TiE Houston Hosts Panel on Successful Business Exits

HOUSTON: TiE Houston hosted a well-attended panel discussion on “Successful Exits: The Truth About Growth and Exits” at the Westin Oaks hotel in the Houston Galleria. Participants came to network and listen to three local Houstonians share their success stories on business exits as well as gain valuable insight and advice.

TiE Houston President, Dr. Arun Pasrija, began the evening by welcoming new members and described the organization’s mission as fostering entrepreneurship through mentoring, networking, and education.

Dr. Pasrija introduced Sammy Haroon, a long time TiE Charter Member and the CEO of RBR Group. He then introduced the moderator for the evening, Dr. Sara Terheggen. Dr. Terheggen is a corporate partner at Morrison & Foerester, specializing in corporate finance transaction and private equity fund formation.

The panelists for the evening were Samina Farid, Ashish Gupta, and TiE Houston’s Board Member and former President Aruna Viswanathan. Samina is a leading energy and technology entrepreneur and co-founder of Merrik, a global provider of software to the oil and gas industry. She successfully exited Merrick in 2014. The company was sold to P2, whom she served as an advisor.

Ashish Gupta is a serial entrepreneur, investor, and business mentor, with over 25 years of industry experience in IT, Education, Health Care and Real Estate. Ashish has founded, grown, and successfully exited three technology companies over 17 years.

Aruna Viswanathan is the COO of the RBR Group, a firm that serves as an investment and commercialization office for venture capital and private equity.

Each panelist shared his or her unique insight. In summary, the business owner must understand their key assets, which are likely to be attractive to a potential buyer. These could include one of more of assets such as unique product or service, customer base, repeatable process for delivering product/service, recurring revenue base, profitability in terms of revenue growth and/or margins, and human talent, along with its unique company culture.

Panelists suggested that the entrepreneur should keep records and documentation to demonstrate the any/all of the above business assets to a potential buyer. These could include patents/copyrights, process documents, audited financials, customer contracts, etc. Professional help from accounting and legal professionals is recommended to go through the process of exiting a business. The entrepreneurs should be prepared to spend six to 12 months in the process of agreeing to valuation, due diligence including financials and legal documents at the same time ensuring running the business continues be important.

“The session was very informative”, said Mr. Aku Patel, one of the attendees from Indo American Chamber of Commerce of Greater Houston.

TiE is a global organization dedicated to fostering entrepreneurship. Next event: How to Launch a Successful Food Business on Thursday, June 29, 2017.

For more information, visit www.houston.tie.org.