Colin C. Campbell is a serial entrepreneur who has co-founded over a dozen multi-million dollar companies. #1 Best Selling Award winning Author, speaker, and founder of Startup Club, helping entrepreneurs globally through his book “Start. Scale. Exit. Repeat.”

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Guest Resources

Start. Scale. Exit. Repeat. – Get a copy of Colin’s book on Amazon.

Startup Club – Checkout Colin’s website and scale your business.

3 Value Bombs

1) Don’t quit on your control when you are on exit.

2) Timing is 50% of your value.

3) Entreneurship is a trade that we need to master. If we think of it this way, we will be confident when we launch a company and that we will also be confident to launch another one after that.

Show Notes

**Click the time stamp to jump directly to that point in the episode.

Today’s Audio MASTERCLASS: Start. Scale. Exit. Take Some Money Off the Table. Repeat.

[1:25] – Colin shares something that he believes about becoming successful that most people disagree with.

75% of Venture back up companies fail and 95% of the companies in the INC 5000 fastest growing companies doesn’t have Venture back up. This means there are a lot of opportunity to start a small business, grow it and sell it and do that over and over again.

[2:19] – Colin talks about his big learning years ago when he failed to exit his business the right way.

His first business was a software rental which he started in the early 90’s lasted for only 14 months. Two years after they launched a Bulletin Board Service, the Information Super Highway came and that shut down the company to make room for phone lines for the internet access service which was called in Canada as Internet Direct. It was the largest ISP and one of the fastest growing companies in Canada.
It was phenomenal and in demand that they decided to sell that company to a private cable company for $180M value stocks . He was only 29 yrs old at that time and he owned worth a billion dollars.
In March of 2000, Microsoft break up to Nasdec and the people who controlled the company decided to pull the offering until the market gets back. Nasdec.com crashed and the stock went down from $19 / share to 6 cents / share.
He learned two things from this. Don’t quit on your control when you are on exit. They build the company in 10 years and throw it out in just 10 weeks. The second thing is bad things can happen.

[4:52] – Colin talks about how important timing is on the sale of his other companies.

He gets paranoid when everything goes well. They exited .CLUB literally months before the 2022 techrep ans they did the same with the company he had with his brother a month before the lemon crisis.
If you didn’t made a major sale then you missed the window and now he is taking it to science, using a time to sell index on start up club by using IPO data to trtack the buyer’s or seller’s market. Right now, we are in the strong buyer’s market. Its not a good time to sell your company but a good time to buy and build your company.

[6:42] – Colin talks about who are the best types of companies to sell to when you get the timing right.

Timing is 50% of your value. The Ecommerce index in 2021-2022 dropped by over 50%.
Finding the right buyer is also critical. There are 3 types of buyer; cash flow, competitors and strategic buyers.
The formula is they look at your customer base and on your technology and say that they can leverage that with their customer base and gain a lot more profit and sales than when a company stands on its own. They will give you an amount in between your cash flow value and the value of the arbitrage.
If you can’t find a strategic buyer, buy from a competitor. They can reduce expenses and gain economy’s scale and they will give you a premium over a cash flow buyer.
If you only have to sell to a cash flow buyer , it will be a right thing to do if it is the right timing and market place.
They sold .CLUB TO GO Daddy registry and Go Daddy took it to more customers because they had a lot more distribution than they have and they benefited.
Capital gains are typically taxed in a much lower rate in other countries.

[10:30] – A timeout to thank our sponsors!

HubSpot: Stop spreading yourself thin, and start making major moves with HubSpot! Visit Hubspot.com/marketers to learn more!
ThriveTime Show: Attend the world’s highest rated business growth workshop taught personally by Clay Clark & NOW featuring Rich Dad Poor Dad Author Robert Kiyosaki and Eric Trump at ThrivetimeShow.com/eofire!

[12:58] – Colin talks about the concept around Laddering Up Wealth.

He asked Joe Foster of Reebok if he start, scale keep or if he start, scale, exit, take some money of the table and repeat and they have different perspective between them.
Bad things can happen. We need to reframe what we think of ourselves , that we’re not just CEO’s of our companies but entrepreneurs.
Entreneurship is a trade that we need to master. If we think of it this way, we will be confident when we launch a company and that we will also be confident to launch another one after that.
A lot of entrepreneurs sell their business and lose their identity. They stop seeing the opportunities they have because they don’t want to take the risk of going back to the way it was. You can learn and understand that trade begin to think of yourself as someone who builds and sells companies vs somebody who just builds , keeps and collects income.

[15:24] – Colin talks about what entrepreneurs need to do to prepare for exit.

The first thing to do is understand the KPI’s and metrics of the company for the industry and before selling the company, optimize the metrics for the industry.
Another thing is for you to check your ego at the door and basically fire yourself and evaluate your team.
Elevate your people, not yourself. Literally step out of the company and let someone run it if you see that you are not of help.
Connect to the decision maker when you get down with the deal because brokers and lawyers can mess it up for you. Don’t underestimate the importance of building a rapport and trust with the decision maker on the other side.
There are no such things as evenings and weekends. When you are on a deal mode , you’re on go mode and the tighther you make that deal, the more likely you are going to get that deal.

[20:26] – Colin talks about #1 Best Selling Award winning Author, speaker, and founder of Startup Club, helping entrepreneurs globally through his book “Start. Scale. Exit. Repeat.”

This start up book talks about the formula of success but also the mental challenges, stresses and how it impacts you, your family and the people around you.
It’s a 10 year product, with 200 people, it received 24 global awards in 2024 and is #1 in 15 spots in Amazon. It continues to surprise him with start ups and those who want to exit their business.
Start. Scale. Exit. Repeat. – Get a copy of Colin’s book on Amazon.
Startup Club – Checkout Colin’s website and scale your business.

[22:20] – Thank you to our Sponsors!

HubSpot: Stop spreading yourself thin, and start making major moves with HubSpot! Visit Hubspot.com/marketers to learn more!
ThriveTime Show: Attend the world’s highest rated business growth workshop taught personally by Clay Clark & NOW featuring Rich Dad Poor Dad Author Robert Kiyosaki and Eric Trump at ThrivetimeShow.com/eofire!

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