Beware of Business Owner Exit

There’s a simple yet particularly salient post over at Carried Interest about exiting founders and business owners and the lack of implied alignment. The age-old question is,

why are you selling your entire business if you’re young, healthy and ambitious, and if the business and industry have huge potential?

It doesn’t make sense when you hear it, read it or think it. Yet, we have to ask this question at least once a week. Sometimes I almost convince myself to ignore it, but it’s safest to go with common sense and avoid these situations because chances are that the business/industry isn’t so great and the founder is being opportunistic.