From Chaos to Close: Anand Narayan on Founder-Friendly Exits

🔥 Excerpt

“If it looks too good to be true, it probably is—you only sell once. Here’s how to stack the deck before you take the first meeting.”

⚡ TL;DR

Ex-Navy officer and two-time founder Anand Narayan lays out a clean, no-nonsense exit playbook: plan a year out, engineer EBITDA (don’t wish for it), strip personal spend from the P&L, systemize operations so the business runs without you, and negotiate with aligned incentives—not desperation.

📄 Show Notes

Most founders don’t lose on price—they lose on preparation. That’s why I brought on Anand Narayan, a Navy-trained nuclear propulsion officer turned two-time founder who has lived the exit on both sides: the hard way (a lawsuit after selling a $65M staffing firm) and the right way (a cleaner, better exit after building an $8M digital services company). Today he’s helping owners engineer founder-friendly exits through Kenobi Capital. Translation: stop negotiating with hope and start selling a business that runs without you.

We start with the uncomfortable truth: you only sell once (maybe twice), while buyers negotiate for a living. If you show up unprepared, you’re a mark. Anand’s first rule is timing—give yourself a year. Not to daydream, to engineer EBITDA. That means cleaning the P&L like you’re staging a house: strip personal expenses (phones, travel, the “business” Tesla), tighten cost of goods sold so margins actually reflect reality, and present revenue intelligently. “Sales” is a mushy bucket; “Fortune 500 recurring revenue vs. project revenue” is a narrative buyers will pay for.

We dig into working capital as a valuation lever. Too many owners pay every invoice the day it hits and wait forever to collect receivables. That starves the business and scares buyers. Put your AP/AR on rails—scheduled payments, incentive terms for faster collection—so cash conversion looks like a system, not a vibe. When lenders underwrite deals and buyers model payback, that discipline quietly increases what they’re willing to pay.

Then there’s transferability. Buyers don’t purchase your heroics; they purchase your systems. If client relationships live in your head (or in someone’s text history), your multiple just shrank. Move the pipeline into a real CRM—top accounts, last touch, stage probabilities, win/loss. On delivery, instrument your work: project management and billing that show utilization, throughput, and quality. Automate payroll, benefits, and compliance so the operation isn’t one HR complaint away from chaos. You want the buyer’s CFO to look at your data room and say, “Plug-and-play.”

Legal is where smart founders get cheap and pay dearly. Anand’s caution is blunt: use M&A counsel, not your friendly corporate generalist. Term sheets that sparkle up front can hide “gotchas” in the earnout, reps and warranties, post-close adjustments, or payment schedules. If the fine print assumes you’ll keep rowing harder for less money, it’s not a great deal—it’s a leash. Price matters, but terms pay.

We also talk buyer types. A family office that wants steady cash flow prizes clean, boring excellence and will pay for it. A private equity group may love a “messy but promising” story—great for them, not for you—because they can buy low and fix it. If your company is under-systematized with personal spend everywhere, a financial buyer sees upside you haven’t captured and will discount accordingly. The fix is obvious: capture it before they do.

Anand’s model is deliberately owner-aligned. He’s not out to buy your business for a bargain; he’s building an exit accelerator that helps you prepare, package, and negotiate from strength. Think checklists, an exit attractiveness scorecard, even a one-page canvas to force decisions about stakeholders, your post-exit life, and how much of your identity is tied up in the company. If you can’t answer those questions now, you’ll answer them under pressure later—usually for less money.

My takeaways are simple: start early, clean the financials, operationalize everything, and get real counsel. Stage the house so the first walk-through sells the story before you open your mouth. If an offer “too good to be true” shows up in your inbox tomorrow, you’ll be ready to test it against a well-run process rather than emotion. That’s how founders stop getting played at the finish line—and actually walk away with the check they deserve.

👤 Bio

Anand Narayan is a Navy veteran and two-time founder who scaled and exited companies in staffing and digital services. He now leads Kenobi Capital, helping owners maximize exit value with aligned incentives and operational rigor. 

🎁 Giveaway / Resources

• Exit Attractiveness Scorecard (free 5-minute assessment). 
• Exit Attractiveness Canvas (self-guided planning tool). 
• “Exit By FORCE” accelerator overview (for founders who want a structured path to market). 

✅ Key Takeaways

• Plan your exit 12 months out; engineer EBITDA before buyers arrive.
• Clean books beat clever ad-backs. Remove personal spend early.
• De-risk operations: CRM for pipeline, PM/billing for delivery, automation everywhere.
• Use real M&A attorneys. The wrong counsel is the most expensive “savings” you’ll ever make.
• Multiples reward scale, quality of revenue, and transferability—not founder heroics.
• If an offer dazzles but the fine print smells off, step back. Terms write the story.

🧭 Chapters

00:00 Introduction & Anand’s Background
07:33 The Expensive Mistake: Use M&A Lawyers, Not Generalists
14:05 Clean Up the Books: Personal Spend, Working Capital, and EBITDA
27:54 Make It Run Without You: Automation, CRM, and Delivery Visibility
42:06 Final Playbook & Free Tools for Sellers