If you’re reading this, chances are you have a partner in your business. Could be an operating partner. Could be a silent partner. Could be an investor. Most founders looking to exit overlook the buyer hiding in plain sight: the partner already sitting across the table from them. Your existing partners are often the most likely person to buy you out. And it’s one of the hardest deals to negotiate, because you can’t run a process, you can’t create competitive tension, and you can’t walk away clean if it falls apart on Friday afternoon.
Sean Kernan figured out how to do it anyway. He was one of six partners in a Dallas company that handled the back office for independent financial advisors. By late 2023, Sean wanted out. Three and a half months later, $500,000 in cash hit his account. No earn-out, no holdback.
In this episode, you discover how to:
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Open the conversation with your partners without triggering a defensive reaction or a stall
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Anchor your price to a prior valuation event so the number is hard to argue with
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Use a deliberately low ask as leverage to get speed, certainty, and 100% cash upfront
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Identify which one of your partners is most likely to write the check, and approach them first
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Source the cash from a platform partner, franchisor, or custodian who holds the underlying assets
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Negotiate a “ceasefire” non-compete that protects the buyers without trapping you
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Spot the partner who is too eager to buy, and what that eagerness usually means
Watch the full interview below.
Quote of the Week
I just looked at the valuation when we sold half. This was three or four years later, and I offered to take the same number. I kind of lowballed myself. But I knew I had opportunity cost because I was working on growing my practice. I just wanted out.
Deals
GAMEE, a mobile gaming and digital rewards platform with 120 million registered users on Telegram, sold a 60% controlling stake to Alpha Compute Corp. (NASDAQ: ALP), an AI compute infrastructure company, for up to $11M, implying a total enterprise value of $18M. GAMEE generated $3.5M in revenue in 2025, implying a valuation of 5x revenue.
