&L raises your multiple 14:24 AI as a force multiplier, not a replacement 17:35 How Greg uses AI for podcast outreach and content 19:52 Real Freedom and how to investigate a franchise 22:55 Co-authoring From Idea to Empire with Kevin Harrington 24:48 Horizontal versus vertical empire building 27:20 Greg's practical takeaway #ExitAlgorithms #Franchising #BusinessExit

  7. Oct 22

    6 Questions Your Leadership Team Must Answer Before Your Business Sale | Tara-Lee Goerlitz (#113)

    Why do deals that look perfect on paper fall apart 30 days after close? Tara-Lee Goerlitz says it is almost never strategy or skill. It is a leadership team that cannot make a contested decision without the owner in the room. Tara-Lee is founder of NexLevel and co-founder of IRx Advisory, where she and partners Duncan Reed and Ayako Ohtake run Leadership Due Diligence for buyers and help sellers close what she calls the leadership intelligence gap. The team trained directly with Patrick Lencioni's Table Group on the organizational health framework. Want to know what makes your business worth more? Download the free Business Value Cheat Sheet: 10 Steps to Increase the Value of Your Business: https://bizexitgrow.com/cheat-sheet Tara-Lee says financial diligence tells a buyer what they bought. Leadership due diligence tells them whether the team can execute it. In this episode: – The six critical questions every leadership team must answer together, and why the answers usually live only in the founder's head – Smart versus healthy: why companies obsess over strategy, product, and financials and ignore the clarity, trust, and cohesion that unlock them – The one test buyers should run: can this team make a contested decision in a room without the owner present – Why pre-close everyone paints a pretty picture, and what shows up 30 days post-close – Vulnerability-based trust versus predictive trust, and why trust falls do not build it – How a leadership team of seven with seven different top priorities creates competing priorities for everyone below them – Why AI amplifies value in healthy organizations and multiplies confusion in unhealthy ones Connect with Tara-Lee: https://www.linkedin.com/in/taraleegoerlitz Chapters 0:00 Welcome and guest introduction 0:59 From "the best friend" to leadership and team development 1:45 Training with Patrick Lencioni's Table Group 2:47 Why strategy fails at clarity, not planning 3:20 The six critical questions 5:05 The leadership intelligence gap in M&A 6:15 What really keeps a business dependent on its owner 7:50 The contested decision test buyers should run 9:50 Why deals go sideways 30 days post-close 11:50 Smart versus healthy organizations 13:00 Seven leaders, seven different priorities 15:21 Vulnerability-based trust versus predictive trust 19:40 Meetings are where leadership teams should perform 22:51 AI amplifies health and multiplies confusion 26:50 Tara-Lee's practical takeaway: book the off-site 30:17 The six questions, one more time #ExitAlgorithms #OrganizationalHealth #LeadershipTeam

  8. Oct 19

    Could Your Business Survive a 2-Month Vacation? | Kevin Ziegler (#112)

    If you left your business for two months and went unreachable, would it still run? Kevin Ziegler learned the cost of key person risk the hard way when his co-founder was diagnosed with bone cancer and he sold his share of a 13-year software firm faster and cheaper than he should have. Kevin is a Milwaukee-based fractional CTO and four-time founder who co-founded Freight iQ, a logistics SaaS that reached $6 million in ARR, and now embeds with growing transportation and logistics companies on AI strategy, governance, and TMS selection. Want to know what makes your logistics business worth more? Download the free Business Value Cheat Sheet: 10 Steps to Increase the Value of Your Business: https://bizexitgrow.com/cheat-sheet Kevin says key person risk is a technology problem too: the one person who knows how to write the code or run the software is a liability a buyer will price. In this episode: – Why Kevin sold too fast and what a finance advisor taught him about asking "what is important to me" – The two-month vacation test and how to document your way out of being the bottleneck – Kevin's three-stage fractional CTO process: assessment, roadmap, advisory – How to pick a TMS with a requirements list and a one-to-five vendor scorecard instead of a referral and a sales call – Why building your own AI tools is riskier than it looks if you are not a software shop – AI governance first, then low-risk agents with a human in the loop, then cost controls before tokens get out of hand – Why the real AI bottleneck is not enough planned work, and the opportunity that creates for analysts and product owners Connect with Kevin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevinmziegler | https://kevinziegler.com Chapters 0:00 Welcome and guest introduction 1:06 From orthodontist track to software founder 3:06 Building a logistics software agency from 1999 4:20 A co-founder's cancer diagnosis and a rushed exit 5:30 The two-month vacation test for key person risk 6:26 Documentation, SOPs, and hiring people better than you 8:20 Why you need a five-year exit horizon and an advisor on your side 10:03 What a fractional CTO fixes first: risk, security, documentation 10:50 Kevin's three-stage process: assessment, roadmap, advisory 13:10 How to pick a TMS with a mini RFP and scorecard 16:28 Build versus buy in the AI age 18:29 AI governance, agents, human in the loop, and runaway costs 22:48 How Kevin uses AI agents and structured vibe coding 25:41 Where AI disrupts and where it creates jobs 28:53 Kevin's practical takeaway #ExitAlgorithms #KeyPersonRisk #LogisticsTech

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About

Unlock growth, streamline operations, and prepare your business for a high-value exit. Exit Algorithms features founders, 3PL leaders, and forward-thinking execs who share proven strategies for leveraging technology, automation, and AI to maximize value so you can scale smarter and sell stronger. Tailored for business owners who want to grow, scale, and plan a successful exit.

Information

  • Creator
    Peter Vera
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    119
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Peter Vera
  • Show Website
    Exit Algorithms