Repost from /fire - Struggling with buyout decision.
Some folks over at /fire said I may get better responses here...
52M, married, 3 kids - 1 middle school, 1 high school, 1 college. Spouse does not work. VHCOL area that we will stay in at least until the youngest is in college. Was a minority owner in a startup that sold to PE in 2022, which added ~$3M to my $1M investment portfolio (mostly 401k/roth (so total now is approximately $4M.)
PE has indicated they are in no hurry to sell, and shocked us in our last board meeting with a "we'll be here in 2030" statement. That's beyond my acceptable horizon. They've also indicated they would be interested in buying any of us out if interested.
They're also planning on making some financial engineering moves that make little business strategic sense, like merging us with another portfolio company that is 1) not doing well and 2) not really strategically a good business move (we would NEVER have come up with that acquisition candidate on our own).
Having a good year, at the end of this year I could sell all or partial equity from anywhere between $2.6 - $4.5 depending on variables of how much and for how much. No doubt that if I rode it out and the outlook remained positive, I could double or triple that.
Business is good, outlook is good, but 1) I'm exhausted - 11 years in from true startup at this point 2) I don't like the PE decision making 3) I see lots of risks - some are macroeconomic (geopolitical, AI). some are internal, some PE driven 4) This 11 year feeling of working toward an exit event has just taken a toll on my mental state.
I'm already beyond what I though I would achieve, struggling with when is enough enough decision. I'd probably stick around for another year transitioning to a lower stress role, but ultimately I think I would need to make a clean break. I won't retire, I'll have to do something else, but I'll finally quit chasing the ring. Struggling now with wondering if the low end of that value is enough, and whether I'd be irresponsible to take the early buyout, and of course - whether I'll regret the decision.