24 Apr Built to Sell: From $32M Valuation to Fire Sale – with Ret Taylor
Ret Taylor spent his entire adult life chasing a number. First it was $30 million. Then $10 million. Then $6 million. Then he sat in a tent at 18,000 feet on Denali with two Arctic storms closing in and realized the number was never the point.
He came down the mountain, sold Ned, his natural remedies company, and now guides people through life transitions on multi-day vision quests in the mountains of Colorado. In this episode, youā€™ll learn:
Spot the bad actor clause that can convert a business line of credit into a personal obligation without warning
Read the market signal that took direct-to-consumer margins from 35% to 6% and why bootstrappers got hit hardest
Use category exclusivity with a single podcast partner to go from $8K to $120K monthly in five months
Recognize when your “zone of genius” as a founder has expired and staying longer destroys value
Use an ancient severance ritual to strip away the limiting beliefs and “shoulds” that keep founders trapped in businesses they’ve outgrown
