If you’re not writing the exit CIM on Day 1, you’re already behind.

Here’s the dirty secret of private equity:
Most firms don’t actually know how they’re going to exit a deal when they buy it.

Oh sure, they’ve got some ideas.

“Maybe a strategic will pick it up.”
“Could be a tuck-in for a bigger platform.”
“Or maybe we’ll run a process with the usual suspects.”

But when you really push, most haven’t thought through the story they need to tell in 5 years... let alone what proof points they’ll need to make that story credible.

Here’s a better way:

Write the exit CIM on Day 1.

Not because you’ll run a process tomorrow… but because it forces clarity.

It makes you answer the hard questions:

• What’s the headline of this story?
• Who’s going to buy it, and why?
• What metrics will they obsess over?
• What do we need to build to earn a premium multiple?

When you do this at entry, the hold period becomes reverse-engineered strategy, not blind hope and bolt-ons.

Your 100-day plan gets sharper.
Your operating model gets tighter.
And your reporting isn’t generic, it’s designed to prove the thesis to a future buyer.

Instead, most firms start thinking about this stuff 6 months before the exit.
At that point, you’re not crafting a narrative, you’re just doing damage control.

The best investors don’t just underwrite value.
They orchestrate the exit from Day 1.

Everyone else?
They’re just hoping the market is in a good mood.