New angel investors — and many startup founders — operate under the mistaken belief that it’s somehow noble to avoid talking about exits.
They’ve missed the entire point of venture capital.
“We’ll figure it out later” isn’t visionary. It’s lazy. And for investors, it’s often a flashing red warning sign that the founders aren’t prepared for the shark-infested waters of venture capital.
Venture investing is not about building a nice company. It’s about building a company that exits.
Today’s investors need focused founders who know what they’re building, who it’s for, who might acquire it, and how they’ll get there. Too many founders believe that pivoting repeatedly is a badge of honor. In reality, very few companies survive multiple major pivots. Direction matters. Strategy matters. Timing matters.
Startup culture glorifies “fail fast.” But venture outcomes reward something different: think hard, execute deliberately, and build with the end in mind.
Most startups pursue venture capital too early. They grow tired of hearing they need “more traction” — often without anyone clearly explaining what traction actually means in their specific market. They’re not unintelligent. They’re under-guided.
Nobody has told them that they can build their company to be worth ten times what it might be without an exit strategy. Nobody has told them that “figuring it out later” is a likely path to failure, led by capital inefficiency and lack of focus. Nobody has told them that telling investors you’ll figure it out later is the same as telling them that you have no plan or intention to return their investment!
That’s exactly why RVC developed the Exit Strategy Canvas.
It outlines six critical questions every startup should answer from DAY ONE about how their company becomes liquid. This isn’t theoretical. It’s practical positioning for acquisition, strategic alignment, and investor return.
It’s no accident that one of the most widely cited principles of effective leadership is to begin with the end in mind. Startups that do this — and investors who evaluate through this lens — dramatically increase their odds of success compared to the “figure it out later” crowd.
If you want to understand how disciplined exit thinking changes everything, join us this Friday for RVC’s Exit Strategies workshop.
Or better yet — become a member and get the full series included.
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