- Bricks & Bytes Bulletin
- Posts
- 10 Hard-Won Lessons from Founders Who Sold for Millions
10 Hard-Won Lessons from Founders Who Sold for Millions
Owen Drury
July 23, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 3 minutes
Want to get your message in front of 1,925 highly engaged innovation leaders? Check out our sponsorship offers.
INSIGHTS
10 Hard-Won Lessons from Founders Who Sold for Millions
After analyzing dozens of exit stories from founders who sold their companies for eight and nine-figure sums, ten critical patterns emerge. From PlanGrid's acquisition by Autodesk to Enscape's merger with Chaos Group, successful exits aren't about luck. They're about building fundamental value while avoiding common pitfalls that kill deals.
TL;DR: Want a Big Payday? Here’s How Founders Sold for Millions
After studying 10+ founder exit stories, we found the real patterns behind $100M+ acquisitions.
Here are the 10 rules they lived by:
Companies are bought, not sold. Build undeniable value.
Price for value, not cost. Create ROI that’s hard to ignore.
Non-tech founder? Find your tech partner ASAP.
Enterprise customers = credibility.
Take risks, but only calculated ones
Nail pricing early. Changing it later is brutal.
Survive near-death moments. Every startup faces them.
Don’t build for exits. It backfires.
Protect your health. Burnout kills billion-dollar dreams.
Investor-founder fit is everything. It’ll make or break your exit.
📌 Final word: Don’t chase exits. Build something so good that acquirers chase you.
Lesson 1: Companies Are Bought, Not Sold
Every successful founder emphasized this golden rule. Yves Frinault from Fieldwire put it best:
"Companies are bought, not sold. People repeat it, but even when they hear it, they don't actually listen."
Stop pitching your company around hoping for acquisition interest. Instead, build something so valuable that acquirers come to you. Fieldwire received acquisition offers every time they raised funding rounds because they had built undeniable value in their market.
Action Item: Focus 100% of your energy on building value for customers. The exit conversations will follow naturally.
Lesson 2: Value-Based Pricing Is Your Secret Weapon
Don't compete on price… compete on value creation. Price based on the value you deliver, not your costs or competition.
Chase Gilbert discovered this when his $50,000 annual fee was creating $2.5 million in incremental value for clients.
His approach: "I need to deliver more value to you than I take in what I charge you. Otherwise, you should not work with me."
The framework Chase uses:
Understand the value you're creating
Capture a fair slice of that value
If you're wrong about value delivery, make it right
Be "long-term greedy". Think beyond the initial product
Action Item: Calculate the actual dollar value your product creates for customers. Price accordingly.
