Exit-ready is a discipline, not a pivot.
What we underwrite at seed and why durability creates exit options.
Every founder we meet has been given the same two pieces of advice, usually by people who never compared notes. Build something that lasts. And remember that everything is for sale.
We think both are right. A lot of avoidable damage comes from treating them as a choice.
The company that doesn’t need to sell
The strongest position in any negotiation is being able to walk away. Companies are no different.
When a business has to sell, because the money is running out or the team is drifting or growth has stalled, the buyer sets the price, the timing and the terms. When a business could simply carry on, the conversation changes. You can say no. And buyers can tell which kind of company they are talking to within the first meeting.
That is the whole idea behind this firm, and it fits in one sentence:
What exit-ready actually looks like
It is not hiring a banker. It is not a slide called “strategic options.” Being exit-ready just means that if the right offer arrived tomorrow, nothing in your company would embarrass you in diligence.
In practice that comes down to a handful of unglamorous things. A cap table with no surprises in it. Board meetings that actually happened, with decisions written down. Accounts a stranger could follow. Contracts that transfer cleanly. A treasury that treats the raise as fuel, not a trading account.
The same habits show up in how the company runs day to day. Decisions get made and written down. Metrics are instrumented, so reporting is pulled from live numbers rather than assembled from memory. The processes that matter live in documentation and runbooks rather than in any one person’s head, so the product keeps shipping even when someone is away. None of this is done for a buyer. It is simply what a well-run company looks like, long before anyone asks to see the books.
We have watched good companies limp through diligence because one of these was missing, and watched the price fall accordingly. The habits that make you easy to acquire are the same ones that make you hard to kill.
That is why we say exit-ready is a discipline, not a pivot. On the day an offer arrives, nothing about the company changes except its leverage.
What we look for, and where
We lead seed rounds and stay through Series B: the first institutional cheque, reserves for the rounds that follow, and the same partner across all of it. We invest globally, with a focus on the UK, US and emerging markets.
The geography matters. In markets where funding windows open and close without warning, durable companies are not a preference. They are the ones still standing when the window reopens. And when exits come in those markets, they reward the prepared. Buyers tend to be strategic, windows are short, and deals die in diligence far more often than in negotiation.
At seed, nobody can underwrite an exit, and we don’t pretend to. Mostly, we are underwriting people. The product will change and the market will surprise everyone. The founders are the constant. We look for determined, resilient, independent thinkers: people who keep going when a window shuts, keep score honestly, and hold their own view when it would be easier to concede.
An insight the market hasn’t priced helps. Early evidence that customers care helps more. The team carries the rest. The board, the controls, the treasury policy and the next round are work we do together.
What you can expect from us
Fund returns take a decade to prove, so we won’t talk about them yet. Our behaviour can be judged today.
You get a clear answer in weeks rather than months, a yes or a no, with reasons. We hold reserves for follow-on, so conviction has a budget behind it. Every company we back becomes data-room-ready early and stays that way. Board reporting settles into a steady rhythm from the start. And any founder considering us can speak to any founder we have already backed, without us in the room.
If we fall short of any of this, this letter is where we will say so.
A note to founders
None of this is extra work on top of building the company. It is how you stay in control of the outcome. A company that runs this way gets to choose whether to take an offer. A company that does not may one day have no choice.
Practise the discipline and the choice between building to last and being ready to exit disappears. They were never different things.
We would like to hear from you early.