Episode Summary

In this episode, Alan Clarke sits down with fellow co-hose and Managing Director of Atom CTO Bhairav Patel to unpack the real, unvarnished story behind selling a business.

Bhairav walks through the journey of building Atom from a six–founder startup into a specialist tech advisory firm embedded inside its clients – and ultimately to a successful sale to Teybridge Capital. They explore how early visions change, why exit plans are rarely accurate on Day 1, and what it actually feels like to sign the deal.

This is not the “champagne on a yacht” version of an exit, but a grounded conversation about alignment between founders, realistic exit thinking, personal ambition, and timing in a world reshaped by AI and new ways of building software.

---

Key Discussion Points

1. Lifestyle Business vs. Built-to-Sell

• Right at the start, the founders of Atom had the conversation:
  • Is this a lifestyle business or something we eventually want to sell?
• With six co-founders, alignment on this question was crucial to avoid:
  • Conflicting priorities
  • The business being pulled in multiple directions
• Over time, only two founders remained by the time of the sale – not through conflict, but because people’s priorities and visions changed.

2. The Original Vision for Atom

• Core purpose: help companies not get screwed over by tech.
• Two-part ambition:
  1. Provide high-value CTO/advisory services.
  2. Invest in clients – sometimes with cash, often with sweat equity – once the firm had sufficient financial strength.
• As Atom grew, they were able to:
  • Take equity positions
  • Work deeply with multiple startups and scale-ups

3. When It Started to Feel Like a “Real” Business

• Around year three, Bhairav realized Atom wasn’t just surviving – it was a real, durable business.
• They’d previously discussed the pattern many founders see:
  • Most companies die in year one.
  • If you make it past year three, your odds of reaching year five rise sharply.
  • After five years, you’re generally “there” as a business.
• At this point, people were leaving, and much of the onus fell on Bhairav to juggle:
  • Sales
  • Consulting / CTO work
  • Leadership and delivery

4. Scaling vs. Staying Specialist

• Bhairav was clear: he didn’t want a 1,000-person empire.
• Preferred model:
  • A small, specialist team (they hit ~30 staff, with 50 as a conceptual upper bound).
  • Deeply embedded with clients as their IT team / CTO / advisor.
• Some other early founders did want a large headcount operation:
  • They structured the business so those people could pursue that ambition separately within a group structure.
• For Bhairav personally, success meant:
  • Being really good, not really big.
  • Staying close to technology and problem-solving, not becoming a totally hands-off executive.

5. The “Strategy” for an Exit – and Its Limits

• Bhairav acknowledges their “strategy” depended heavily on others and isn’t one he’d generally recommend:
  • They believed that because they were so embedded and helpful, one of their clients would eventually acquire them.
  • That meant, in part, leaving their future in the hands of other businesses’ growth.
• Alan challenges a common myth:
  • Many founders proudly say they’ve “worked out their exit strategy” before they’ve even started, which he sees as largely nonsense.
  • The world, the market, and the business itself will be very different by the time you’re exit-ready.
• Shared view:
  • You can’t fully control timing, the buyer, or the exact nature of the deal.
  • What you can control is making your business attractive to buy:
    • Be very good at what you do.
    • Build a strong, efficient team.
    • Embed deeply with customers.

6. How the Actual Sale Came About

• Bhairav had a long-standing relationship with the team at Teybridge Capital (dating back to 2013).
  • They’d often spoken about merging or working together more formally.
• By the time of the sale:
  • There were 2–3 other interested parties (potential mergers or acquisitions).
  • Colin hadn’t engineered a formal auction process – these conversations arose organically.
• Timing:
  • The sale happened about two years earlier than Bhairav expected.
  • External factors (clients’ growth, market readiness) played a major role.

7. You Never Fully Control the Exit

• Alan’s perspective:
  • A sale requires a willing buyer and a willing seller.
  • You often can’t make the buyer ready; you have to wait until:
    • Their strategy aligns
    • Their finances allow it
    • The economic climate and competing opportunities line up
• Bhairav agrees and adds:
  • It didn’t have to be Teybridge Capital.
  • It could have been another client, a different structure, or 6–12 months earlier/later.

8. Personal Ambition and Founder Fit

• Alan highlights an important founder question: “What do you actually want out of this, for you?”
  • Do you want to be a multi-millionaire in a glass office on the 55th floor?
  • Or do you want to stay close to the craft – tech, problem-solving, innovation?
• Bhairav’s answers were shaped by:
  • Starting Atom at 40, not 20 or 30.
  • Having 20+ years of experience, seeing friends run massive teams with huge stress.
  • Observing that many ended up with people, buildings and headaches, but not necessarily the kind of business or life they really wanted.
• Bhairav’s chosen path:
  • Stay close to tech and complex problems.
  • Avoid building a massive people-heavy machine.
  • Build something manageable, specialist, and valuable.

9. Wearing All the Hats (and Learning What You Like)

• In the early days, Bhairav did:
  • Sales
  • Networking
  • Marketing (including the podcast)
  • Delivery and consulting
  • Team leadership
• Over time:
  • Additional CTOs joined, taking some delivery pressure off.
  • When they left, Bhairav had to absorb more again.
  • Later, a network of partners allowed him to offload some work while staying involved.
• He always retained hands-on consulting responsibilities throughout the 8 years:
  • Often this was high-value work and the source of significant revenue.
  • He’d “step in” particularly when things weren’t quite right:
    • Development issues
    • Strategic technical problems
    • Complex stakeholder challenges

10. Why Sell If It Was a “Dream Business”?

• Alan asks bluntly: if this was essentially your dream setup, why sell?
• Bhairav’s reasons:
  • Post-Covid, Atom was chugging along nicely; clients had grown and matured.
  • Joining Taybridge provided:
    • A chance to tackle something bigger, essentially his “whale”.
    • A way to continue consulting while working on a larger, scalable opportunity.
  • There was also a sense of unfinished business:
    • He had previously worked at Aztec with some of the same people.
    • He’d seen what that business could have become.
    • Taybridge now represented a chance to realize that kind of potential with a team he already trusted.

11. The Impact of AI and Changing Tech Landscapes

• The timing of the sale coincided with:
  • The rise of AI.
  • The emergence of AI-assisted coding / “vibe coding” tools.
• Bhairav notes:
  • Many of his peers running similar consulting and dev businesses have had to pivot.
  • AI has changed the expectations and economics of software development and tech consulting.
  • He doesn’t see it as a permanent, fixed state but acknowledges it’s currently a tough environment for startups and service firms.
• In hindsight, the timing of the sale looks even better, given those shifts.

12. What It Actually Felt Like to Sell

• The emotional reality was anticlimactic:
  • No Hollywood moment.
  • No single dramatic “we did it!” scene with champagne and fireworks.
• Reasons:
  • The sale process is long and admin-heavy:
    • Documentation
    • Due diligence
    • Legal agreements
    • Post-sale integration/admin
  • The founders were spread around the world and by then there were only two left.
  • No single room, no group signing, no collective celebration.
• Modern detail:
  • The use of e-signatures dampens the “moment” – you’re essentially just pressing a button alone in a room.
  • Bhairav had no seller’s remorse when he signed.

13. Is It Really an “Exit”?

• Bhairav reflects that he’s almost surprised we call it an “exit”:
  • Technically, it is – he sold the company.
  • But practically, it felt like “just another thing that happened in the journey.”
  • He’s still working in the acquiring company, still in the game.
• Alan points out that for many founders:
  • Even after the sale, they’re still effectively running the business the next day.
  • Earn-outs and integration mean the true exit is often gradual, more like:
    • “One day I just went home and didn’t come back,” than a big bang moment.

14. The Myth vs. Reality of Exits

• Alan and Bhairav push back on the Hollywood narrative:
  • Exits are often portrayed as:
    • Yachts
    • Fireworks
    • Overnight transformation
  • In reality, it’s usually:
    • A transaction.
    • A transition into a new phase – still work, still problems to solve.

15. Takeaways for Founders and Would-be Sellers

• Don’t obsess over a fixed exit plan on day one.
• Do:
  • Get early alignment among founders on ambition (size, lifestyle, exit possibilities).
  • Build a business that is valuable on its own merits.
  • Stay honest about what you personally want – scale, money, craft, freedom, or some blend.
• Understand:
  • You won’t control everything about who buys you, when, or on what exact terms.
  • The “exit” will likely feel more like another chapter than the final scene of a movie.