The $50 Million Mistake: Private Equity Secrets to Selling Your Business for 11x EBITDA with Alexis Sikorsky

The Exit - Presented By Flippa

Technology

5.0 • 420 Ratings

🗓️ 22 December 2025

⏱️ 35 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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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 -- Are you running your business, or is it running you? In this episode, we sit down with Alexis Sikorsky, co-founder of Nightscale, who reveals the brutal truth about the "Grind" and the specific strategies he used to exit his banking software company for a massive multiple. If you are a founder stuck at the $5M–$10M revenue plateau, this episode is a masterclass in cashing out. Alexis breaks down the "$50 Million Mistake", a calculation of the money and time he lost by not knowing the secrets of Private Equity earlier, and how you can avoid it. What You’ll Learn: The "Fish and Chip" Trap: How Private Equity firms lure founders with high valuations only to chip away at the price during due diligence—and how to stop them. Nominal EBITDA vs. EBITDA: The financial metric that matters more than your bottom line. Learn how "dressing the bride" and identifying add-backs can instantly increase your valuation. The Magic Number: Why a $40M valuation is the specific target for a lifestyle where you never have to touch your capital again. The Due Diligence Reverse Card: How to investigate a PE firm by calling the founders they don't want you to talk to. Escaping the Operator Trap: Why you need to fire yourself from day-to-day operations to make your company sellable. -- Alexis Sikorsky is a seasoned entrepreneur, strategic advisor, and #1 international best-selling author who helps founders and SMEs scale with confidence, make smarter strategic decisions, and prepare for long-term growth and successful exits. Over his career, he has founded, scaled, and led multiple companies, including building and selling a software business to private equity in a nine-figure transaction. He is the founder of Sikorsky Consulting Ltd. and a co-founder of KnightScale Partners, where he works closely with founders as a true operator partner, providing experienced, founder-to-founder guidance on scaling, leadership, and value creation. Holding an EMBA from Oxford University, Alexis blends real-world entrepreneurial experience with strategic insight to help business owners future-proof their companies and navigate critical inflection points. Website - https://www.knightscalepartners.com/ LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexis-sikorsky-consulting/ -- Time Stamps: (01:11) Surviving the 2008 crash: Losing 75% of revenue overnight. (03:46) The "Unbelievable" Offer: Selling for 11x EBITDA based on a future plan. (06:00) Calculating the $50 Million / 5-Year Mistake. (08:59) When is the right time to sell? (The mathematics of the exit). (14:00) Red Flags: Detecting the "Fish and Chip" strategy. (20:30) How to boost valuation using Nominal EBITDA and non-recurring costs. (27:30) Why you should do M&A earlier than you think. -- 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

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0:00.0	Before we get into the exit today, I want to talk about the certified M&A advisors that are on
0:05.7	Flippa. 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.
0:29.3	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
1:10.1	Alexis Sikorski.
1:11.5	And this is a fantastic walkthrough of entrepreneurship.
1:15.5	I really like this episode.
1:17.0	And if you are new to this show,
1:18.6	definitely stick around through this entire conversation
1:20.6	because there is fantastic knowledge here,
1:23.6	including the phrase fish and chip from P.E.
	...

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