Name: Exit Right
Author: Mert Iseri

About the Book

Before you sell your company, even the odds. While a successful entrepreneur may exit a handful of companies in their lifetime, large buyers close deals all the time. Without decades of experience in mergers and acquisitions, founders don’t have the tools they need to get the best results for themselves, their teams, or the new parent company. Through dozens of interviews with M&A leaders at the biggest Silicon Valley acquirers—as well as attorneys, bankers, and founders who have been through the trenches—Exit Right delivers the hard-earned lessons that lead to successful exits. From negotiation to valuation to breaking down a term sheet, managing legal costs, and handling emotional turbulence—this unparalleled guide covers every critical aspect of a technology startup sale. Learn where deals get into trouble, how to create alignment between negotiating parties, and what terms you should care about most. Above all, learn how to win in both the short and the long term, maximizing your price while positioning your company for a legacy you can be proud of.

Praise

“Startup M&A is the R&D lifeblood of Silicon Valley. We wouldn't be here without it. And we need it to stay competitive in the future. This is a vital book for the industry and I'm telling all my PMs to read it.”

— Gary Johnson, Head of Strategy, Corporate Development, and Business Development at Pinterest (former Engineering Manager at Apple)

“Both the buyers and the sellers in a startup M&A transaction want the best possible outcome for all parties involved. This book makes that abundantly clear, and the lessons and stories shared from both sides will provide enormous value for the tech industry.”

— Dave Sobota, Vice President of Corporate Development at Instacart (former Director of Corporate Development at Google)

“There is an acute need for this book! It addresses so many misconceptions that founders have about the process and includes a lot of best practice M&A lessons that need to get out there more broadly.”

— Hilary Shirazi, Head of Corporate Development at Pinterest (former Sr. Manager of Corporate Development at LinkedIn)

About Mert Iseri

Mert Iseri is the founder of SwipeSense, a healthtech company acquired by SC Johnson in 2020. He also co-founded Design for America-using design thinking for social impact-which won the National Design Award in 2018.