We’ve watched three portfolio companies get stranded in exit purgatory this year. Each had revenue. Each had growth. But when buyers dug into the GTM motion, the narrative fell apart—ICP was fuzzy, unit economics were propped up by founder-led sales, and the value prop didn’t survive a single diligence call. The GP’s exit timeline slipped from Q3 to ‘TBD.’
Here’s what we now run for every portfolio company before they hit the market:
- The Revenue Stress Test – We pull 12 months of closed-won deals and ask: If the founder left tomorrow, would the next rep know who to call, what to say, and why they’d buy? If the answer isn’t ‘yes’ with data, we flag it.
- The ICP Audit – We take the company’s stated ICP and cross-reference it against their last 20 wins. If more than 20% of deals came from outside the ICP, the narrative isn’t defensible. Buyers will punish it.
- The Discount Autopsy – We look at win rates by discount tier. If deals only close at >30% off list, the pricing power isn’t real. That’s a red flag for buyers.
This isn’t theory. We built these diagnostics after seeing the same patterns kill deals across fintech, dev tools, and healthcare SaaS. The tools are rough, but they’re ours—and they’ve saved two of our companies from getting repriced in process.
The hard truth: In this market, ‘good enough’ GTM gets you stranded. Defensible GTM gets you out.