Exit Planning
The Four Dials
Also known as: Seller priority framework
The four priorities every founder carries into a sale — Cash, Legacy, People, and Retirement. You can't turn all four to maximum. The founder who hasn't ranked them ends up with the buyer's default settings.
WHY IT MATTERS
Every founder selling a business carries four priorities into the deal: how much Cash they walk away with, what happens to the Legacy they built, how their People are treated after close, and what their own Retirement looks like. The problem is that these four dials compete with each other. Maximizing cash might mean accepting a buyer who guts the team. Protecting your people might mean taking a lower price from a buyer who keeps everyone. Demanding a clean retirement might mean giving up earnout dollars that require you to stay. Most founders never rank their dials before the first offer arrives. When the term sheet lands, they try to optimize all four simultaneously — and end up with the buyer’s default settings on every one. The founders who get the best outcomes decide which dial matters most before they go to market, and then structure every negotiation around that priority.