The Exit Advice Most Founders Get Wrong

Everyone talks about the deal. Almost nobody talks about the day after it closes.Deri Llewellyn-Davies has spent decades in boardrooms watching founders sell up and then struggle. He's been there himself: a successful first exit, and the strange feeling of being lost, lonely and supposedly happy.With Rachel, he gets into why the brain misses the chemistry of building, why an exit without a next purpose leaves a void, and what flow state, recovery and connection have to do with surviving your own success. Useful if you're building, scaling or eyeing the exit, and just as useful if the grind has got heavier than it should be.Honest, funny and fairly sweary.📖 Deri's book: Ultra Stateshttps://ultra-states.com/Follow Deri on LinkedInhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/thestrategyman/__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Thinking about your own exit? Start with the Exit Readiness Scorecard before The Grafter's full business diagnostic. ⁠⁠⁠⁠scorecard.thegrafter.com⁠⁠⁠⁠__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Find Rachel Murphy:⁠⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠⁠⁠More on what The Grafter does: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://thegrafter.com

You'd assume selling your business means a big cash number lands in your account and you ride off into the sunset. Charlotte Talmage is living proof that isn't always how it goes.Charlotte built Uuna, a change management consultancy, from £1.2 million to £2.8 million in three years, working with clients like Oxford University Press and Hays. Then she sold it to Cooper Parry, the UK's largest B Corp accountancy. Most of that deal was equity, not cash. In between, near burnout, a lot of Reiki, and a business named after the Latin word for together, because Charlotte built it on partnership rather than doing it all herself.Honest, values-led, and a genuinely useful masterclass in what to get in order before you even think about selling.📖 Charlotte’s book recommendation: Wintering by Katherine MayFollow Charlotte on LinkedIn__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Thinking about your own exit? Start with the Exit Readiness Scorecard before The Grafter's full business diagnostic. ⁠⁠⁠scorecard.thegrafter.com⁠⁠⁠__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Find Rachel Murphy:⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠⁠More on what The Grafter does: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://thegrafter.com

Everyone assumes selling your business for millions fixes everything. Tim Armoo is here to tell you it doesn't.Tim sold his first business at 17. He sold Fanbytes, his influencer marketing agency, for eight figures at 27. Then he tells Rachel what actually happened next: an empty diary, a breakup, and a panic attack that led to an ADHD, OCD and Tourette's diagnosis he'd never spoken about publicly.What you'll get from this one:Growing up between Ghana and a South London council estateHow a maths tutoring hustle at 14 turned into a £110k exit at 17The phone call that accidentally built FanbytesWhy the money doesn't fix what you think it willTim's top 3 pieces of advice before you sell upHonest, occasionally filthy, and one open appeal for Tim's future girlfriend to get in touch.Tim's book: What's Stopping You?Follow Tim on LinkedIn | Instagram __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Thinking about your own exit? Start with the Exit Readiness Scorecard before The Grafter's full business diagnostic. ⁠⁠scorecard.thegrafter.com⁠⁠__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Find Rachel Murphy:⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠More on what The Grafter does: ⁠⁠⁠https://thegrafter.com

Charlie Norton has bought, built and exited businesses since he was a teenager but nothing prepared him for the eight weeks he spent trying to turn around a haulage company he bought for £1.In this episode, Charlie (CEO of VAMOS Business Transfer) walks through his path from setting up a tag rugby coaching business at 14, his first leveraged buyout at 21 with an overdrawn bank account, to the multi-million pound exit that changed his life. And let's not forget the deal in between that ended with the former owners turning up at his office with an angle grinder.We also get into why Charlie thinks the word "broker" has become a dirty word in the industry, why he's built VAMOS and True Value to fix that, and the one piece of advice he'd give his 20-year-old self.__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Thinking about your own exit? Start with the Exit Readiness Scorecard before The Grafter's full business diagnostic. ⁠scorecard.thegrafter.com⁠__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Find Rachel Murphy:⁠LinkedIn⁠, ⁠Instagram⁠ and ⁠TikTok⁠More on what The Grafter does: ⁠⁠https://thegrafter.com

Roei Samuel sold his first company at 26 and became a millionaire overnight. By his own account it didn't fix a single thing he thought it would.He sits down with Rachel to talk about the burnout, the self-medication, being 120 days sober, and why the feeling of being enough never showed up the day the deal closed. Then the business he's building now, Connectd, and his case that full-time employment has stopped meaning safety.Find Roei Samuel on LinkedIn and Instagram __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Thinking about your own exit? Start with the Exit Readiness Scorecard before The Grafter's full business diagnostic. scorecard.thegrafter.com__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Find Rachel Murphy:LinkedIn, Instagram and TikTokMore on what The Grafter does: ⁠https://thegrafter.com

Most AI rollouts don't move the P&L. Here's why, and what to do instead.Rachel Murphy is joined by Ben Ford: technologist, ex-Royal Marine, and co-founder of Grafter AI. Ben taught himself Python on a boat to Iraq in 2003, has built national platforms, and ran Mission Control rebuilding internal systems for founders before ChatGPT 3.5 even launched.This conversation is for founders running £3m to £30m businesses who are sick of being told to roll out Copilot and call it a strategy. We get into why generic AI tools don't shift your margin, the unit economics shift that just made bespoke software cheaper than buying SaaS, and how Grafter AI builds tech that lives on your balance sheet, not someone else's.Grafter AI is the new service from The Grafter, built for founders who want AI working inside their P&L. Not bolted on top of their stack. We map your business, find the work eating your margin, and build the tech that makes it disappear. You own it from day one.Join the waitlist: thegrafter.aiFollow Ben on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/commandodev/__________________________________________________________Not sure where you stand on exit readiness?Take The Grafter's free Exit Readiness Scorecard: ⁠https://scorecard.thegrafter.com/⁠__________________________________________________________Find Rachel Murphy:LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/rachel-murphy-thegrafter/⁠Instagram: instagram.com/thegraft3rWebsite: ⁠https://thegrafter.com__________________________________________________________This podcast episode was produced by Jo Brown and The Grafter

Caroline Carruthers was the first female Chief Data Officer in the UK. She built Carruthers & Jackson from a book and a summer school into a thriving data consultancy. And along the way, found herself in the middle of an exit process she never asked for.In this episode, Rachel and Caroline talk about what it actually feels like to be courted by acquirers, why expensive advice isn't always good advice, and what happened when Caroline got ghosted mid-process by the people who wanted to buy.They also dig into why Caroline chose a partial exit over a full one and what changed when she finally got clear on what she actually wanted.Honest, funny, and completely unfiltered.In this episode:Why Caroline never thought of herself as an entrepreneur (and still doesn't, really)Getting ghosted during an exit process and why it's more common than anyone admitsPartial exits: what they look like and why they're not second bestHiring an MD and feeling unleashedThe emotional side of selling your business and why nobody talks about itFollow Caroline on https://www.linkedin.com/in/caroline-carruthers-22b9423/Buy her books https://carruthersandjackson.com/thought-leadership-our-books/__________________________________________________________Not sure where you stand on exit readiness?Take The Grafter's free Exit Readiness Scorecard: https://scorecard.thegrafter.com/__________________________________________________________Find Rachel Murphy:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rachel-murphy-thegrafter/Instagram: instagram.com/thegraft3rWebsite: https://thegrafter.com

What happens when a journalist with a gift for storytelling builds a PR agency in one of the fastest-moving sectors in healthcare and then walks away from it all?Holly Tennock joins the Exiteers Podcast to tell her story. Starting out as an NHS trainee and economics journalist, Holly discovered she had a rare ability to take complex, dry subject matter and turn it into stories that resonated with real people. That skill took her from the European Parliament press office to founding Journalista, a health tech PR agency that punched well above its weight.Over ten years she grew the business to a team of twelve, won industry awards, landed front-page stories in the national press, and worked with clients like Doctor Foster who were genuinely changing how the NHS delivered care. She did all of this while raising two young children.Holly opens up about recognising her own limitations as a founder and why that led to selling the business. She talks candidly about completing the deal in just three months, the physical and emotional fallout that followed.This is a raw and honest conversation about entrepreneurship, motherhood, mental health, identity after exit, and finding what comes next.Find Holly on LinkedIn or email [email protected]______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Got a story to tell about your exit? Email us at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠-More of Rachel Murphy⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠X⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The Grafter

Andrew Hulbert grew up working class on a council estate, raised on graft and grit.At 26, with no funding and no plan, he walked away from a suffocating corporate job and launched his own business from his bedroom. That bet turned into a team of 500, clients like Twitter and Deliveroo, and a $100M exit before he turned 35.But with the dream came the cost: missed moments, personal sacrifices, and a loneliness only founders understand.In this episode, Andrew sits down with Rachel Murphy to talk about:spotting the gap in a broken industrygoing all-in (and what it cost)the emotional reality of an 8-figure exithow it feels to finally slow downThis one’s less about the money and more about purpose, risk, identity, and the quiet moments no one sees after the deal closes.You can follow Andrew Hulbert on https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewhulbert/______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Want to stop guessing and start growing?Join The Grafter community, built by exited founders for the ambitious ones. Whether you’re scaling, raising or planning your next chapter, The Grafter gives you clarity, community, and expertise you can trust.Join the community now 👉 ⁠https://thegrafter.com/community⁠______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Do you truly know where you are and where you're going with your business?Start with your Founders Scale Readiness Assessment. A quick diagnostic to understand where you are on the journey from founder-dependent to systematically scalable👉 ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://founders-assessment.thegrafter.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Got a story to tell about your exit? Email us at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠-More of Rachel Murphy⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠X⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The Grafter

This episode is a rollercoaster, emotionally and professionally. Rachel Murphy returns for Part 2 of her Exiteers conversation with Sally Wynter, and this time, she goes even deeper.From building her first million-pound business in a year, watching her teenage stepdaughter fight for life in an ICU, to helping 41 businesses grow, raise, or exit with real ROI - it's what real leadership looks like.We talk:Why she believes the U.S. is the next frontier for The GrafterHow Charlotte’s life-threatening illness shaped her entire legacyWhat it really takes to sell a business for 8 figuresAnd the brutal reality of building a business through personal traumaRachel is bold, brilliant, vulnerable, and fiercely human. This is a story about survival, impact, and what it means to lead with heart.______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Want to stop guessing and start growing?Join The Grafter community, built by exited founders for the ambitious ones. Whether you’re scaling, raising or planning your next chapter, The Grafter gives you clarity, community, and expertise you can trust.Join the community now 👉 https://thegrafter.com/community______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Do you truly know where you are and where you're going with your business?Start with your Founders Scale Readiness Assessment. A quick diagnostic to understand where you are on the journey from founder-dependent to systematically scalable👉 ⁠⁠⁠https://founders-assessment.thegrafter.com/⁠⁠⁠______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Got a story to tell about your exit? Email us at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠-More of Rachel Murphy⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠X⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The Grafter