4x Exited Founder · Former Pro Athlete · Speaker & Advisor

I've built and sold 4 companies.
Today, I speak about and help
business owners Build to Exit.

I'm Todd Sullivan. After my pro hockey career, I built and sold four companies. Along the way, I've helped many fellow founders grow and sell their companies for more than $1B in total.

Today, I enjoy speaking at conferences, on webinars, and on podcasts on as well as working with business leaders across technology, healthcare, sports, consumer products, media, financial services and business services to grow strategically and prepare companies to maximize their exits. If you think I can be helpful, let's find a time to chat!

Schedule a Strategy Call → Request Todd as a Speaker
Todd Sullivan
Todd Sullivan
4x Exited Founder, Growth Accelerator & M&A Expert
Todd Sullivan as Yale University hockey goaltender
Yale University
Two-time team MVP
Logos of companies Todd Sullivan has helped build, grow and sell
Companies I've helped Build, Grow & Exit
A track record of success across the sports industry
Athletic Career
Yale
2X Hockey MVP
USA Olympics
1994 Tryout
Toronto Maple Leafs
Minor League
San Jose Sharks
Minor League
Entrepreneurial Career
CBS Sports
Sold To
Amer Sports
Sold To
Microsoft
Sold To
PRIVATE EQUITY
Sold To
My Journey

From the Locker Room to the Boardroom.

“I’m incredibly grateful for the opportunities my athletic career has provided. The lessons I’ve learned of discipline, resilience, preparation, and performing under pressure have all shaped every stage of my entrepreneurial journey.

After my hockey career, I founded, scaled and successfully exited four consumer and technology companies. Each business came with its own challenges, setbacks, and breakthroughs, providing invaluable lessons about building enduring companies, creating enterprise value, and navigating the complexities of mergers and acquisitions.

Today, I work with founders and business owners who want to build companies that command premium valuations and attract the right strategic buyers. Regardless of industry, creating a business that acquirers want to buy isn’t the result of luck, it’s the outcome of intentional execution over month to years.

Having experienced that journey as a founder, investor, advisor, and M&A professional, today, my goal is to help entrepreneurs build more valuable businesses and maximize the value of what they’ve created when the time is right to exit.

Connect on LinkedIn →
COLLEGE HOCKEY
1991 to 1995
4-Year Starting Goalie & 2x Team MVP at Yale

Four years as the starting goalie and two-time team MVP at Yale, where competing at the highest collegiate level taught me discipline, resilience and how to perform under pressure.

PRO HOCKEY
1995 to 1997
NHL & Olympic tryouts to 5 minor league teams

A tryout with the San Jose Sharks and stints on five minor league teams. The travel, the grind and the long odds taught me how to compete when nothing is guaranteed. The athlete’s mindset became my operator’s edge.

SHOCKZ
1997 to 2003
Invented consumer product & sold to Amer Sports

As a pro roller-hockey player I invented an inline-skate suspension system, built it into a company, licensed the technology, and ultimately sold it to Amer Sports. Proof that a product can start in the rink and end being sold all over the world.

MICHIGAN MBA
2003 to 2005
Entrepreneur of the Year

At Michigan’s Ross School I earned Entrepreneur of the Year honors, turning a competitive instinct into a business one. It’s where the playbook for building and selling companies started to take shape.

CROWDZONE
2009 to 2012
TechCrunch50 San Francisco to a CBS acquisition

CrowdZone launched out of the TechCrunch50 San Francisco spotlight and grew into a sports media platform compelling enough for CBS to acquire. A lesson in building something a strategic buyer needs, not just wants.

BETTERFLY
2012 to 2013
Acquired by Microsoft via TakeLessons

Betterfly was a consumer learning and live-video platform that found its home inside Microsoft’s ecosystem through an acquisition by TakeLessons. Different category, same playbook: position the company for the acquirer long before the conversation starts.

SPIRITSHOP
2013 to 2015
eCommerce for school merchandise acquired by competitor

SpiritShop scaled school spirit and sports uniforms into the licensed category leader and was ultimately acquired by a private-equity-backed competitor. Knowing your strategic landscape is half the exit.

EXITWISE
2015 to Present
CEO of Growth & M&A Advisory Firm

Today I work as a Growth and M&A advisor and speaker, helping business owners run the same growth and acquisition playbook I’ve lived 4-times so each exit isn’t luck, it’s design.

Success Stories

4x Exited Founder
Helping Fellow Founders

I’ve spent my life founding, building, and scaling businesses but growing up as the son of a three-time U.S. Open tennis champion taught me that preparation and competitive drive aren’t optional. They’re the baseline.

A professional hockey career reinforced the same lesson: you win by out-preparing, out-executing, and surrounding yourself with the right team. I carried that mindset into entrepreneurship, founding and scaling technology companies, navigating the full lifecycle from startup to exit, and learning firsthand what creates enterprise value and what destroys it at the worst possible moment.

After my own exits, I started advising founders approaching the biggest financial event of their lives. I’ve sat on both sides of the M&A table as a seller, as a buyer, and now as the person quarterbacking the process for owners who want to get it right.

Today, through Exitwise, I help founders and business owners across technology, healthcare, business services, and beyond position their company for a premium outcome, assemble the right deal team, run a competitive process, and maximize what they’ve built.

Whether you need to respond to an unsolicited offer or planning an exit two years out, I bring an operator’s instinct, an investor’s lens, and a playbook built from real transactions, not theory. So if you’re building a business you plan to sell someday and you want someone in your corner who’s been through it, learned from it, and now does it every day for others, let’s find a time to chat!

Companies I've built & sold
SHOCKZ CrowdZone SpiritShop Betterfly
Companies I'm helping grow
BrainBox Solutions Helios NIX MySwimPro
Companies I've helped sell
Glade Siege Sports Fathead ProScripts Commando Lock Dako DataFuzion EventUp Fox Dealer Gigster Great Lakes Tile Products Mod Interiors Nerdy Bunny Purpose Jobs Recyclist ShowMojo Tilt Ventura App Clarity
Public Speaking

I speak to a variety of audiences on Building Companies for Exit.

As a former pro athlete and four-time exited founder, I can command most any stage and inspire most any audience by sharing stories of hard-won battles and specific lessons from 25 years of building and selling companies. My style is educational, inspirational and animated. My playbook is approachable, tactical and actionable.

Check availability →
Todd Sullivan speaking on stage at ChapterX Miami
ChapterX Miami · The conference for post-exit founders
Todd Sullivan presenting on the TechCrunch50 San Francisco stage
TechCrunch50 San Francisco · Presenting to Investors and Press Corps
Todd Sullivan delivering the Build to Exit talk at the University of Michigan
University of Michigan · “Build to Exit” lecture
Todd Sullivan presenting Build to Exit at Michigan Tech Week
Michigan Tech Week · “Build to Exit” keynote
01 · Audiences I Target

Rooms where founders and owners gather

From conference main stages to boardrooms and investor forums, I tailor every engagement to the audience in the room.

→Entrepreneurship & business-owner conferences: EO, YPO, Vistage, and scaling-focused summits
→Private equity & investor forums exploring portfolio exit readiness
→Business school programs, founder communities, and accelerator cohorts
→Industry conferences where M&A and consolidation are active themes
→Podcast audiences & media programs on business growth and wealth creation
→Corporate innovation and strategic partnership events
Built for
Trade Shows & Industry AssociationsWealth AdvisoryVenture CapitalIncubators & AcceleratorsPrivate EquityGrowth AdvisoryEntrepreneurial ProgramsPodcasts
02 · Topics I Cover

Signature keynote topics

Five talks drawn from four exits and $4B+ of M&A, each built to send founders home with something they can act on the next day.

01
Build to Exit
The financial, operational and legal decisions that make the right buyers compete to acquire you.

Most founders start thinking about their exit too late, often after a buyer has already approached them, when the leverage is already gone. This session walks through the architectural decisions that separate companies that command premium valuations from those that get lowball offers: financial hygiene, reducing founder dependency, and building strategic moats that make the right buyer compete to acquire you.

Takeaway: Founders leave with a practical exit-readiness checklist and the top 5 value drivers that move the needle in a sale process.
02
Why Business Sales Fail
The preventable deal-killers that cost founders millions, and how to avoid them.

The majority of business sale processes that fall apart do so for reasons that were entirely preventable. Drawing on my own four transactions and years advising founders through M&A, I break down the most common deal killers, misaligned expectations, inadequate preparation, the wrong advisors, and the timing traps that cost founders millions. Candid, specific, and backed by real experience.

Takeaway: Audiences understand what actually kills deals and how to structure the sale process to protect value and close on their terms.
03
Exit Readiness: The 12 Months That Define Your Outcome
The pre-exit moves that decide what a buyer will pay, and how confidently.

The year before a sale is when most of the real value is either created or destroyed. This is a founder's guide to the pre-exit window, the financial, operational, and strategic moves that directly impact what a buyer will pay and how confidently they'll pay it. I cover what a Quality of Earnings analysis reveals, how to manage key employee transitions, and what sophisticated buyers stress-test before they make an offer.

Takeaway: Founders walk away with a prioritized 90-day action plan to strengthen their exit position before any formal process begins.
04
Build Your M&A Dream Team
How to assemble a deal team that competes at the highest level on your behalf.

Buyers show up to every deal with seasoned professionals who negotiate acquisitions for a living. Most founders show up with their attorney and their accountant, generalists, not deal specialists. This session breaks down the M&A advisory landscape, explains the critical difference between investment bankers, M&A advisors, and business brokers, and shows founders how to build a team that competes at the highest level on their behalf.

Takeaway: Audiences gain a clear framework for selecting advisors, understanding fee structures, and ensuring expert representation throughout the process.
05
Life After the Exit
The identity, financial, and purpose questions no one prepares you for.

The conversation around exits almost always stops at the closing table. But what happens after, the identity questions, the financial decisions, the next chapter, is often the hardest part. Drawing on my own transitions and the founders I've worked with, I explore what a successful post-exit life actually looks like, how to avoid the most common mistakes founders make with their proceeds, and how to find purpose on the other side of entrepreneurship.

Takeaway: Founders gain a realistic, grounded picture of life after the sale, and the mindset and financial frameworks to make the most of it.
03 · The Content

Podcasts & presentations

Watch, listen, and download: conversations and decks covering exits, valuation, and building companies buyers want.

Advisory

Accelerate Growth and
position your business
to maximize your exit.

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Ask 100+ Exited Founders

Join our Exited Founder WhatsApp group for Free! With more than 100 Exited Founders, you can ask the community any question about your business and one of us will respond within 24 hours. Real Exited Founders, real answers, zero cost. Join today!

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Accelerate Growth & Exit Prep

My team and I will complete a full business diagnostic, build your valuation and strategic growth plan to scale revenue, sharpen market positioning, and prepare your business for exit with a buyer memorandum, buyer lists, data room and clean financials.

$2,500/month3 month minimum
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Sell Your Company

I will assemble and lead the best industry specialized team of M&A experts to maximize the sale of your business. I will leverage all of our Exited Founder relationships and coach you through the full M&A process to make sure we create the exit you deserve.

$5,000/month+ % of Sale Price6-8 months
Client Testimonials
Mike Henry
“Todd helped turn our small R&D-focused company into a high-growth, industry-disrupting company.”
Mike HenryCEO, Mythic AI
Ivan Chicchon
“I finally feel like the chess player rather than the chess piece. Your mentorship has been essential.”
Ivan ChicchonCEO, ToothNinja
Stefanie Lemcke
“Todd helped with the building blocks of our early-stage company while expanding our long-term vision.”
Stefanie LemckeCEO, GoKid
Brandon Bertrang
“Todd brought in strategic partnerships, which helped drive customer acquisition and create new revenue streams. Todd is a major reason we are where we are today.”
Brandon BertrangCEO, LawnGuru
Fares Ksebati
“I witnessed Todd develop relationships with the largest sports media companies in the United States, while helping me develop my passion for entrepreneurship.”
Fares KsebatiCEO, MySwimPro
Kris Petersen
“Todd is one of the hardest working entrepreneurs I've ever met. His business development skills and ability to bring people to the table for a conversation, regardless of context, are unmatched.”
Kris PetersenCEO, GearTagz
Jayna Cooke
“Even though Todd was the CEO of two other companies at the time, he was eager to help me think through our growth strategy and make introductions to his network of potential partners and investors.”
Jayna CookeFounder & CEO, EventUp

Let's talk!

Whether you need help scaling toward an exit, getting ready to go to market, or looking for a speaker who's actually built and sold companies, let's start with a conversation.

Speaking organizers, request the speaker kit & topics one-pager.
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