Know your worth; the deals collapse when you do not.
principle — attributed to Julius Solaris
Solaris sold Event Manager Blog to Skift in September 2019, on his third attempt. Two prior deals had collapsed and a family business of seven freelancers plus Carmen on payroll waited to see whether the third would close. The lesson he has named publicly is operator vocabulary, not analyst vocabulary. Know your worth. The first two deals collapsed because he did not. The discipline applies beyond exits. Any negotiation in which the operator has not done the internal work of pricing what they bring tends to break on the first real pressure. The third try closed because he had finally calibrated. The line belongs in the bank because it is what he tells every founder now.
For founders considering exits, independent operators negotiating engagements, and any operator whose first instinct is to undersell their work. The principle is most useful as a corrective at the pricing stage, before the deal is on the table.
know-your-worth, exits, negotiation, skift-sale