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Do social enterprises have an exit plan?
Create, pitch, sell, retire…
As an entrepreneur, I like to keep abreast of the general world of business and startups. I read the latest news from huge corporations, keep my finger on the local, national and European startup scene, and spend the most amount of time reading about social enterprise developments.
Recently I was having a conversation about exit plans, and how the lack of them can lead to investors not being interested in the business, because after all, that can be their big payday. I was then asked about social enterprise exit plans, and it got me thinking.
Traditional startups
Despite the startup scene being so diverse across the world, we often see similarities in the way they are financed.
The bootstrappers like to build responsibly. They invest their own money, move at a steady pace, sometimes have the need to have a full-time job elsewhere whilst developing their business, but can be quite against getting investment from outside.
Then you have the fun[d] seekers. They got so far with their own input, but then look for angels, VCs, or whatever money they can get their hands on. They often go to pitch events, or reach out to high worth investors, trying to sell their vision.
