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Sessions · Advisor session

How to Sell Your Startup - Even When It's Small

Monday, September 14, 2026 · 12–1 PM PDT

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About this session

Not every company gets a banker and a process. Sometimes growth stalls, the next raise stops making sense, and the question becomes what happens now.

For one hour, we'll look at who buys small companies — customers, acquirers, individual operators — what they pay for, and how to tell what you actually have to sell. We'll also cover the paths that aren't a sale: downshifting to something you run on the side, or closing cleanly.

This session is about smaller outcomes and limited options — not banker-led M&A, venture-scale exit timing, or buy-side acquisitions.

What you'll work through:

  • What you actually have to sell - product, IP, customers, team - and what it's realistically worth
  • Who buys small companies, and what makes one worth buying
  • The paths compared: sale to a customer, acqui-hire, asset sale, lifestyle downshift, orderly close
  • Handling investors, and your own reputation, through whichever path you take

If you're weighing what's next for a company that isn't going the way you planned, join us.

Court Lorenzini

Hosting this session

Court Lorenzini

Founding CEO of DocuSign, FounderNexus

Court Lorenzini is a true serial entrepreneur. With several successful exits under his belt, including launching DocuSign into $20B global juggernaut.

His next venture, FounderNexus, extends his passion for working with Founders to accelerate themselves and their businesses. Beyond starting 5 companies himself, Court is an LP in nearly 20 VC funds around the world and a direct investor in dozens of global startups. His work with nearly a thousand Founders has helped them achieve higher levels of success.

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For companies that have raised at least $1M from venture firms.