Nick Bradley

Most founders leave millions on the table when they exit. Not because they built bad businesses - because they optimized for revenue instead of enterprise value.

I bridge the gap between founder-led businesses and investor-grade companies. I work exclusively with founders targeting 8-9 figure exits, and with PE firms and Family Offices optimizing their portfolio - applying the same strategic and operational frameworks to both.

The difference comes down to infrastructure. Buyers pay premiums for businesses that run on systems, not heroics. Where leadership is developed, not dependent on the founder. Where growth is predictable and margins are protected.

This isn’t 6-month “exit prep.” It’s 12-36 month transformation work - installing the operational rigor, financial discipline, and strategic planning that institutional buyers demand and PE sponsors require from portfolio companies.

My Background:

I spent 10 years as a Private Equity CEO and Operating Partner across 27 transactions totaling $5B+ in exits. I’ve sat on both sides of the table - building businesses and evaluating them for acquisition. I’m also the author of “Exit for Millions”, the #1 bestseller on building businesses for premium exits.

How We Work:

FOUNDERS

Building enterprise value: 12-month group mentoring program for scale-stage founders focused on creating predictable revenue, leveraged operations, and consistent cash flow.

Preparing for exit: 30-day intensive showing what your business is worth today, what it could be worth, what’s limiting value, and the roadmap to close the gap.

INVESTORS 

Operating partner engagements for portfolio companies needing growth, scale, turnaround work, or exit optimization.

Our mission: To build and install the infrastructure and discipline that compounds enterprise value.

📧 nick@highvalueexit.com

CEO & Founder, Exit Specialist / Business Scale-Up Mentor

We Help Successful CEOs, Founders, & Entrepreneurs Build High Value, High-Impact, Exitable Businesses.

​Our passion is empowering growth-minded business owners to scale rapidly towards a high-value exit and ultimately, freedom.

That’s why we’ve developed exclusive masterminds, full-service partnerships, and dedicated support to accelerate your impact, and give you back the power and control you deserve.

Our Scale-to-Sale Methodology is the result of 60+ years of combined experience with private equity firms and business transactions, designed specifically for rapid scale toward financial independence.

In working with us, you will gain the focus, direction, and momentum to intentionally and consistently grow your company’s value…

Giving you the leverage and power you need to generate rapid, impressive growth, and with it, the freedom to live your life on your terms.

Three words PE firms repeat constantly:

𝗣𝗿𝗲𝗱𝗶𝗰𝘁𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲. 𝗥𝗲𝗽𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲. 𝗦𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲.

If your business doesn’t tick all three boxes, they walk.

Here’s what each actually means:

𝗣𝗿𝗲𝗱𝗶𝗰𝘁𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲:

Not “we had a great quarter.” But “we can forecast revenue 90 days ahead within 10% accuracy.”

Revenue isn’t random. It’s systematic. You know where it comes from and when.

𝗥𝗲𝗽𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲:

Not “our founder landed an incredible deal.” But “our process generates 40-60 qualified leads monthly regardless of who’s running it.”

Success isn’t heroic. It’s documented. Anyone following the system gets the same result.

𝗦𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲:

Not “we’re growing fast by burning cash.” But “we’re profitable at scale and our unit economics prove it.”

Growth doesn’t require founder sacrifice. The business funds its own expansion.

PE firms are militaristic about this.

Randomness is risk. Uncertainty is risk. Risk kills multiples.

I’ve watched them walk from $30M EBITDA businesses because revenue was unpredictable.

And I’ve watched them pay premium for $8M EBITDA businesses because everything was systematic.

𝗜𝘀 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗯𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗽𝗿𝗲𝗱𝗶𝗰𝘁𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲, 𝗿𝗲𝗽𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘀𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲? 𝗢𝗿 𝗱𝗼𝗲𝘀 𝗶𝘁 𝗱𝗲𝗽𝗲𝗻𝗱 𝗼𝗻 𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗼𝗶𝗰𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗵𝗼𝗽𝗲?

#PrivateEquity #BusinessSystems #PredictableRevenue #ScaleUp #InvestorGrade #SystematicGrowth #ExitStrategy

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Ted Belinky

CFO | Chief Financial Officer | Private Equity | SaaS | Cloud | Software | Services | M&A | B2B | Board Member | MBA

🔹MY EXPERTISE: 15+ years as a CFO with financial, performance and operational leadership in public and private equity (PE) sponsored low to mid-market, portfolio, and global companies. I specialize in high-growth and turn-around. I am a performance driven executive partner focused on developing and executing strategies to scale and drive profitable organic and inorganic (M&A) growth, margin improvement, liquidity and cashflow, optimized capital structure, metrics and data, and risk & compliance.  I have managed strategic functions including Accounting & Controlling, FP&A, Corporate Finance, Tax, Treasury, Audit, Legal, Human Resources, Facilities, IT, Procurement, Revenue Ops and Corporate Development.

🔹INDUSTRY EXPERTISE: SaaS | Software | Cloud | Cybersecurity | Managed Services | B2B | Business Transformation | Technology Consulting | Enterprise Software | Information Technology

🔹HOW I DRIVE SUCCESS: I partner with CEOs, Boards, and private equity sponsors to shape and execute strategies that drive growth and value creation. A hands-on leader, I align finance with operations and go-to-market strategies, uniting front and back offices to maximize organizational impact. I also excel in building and mentoring high-performing teams that execute with urgency and deliver results.

🔹MY LEADERSHIP STYLE: I lead with emotional intelligence, collaboration, and a commitment to continuous improvement. I foster trust and alignment across all levels through sound judgment, critical thinking, and intellectual curiosity. My pragmatic, action-oriented approach ensures strong outcomes, while my empathy and gratitude create lasting connections with teams, executives, and boards. 

🔹MY SPECIALITIES: Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A) | Accounting & Controller | Tax, Treasury, Audit | Corporate Finance | Capital Structure | Liquidity & Cashflow | Strategy | Merger & Acquisitions (M&A) | Exit | Integration | KPI & SaaS Metrics | Systems Implementation | Revenue and Sales Operations (RevOps) | Business Intelligence & Data Analytics | Global Business & Transfer Pricing | Business Operations | ESG | Information Technology | Restructuring | Fundraising | LBO | CPA | Investor | Private Equity | Board | Coach

Chief Financial Officer and Managing Partner

Partner with CEO and private equity sponsor to transform and scale for growth.  Successfully restructured and  improved liquidity and cashflow, drove EBITDA, margin and top line growth, rebuilt global finance, accounting and FP&A organization, integrated acquisitions, began scaling company for growth and  eventual exit. Responsible for accounting & controlling, FP&A, tax, treasury, audit, HR and people operations, data analytics, M&A, legal, revops, IT and facilities.

🔴   I was doing my usual LinkedIn deep dive this morning and something occurred to me.

Most AI content I see for CFOs is still focused on Finance and Accounting.
Close, forecasting, reporting, dashboards, core processes.

Useful, but narrow.
And focused on the wrong thing.

For CFO's AI isn’t just a finance or accounting tool.
And it’s not a finance project.

Treating it like one is a mistake.

In all its forms, AI touches the entire operating blueprint.
How the business runs.
How it goes to market.
How decisions get made.
How work scales without breaking.

That means CFOs can’t just optimize individual processes.
We have to look at the whole system.
- GTM economics
- Delivery efficiency
- Pricing discipline
- Handoffs and friction
- Incentives and outcomes
- Capacity and leverage

The connections matter more than any single workflow.

It reminds me a bit of the early internet days.
Some companies used it to publish brochures and landing pages.
The winners rebuilt how and what they sold, how they served customers, and how they scaled.

AI feels similar.

Lately I’ve been thinking about how much of leadership is invisible.

The hard conversations you rehearse in your head before having them.
The decisions you delay because people’s lives are attached to them.
The nights your mind wanders with uncertainty instead of pretending you’re clear.

Social media celebrates confidence, certainty, and conviction.
But most real leadership happens in the gray.

- It’s choosing not to react when you could, and listening longer than is comfortable.
- It’s admitting “I don’t know yet” when everyone expects an answer.
- It’s holding two truths at the same time: We need to move faster and we can’t break people to do it.
- It’s is staring at an email for ten minutes because you know whatever you write will land heavier than you intend.
- It’s “walking” into a meeting knowing someone is about to be disappointed, and doing it anyway because avoiding it would make things worse later.
- It’s realizing a decision you made months ago was wrong, then owning it.
- It’s carrying information you can’t share yet, and feeling a little lonely because of it.
- It’s choosing not to vent, even when you really want to.
- It’s watching someone you believe in struggle and fighting the urge to jump in.
- It’s going home knowing you did the right thing, even though it doesn’t feel good.

Most leadership lives there and not in black or white.
Leadership lives more in judgment calls, patience, and restraint.

What I’ve learned is this:
You don’t earn trust by being right all the time or looking the part.
You earn it by being honest when things are hard and steady when things are unclear.

If you’re carrying more weight than people realize, you’re not doing it wrong.
You’re probably doing the work. 

And if today feels heavy, that doesn’t mean you’re failing.

It usually means you care.

Keep going.

🔴  If you want to make a portfolio company stronger, don’t start with growth.
Start with the economics.

In my advisory work and as a CFO, I see a lot of PE portfolio companies that look busy. Lots of hiring, changing the sales motion, launching "strategic initiatives", and integrating systems. 

From the outside, it feels like momentum.
But activity doesn’t create value. Economics do.

There are some warning signs we’ve all seen:
• headcount grows faster than gross margin
• revenue goes up but free cash flow doesn’t
• “strategic” projects consume capital without changing returns
• EBITDA improves because spend gets pushed, not because the business actually got better

The company gets bigger.
The real question is whether it’s getting stronger and more profitable.

The portfolio companies that truly create value do something less visible.
They tighten the operating system.

Here’s what that actually looks like:
• Each new dollar of revenue costs less to deliver than the last.
Pricing improves, delivery gets standardized, exceptions go down, and cost-to-serve shrinks so margin expands as volume grows.

• Each hire increases output more than cost.
You’re hiring into leverage. Better tools, clearer roles, and tighter processes mean one person supports more customers, more revenue, or more throughput than before.

• Each investment shortens payback or improves scalability.
Capital goes toward things that get cash back faster or remove future bottlenecks, not projects that just add complexity or sound strategic.

This is why it matters.
Compounding only works if the business gets easier to run over time. If growth adds complexity faster than it adds margin, you’re not compounding. You’re stacking risk.

This is where the CFO really creates value.

Not by explaining results after the fact, but by making sure capital only flows to things that improve the underlying economics of the business. 

This means fewer initiatives, clearer economics, and faster decisions and feedback.

The uncomfortable question every company should be asking is simple:
•  Is this making the business more resilient and more efficient…
or just larger and harder to manage?

Strong companies don’t win by doing more.
They win by making each decision strengthen the economics that compound over time.

🔴   The most expensive mistakes I see aren’t bad bets.
They’re the ones no one shuts down.

Most of the job today is placing bets. Not blind bets, but informed ones.

Leaders don’t fail because they make bad bets. 
They fail because they let bad bets linger instead of taking action sooner.

That’s getting harder, not easier - knowing when to act.
Having the conviction to stop something once momentum takes over.

Critical thinking used to be table stakes.  Now it feels like a lost art. 
We add more tools, more data, more dashboards, hoping the answer will surface on its own.

It won’t.

AI should sharpen judgment, not replace it. 

From my view, the goal isn’t to be right every time. It’s to place smart bets, learn fast, take action sooner, and cut losses early.

Don’t let better tools become an excuse for weaker thinking and lack of action.

If this feels uncomfortable, it’s because you already know which bet you should have shut down.

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Nick Bradley

Ted Belinky

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