Emotional readiness comes before financial readiness.

observation — attributed to Joanna Stone Herman

Stone Herman's diagnosis of sellers is structural. Sometimes people step into the sales process and they are not emotionally ready to sell their company. If so, the process is going to be challenging regardless of how good the deal terms are. The dynamic is different for founder-led companies than for private-equity-owned ones. Founder-led companies have built something from the ground up; the sale is personal. PE-owned companies were built to be sold. The CEO has effectively become an extension of the PE firm. The implication is that the advisor's first job is to assess emotional readiness, not financial valuation. A seller who is not ready will sabotage their own deal in ways they cannot consciously prevent.

For M&A advisors, founders considering an exit, and PE professionals managing portfolio sales. The observation is most useful as a pre-engagement diagnostic for advisors deciding whether to take on a sale mandate.

seller-readiness, emotional-preparation, founder-companies, sale-process