From $100 to a $20 Million Exit to Intuit: Nellie Akalp on Building, Selling, and Starting Again

The Exit - Presented By Flippa

Technology

5 • 2K Ratings

🗓️ 2 June 2025

⏱️ 36 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Want a quick estimate of how much your business is worth? With our free valuation calculator, answer a few questions about your business and you’ll get an immediate estimate of the value of your business. You might be surprised by how much you can get for it: https://flippa.com/exit -- In this episode of The Exit: Nellie Akalp, founder and CEO of CorpNet, takes us on a no-fluff journey from launching her first business with just $100 to securing a 20x EBITDA exit to Intuit — all before turning 32. Nellie shares: How she and her husband bootstrapped MyCorporation from their apartment. What made their business irresistible to Intuit (spoiler: no debt, no investors, ultra-clean books). Why the post-acquisition “early retirement” didn’t last — and how that led to launching CorpNet in 2009 during the height of the recession. The pivotal B2B pivot that transformed CorpNet’s growth, including the launch of their Partner Program. How COVID turned into a major growth inflection point, scaling the team from 15 to 200 Why boundaries and mental wellness are non-negotiable for modern founders.. If you’re a business owner thinking about exit strategy, reinvention, or how to scale sustainably while protecting your peace — this episode is packed with golden insights from someone who’s lived it twice. -- Nellie Akalp is an entrepreneur, small business advocate, and mother of four little rockstars. As founder and CEO of CorpNet.com, she has helped more than half a million entrepreneurs start their businesses. Through CorpNet.com, Nellie has also partnered with business professionals such as attorneys, CPAs and more as their silent fulfillment partner helping them incorporate and form LLCs for their clients. Nellie has been named a Top 100 Small Business Influencer by Small Business Trends for the past four years and counting. In 2016 she was named Women Business Owner of the Year by NAWBO VC and her company, CorpNet.com, has been recognized on the Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing privately-held companies in America in 2015 and 2016. Website: https://www.corpnet.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/corpnet/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/corpnet.com/ Nellie on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nellieakalp/ -- The Exit—Presented By Flippa: A 30-minute podcast featuring expert entrepreneurs who have been there and done it. The Exit talks to operators who have bought and sold a business. You’ll learn how they did it, why they did it, and get exposure to the world of exits, a world occupied by a small few, but accessible to many. To listen to the podcast or get daily listing updates, click on flippa.com/the-exit-podcast/

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Before we get into the exit today, I want to talk about the certified M&A advisors that are on Flippa.
0:06.1	If you are an operator right now running a business and you're thinking about exiting,
0:10.8	you are going to want to get a free online business valuation on the exit landing page.
0:16.7	Without a doubt, it is the smartest thing you can do to start a process and get yourself organized.
0:23.0	So you're going to go to the URL, flippa.com, slash exit, to check out more, and let's jump into
0:28.1	the interview.
0:29.2	Below and welcome to the exit presented by Flipup, the number one platform to buy and sell online
0:34.2	businesses.
0:35.2	Flipa manages over a billion in deal value annually and combines
0:39.4	expert buy and sell side advisory with its market leading valuation tool, deal room,
0:43.9	off market offering, market insights, an AI-based deal-by-deal matching engine. Now for the exit.
0:50.9	The exit is a 30-minute podcast featuring awesome entrepreneurs who have been there and they
0:54.8	have done it. The exit talks to operators who have bought and sold businesses of all different sizes.
1:00.3	You learn how they did it, why they did it, and get exposure to the world of exits. It's a world
1:05.1	occupied by a small few, but accessible to many. On this episode of The Exit, I sit down with Nellie A. Kalk, the founder and CEO of Korpnet.
1:15.4	Now, I am familiar with Korpnet.
1:17.7	I've used it multiple times, and people listening to this likely have heard of it or used Korpnet.
1:24.5	And this is a fantastic story.
1:26.9	Nelly talks all about the ups and the downs and the
1:30.5	beginning origin story of corpnet and scaling it rapidly. And one of the inflection points
1:36.9	that I did not know, and I don't want to spoil it for anybody, but it is a really powerful
1:42.6	example of how a slight nuance change to your business
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Exit - Presented By Flippa, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of The Exit - Presented By Flippa and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.