This week on The Exit: In freshman year, Yuxin wanted to improve his grades with new classes, but he soon realized finding the right ones through his uni’s system was a painful process. That’s when he and a friend decided to build a better class search system. It wasn’t easy, but once they finalized the system, the website took off. After 2 years they were generating over 1M sessions annually, so they monetized the site and watched profit coming in. The site was so successful, it was covering their university fees. With such a winning model, it’s no surprise that the university they were studying at wanted to acquire the business… Listen to find out how their exit went down.

Yuxin Zhu co-founded a company as a computer science major in college by creating a search engine that allowed students at their college to audit potential course discovery and information about their college path like never before, which was acquired by the University of California in 2015. Yuxin currently is the Co-founder of Replo, a company that provides web page building tools for ecommerce companies wanting a better solution to building a unique website.

Website - https://www.replo.app/

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/yuxinzhu/

Twitter @Replohq - https://twitter.com/replohq

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The Exit—Presented By Flippa: A 30-minute podcast featuring expert entrepreneurs who have been there and done it. The Exit talks to operators who have bought and sold a business. You’ll learn how they did it, why they did it, and get exposure to the world of exits, a world occupied by a small few, but accessible to many. To listen to the podcast or get daily listing updates, click on flippa.com/the-exit-podcast/

This week on The Exit: How do you exit a travel business during a global lockdown? When Cyrus Ghazanfar co-founded Pilota, a machine learning product to predict the risk of flight disruptions, he never imagined that every flight in the world would be grounded in just a few months. The travel market completely disappeared as flights were halted, and while the business could sustain themselves for a few months, it turned out COVID would last much longer. So how did they negotiate an Exit to Hopper, a travel company valued at $5B, during a pandemic? Listen to find out.

Cyrus Ghazanfar is the Co-founder and CTO at Beagle, which is aiming to solve inefficiencies in the 401(k) market. Previously, Cyrus co-founded Pilota where they used AI to proactively mitigate travel risk, which was acquired in 2021.

Website - cyzanfar.github.io/

Website - https://meetbeagle.com/

Twitter @BeagleFinancial- https://twitter.com/beaglefinancial

LinkedIn - linkedin.com/in/cyzanfar

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The Exit—Presented By Flippa: A 30-minute podcast featuring expert entrepreneurs who have been there and done it. The Exit talks to operators who have bought and sold a business. You’ll learn how they did it, why they did it, and get exposure to the world of exits, a world occupied by a small few, but accessible to many. To listen to the podcast or get daily listing updates, click on flippa.com/the-exit-podcast/

This week on The Exit: Jon Nordmark was working at Samsonite in the 90s, for eight years Jon learnt about the bag business from the ground up and managed 21 different marketing and distribution channels. When the internet popped up, he was excited to talk to the CEO about this new distribution channel. But the CEO didn’t see the potential of selling bags online, so Jon quit to start eBags. Early on, eBags were focused on conversion, going from $13 to acquire $1 in revenue, to a low of 12c to acquire $1 in revenue in the first year. eBags had a number of acquisition offers but investors weren’t happy with the early offers. Seven years after their first offer, they finally exited to Jon’s previous employer, Samsonite. At the time of exit the business was generating $165MM in revenue with just 120 employees. Listen to find out about the challenges of working towards an exit for 7 years and why they should have taken the first offer to exit.

Jon Nordmark is the Co-founder and CEO of Iterate.ai (2013-now), and was the Co-founder and CEO of eBags. After selling 29 million bags (worth $1.6 billion), eBags was acquired by Samsonite in 2017. Iterate.ai’s goal is to speed up Digital Transformation in a modern way, while 90% of Iterate's revenue comes from their patented drag-n-drop, low-code AI app platform called Interplay.

Website - https://www.iterate.ai/

Twitter @Jon_Nordmark - https://twitter.com/Jon_Nordmark

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/nordmark/

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The Exit—Presented By Flippa: A 30-minute podcast featuring expert entrepreneurs who have been there and done it. The Exit talks to operators who have bought and sold a business. You’ll learn how they did it, why they did it, and get exposure to the world of exits, a world occupied by a small few, but accessible to many. To listen to the podcast or get daily listing updates, click on flippa.com/the-exit-podcast/

This week on The Exit: Sara didn’t know that answering an ad on Craigslist for a cannabis agency would result in her buying, building and eventually selling that same company. The business grew to become one of the first cannabis consulting businesses in the USA, working to get licensing across the country. When Illinois legalized cannabis, the industry boomed and Sara found herself with a very valuable asset. Everyone wanted in, and Sara’s company was in hot demand. So how did an exit happen when Sara never had an exit plan, but had all the power? Listen to find out.

Sara Gullickson is an entrepreneur, investor, and corporate dealmaker with more than a decade of experience building and scaling businesses personally and professionally. A multi-state cannabis license holder, Sara has a proven track record in identifying new opportunities and infusing traditional business strategies into progressive markets. At age 27, she entered the nascent cannabis space and founded her first venture, a consulting firm called Dispensary Permits. She went on to build several other ancillary companies tailored to the cannabis industry including a tech platform and turnkey retail model.

Instagram @Thecbadvisors - https://www.instagram.com/thecbadvisors/

Twitter @Thecbadvisors - https://twitter.com/thecbadvisors

Website - https://thecannabisbusinessadvisors.com/

Website - https://saragullickson.com/

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The Exit—Presented By Flippa: A 30-minute podcast featuring expert entrepreneurs who have been there and done it. The Exit talks to operators who have bought and sold a business. You’ll learn how they did it, why they did it, and get exposure to the world of exits, a world occupied by a small few, but accessible to many. To listen to the podcast or get daily listing updates, click on flippa.com/the-exit-podcast/

This week on The Exit: Zeynep Ilgaz migrated from Turkey 25 years ago with two suitcases and $5K to her name and made the American dream a reality. Not coming from a biotech background, Zeynep never thought she would start a medical device company but she saw an opportunity in the home testing diagnostic market and jumped on it. Starting as an internet company from their garage, the business began to grow. They went after private equity financing and then the exit conversations started to happen. Zeynep says that having a group of board members who were experienced in exiting and able to provide connections to help through the exit process was a key part to a successful acquisition. Listen to learn what other pieces of advice Zeynep has for business owners looking to exit.

Zeynep Ilgaz is a partner and co-founder of Breakaway Partners, an investment company that funds early-stage and underrepresented founder companies creating disruptive products or services. Before Breakaway, Mrs. Ilgaz was the co-founder and CEO of Confirm Biosciences, a national provider of diagnostic products for human and wellness testing, acquired by Clinical Reference Laboratory in 2021. At Confirm, Mrs. Ilgaz was responsible for leading the Company through its most significant challenges and opportunities and gaining national retail distribution for Its flagship products, Drug Confirm™ and Health Confirm™. She has been central for Confirm achieving national distribution with retailers including Walmart, Rite Aid, CVS, and Walgreens with over 20,000 stores of distribution.

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/zeynep-ilgaz-78732a5/

Website - https://crossoceanfund.com/

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The Exit—Presented By Flippa: A 30-minute podcast featuring expert entrepreneurs who have been there and done it. The Exit talks to operators who have bought and sold a business. You’ll learn how they did it, why they did it, and get exposure to the world of exits, a world occupied by a small few, but accessible to many. To listen to the podcast or get daily listing updates, click on flippa.com/the-exit-podcast/

This week on The Exit: When Jason co-founded gaming start-up PopCap, never in his wildest dreams did he imagine exiting to EA for $650MM. The business started out as three guys creating games to sell back to the big gaming companies, but they quickly had to rethink that business model. The collapse of web games, combined with the dawn of Ecommerce in 2000, forced PopCap into selling their games online and business boomed. After 11 years, they decided to exit and found themselves at the center of a bidding war. Listen to find out why he believes the bidding war led to a successful exit for them.

Jason founded PopCap Games with John Vechey and Brian Fiete in 2000, where they designed and produced games such as Bejeweled, Peggle, Zuma, and Plants vs Zombies. PopCap Games was sold to EA in 2011, and Jason is currently working on new games at Blue Wizard Digital, an indie game studio based in Comox, BC.

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jkapalka/

Twitter @JasonKapalka - https://twitter.com/jasonkapalka

Website - https://bluewizard.com/

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The Exit—Presented By Flippa: A 30-minute podcast featuring expert entrepreneurs who have been there and done it. The Exit talks to operators who have bought and sold a business. You’ll learn how they did it, why they did it, and get exposure to the world of exits, a world occupied by a small few, but accessible to many. To listen to the podcast or get daily listing updates, click on flippa.com/the-exit-podcast/

This week on The Exit: Scared by unceremoniously losing her job when the newspaper she was working at shut down, Kim vowed to start her own business so she would never need to rely on anyone else again. The result was a 16 year journey of building an Australia-wide event company. Always knowing she would exit, Kim set the business up in a way that would be attractive to any buyer. Listen for all her tips on preparing for not just a successful exit, but a smooth exit.

Kim McGuinness is a business consultant & mentor, writer, editor and brainstorming partner. Through CoMojo, she works with business owners to build co-created growth strategies into the DNA of powerhouse businesses, networks and humans.

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kimmcguinness/

Twitter - https://twitter.com/kimmcguinness

CoMojo Website - https://www.comojo.com.au/

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The Exit—Presented By Flippa: A 30-minute podcast featuring expert entrepreneurs who have been there and done it. The Exit talks to operators who have bought and sold a business. You’ll learn how they did it, why they did it, and get exposure to the world of exits, a world occupied by a small few, but accessible to many. To listen to the podcast or get daily listing updates, click on flippa.com/the-exit-podcast/

Cecilia Zywicki is a seasoned EdTech entrepreneur who is fascinated by innovation around learning. Cecilia’s first business, Ranku, was planned out on the back of a napkin over martinis in San Francisco with a friend. Ranku was a two-sided marketplace for state university systems to increase student enrollment, and after finding their niche the business started to grow. How did A round financing conversations turn into an acquisition by John Wiley & Sons? Listen to find out.

Cecilia Retelle Zywicki is the Chief Operating Officer and Chief Of Staff at Student Resource Center ("SRC"), a portfolio company of Avathon Capital. Cecilia is focused on creating and implementing standard operating procedures, building new teams to create exceptional student experiences, and integrating software to easily collect data and build dashboards. Before joining SRC, Cecilia was the COO at PresenceLearning, a leading provider of live online special education-related services.

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ceciliacoo/

Website - https://student-resource.org/

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The Exit—Presented By Flippa: A 30-minute podcast featuring expert entrepreneurs who have been there and done it. The Exit talks to operators who have bought and sold a business. You’ll learn how they did it, why they did it, and get exposure to the world of exits, a world occupied by a small few, but accessible to many. To listen to the podcast or get daily listing updates, click on flippa.com/the-exit-podcast/

This week on The Exit: The minute Dru left college he was on the hunt for an opportunity. His desperation took him to a dusty barn in Dallas with an old printing press and a contact written on a napkin for 49% of a business that at the time wasn’t operational. This was the beginning of Popular Ink, which grew to the number one print packaging business in the US, and was acquired by Morgan Stanley for a record multiple. Listen to learn how Dru built the business from nothing and exited to one of the biggest investment management companies.

Andrew (Dru) Riess is a visionary executive and profitability catalyst with repeated success growing revenue, optimizing profits, and expanding business footprint within multimillion-dollar corporations, private-equity backed organizations, and entrepreneurial start-ups. Among many achievements Dru founded the company Popular Ink in 2007. Popular Ink, LLC had grown organically to be a leader in short run, high service specialty packaging for health and beauty and nutraceutical mar-kets, before its acquisition by PPC in 2019.

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/riess2/

Website - https://innovativegummies.com/

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The Exit—Presented By Flippa: A 30-minute podcast featuring expert entrepreneurs who have been there and done it. The Exit talks to operators who have bought and sold a business. You’ll learn how they did it, why they did it, and get exposure to the world of exits, a world occupied by a small few, but accessible to many. To listen to the podcast or get daily listing updates, click on flippa.com/the-exit-podcast/

Touraj wrote the book on successfully exiting a business. Quickly realizing his passion for creating products, after working at a VC firm which he describes as an on-the-job MBA, Touraj left to start his entrepreneur journey. Starting and selling multiple businesses, Touraj has experienced it all, from fire sale to successful exits, including selling Webs to Vistaprint for $117.5M. Listen to learn from Touraj’s challenges and successes.

Personal &/or Company Bio: Touraj is a strategic and entrepreneurial leader with a passion for bringing innovative and delightful products and services to the masses. He currently is the President and COO of Serve Robotics. Serve Robotics is shaping the future of sustainable, self-driving delivery. Serve designs, develops and operates zero-emission robots that serve people in public spaces, starting with food delivery.

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/tparang/

Website - https://www.serverobotics.com/

Twitter @Touraj - https://twitter.com/touraj

His Book - https://www.exitpath.net/

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The Exit—Presented By Flippa: A 30-minute podcast featuring expert entrepreneurs who have been there and done it. The Exit talks to operators who have bought and sold a business. You’ll learn how they did it, why they did it, and get exposure to the world of exits, a world occupied by a small few, but accessible to many. To listen to the podcast or get daily listing updates, click on flippa.com/the-exit-podcast/