Investors and founders agree that the steps that make a business genuinely sellable happen years before anyone puts an offer on the table.

At SCALE London 2026, the summit for entrepreneurs, investors and growth partners, the panel The Long Game: Funding routes and paths to exit kept founders fixed on the stage.

Too often, founders treat exit planning as a late-stage issue — something to address only once a business is mature enough to attract interest. The panel’s experts disagreed.

Chaired by Karim Palant, Director of External Affairs at UK Private Capital, the discussion brought together Will Fraser-Allen, Managing Partner at Albion Capital LLP; Allison Stuckless, founder of Vericor Capital; Joan Mill, a private equity advisor and tech investor; and Howard Davies, co-founder of Salcombe Distilling Company.

Between them, they have decades of experience with exits, acquisitions and near-misses. Their shared view was clear: the decisions that determine whether a sale goes well are made years before buyers begin looking closely.

Decide who’s buying you, and build towards them

Howard Davies said he settled on his exit strategy at a barbecue in 2014, before the first bottle of Salcombe Gin had launched. “From day one we decided to build and structure the business around the idea of being acquired by LVMH,” he said. LVMH (Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton) had a strong spirits portfolio, but to this day there is no gin brand in it.

Identifying the likely acquirer early defined what the business needed to prove. “What would they be looking for in terms of brand differentiation, market positioning, gross margin? What territories would we need to demonstrate we’d succeeded in to be on their radar for acquisition?” Howard said every decision was shaped by those questions.

Joan Mill said the same approach is worth copying in any sector.

“However mad it might seem, say out loud whoever is the best acquirer for your business. Do your research, look at the businesses they’ve bought in your segment, and get a sense of how you could fit into that category,” she said.

The lesson for founders is not to retro-fit a business to a buyer. Instead, identify a likely acquirer early and work backwards from the capabilities that buyer would want to see, especially if a sale is likely to depend on showing proof of fit long before any formal process begins.

Keep the cap table clean

Joan was blunt about what puts her off a deal before she has even reviewed the numbers. “I’ve looked at businesses with a cap table of 20 or 25 people, and I’ve said ‘Absolutely not!’ Because when it gets to the next stage, whether it’s series A or B, it gets very complicated when it comes to valuation,” she said.

Howard’s experience backed that up from the founder’s side. Salcombe’s early crowdfunding rounds risked putting hundreds of small investors directly on the cap table. “We were like, ‘no way do we want a thousand people on our cap table’,” he said, until the company found a platform offering a nominee structure instead.

A simple shareholder list keeps founders focused on running the business and avoids creating a red flag for a future buyer, while also making later financing and due diligence easier to manage.

Joan also advised founders to work backwards from an ambitious “north star” and map the financial path in detail. Investors, whether angel, VC or PE, and acquirers want to see that this thinking has already been done. “Numbers don’t lie. They’re black and white. That’s what investors look for. So do your homework and be prepared,” she said.

The lesson for founders is that a clean, simple cap table is worth more at the point of sale than a long list of early backers.

Get everyone aligned before an offer arrives

For Will Fraser-Allen, alignment is essential. “There are enough things that can go wrong during an exit process,” he said, pointing out that trading can dip and other complications can arise. “When you bring in investors, always think: will this investor be aligned with me when we get to that exit?”

He said valuation is a common source of misalignment. Founders who optimise for the highest possible price at each funding round can end up with investors “feeling stretched” and wanting an outsized return to justify the deal.

“If someone comes in at a high valuation to get their targeted return, three, five or ten times their money, they will be looking for a very significant sale. That may not be the same as you,” Will said.

Alignment inside the business also matters, he added. Founders should ask whether anyone in the company may feel resentful about the exit, whether because of their share of the proceeds or because of the eventual buyer.

The lesson for founders is to check that investors and team members want the same outcome from an exit, and to have that conversation long before an offer forces it.

Check your backers share your values

Allison Stuckless said her model — buying a single, profitable UK business and stepping in as its next chief executive — depends entirely on the quality of the people funding her. It took her 18 months to build a group of 14 investors, and “alignment of values was the biggest factor” because “they’re going to be around for the next 10 years,” she said. “I feel like I have partners, and I’m not doing it by myself.”

She was equally direct about what she looks for in opportunities, and why she often walks away. Owner-led businesses built over decades can contain relationships that are impossible to hand over. “The owner has so much weight in the business, and so I often have to leave these amazing opportunities because there’s no way that I could continue those relationships,” she said.

Her advice to founders planning a longer-term exit is to make sure the business is not entirely dependent on them, because a successor or buyer will need a company that can keep operating without the founder at the centre of every important relationship.

The lesson for founders is that the quality of the people backing the business matters as much as the size of the cheque.

Start telling a global story

When asked how overseas sales affect valuation, Will was unequivocal: in his sector, a purely domestic business is a harder sell. “We wouldn’t even be in the room if it was just a UK story,” he said. “A business that is purely UK-based is going to be less valuable than one that can tell a global story.”

Allison agreed, saying international revenue can de-risk the business in a buyer’s eyes, rather than simply act as a growth story.

She also highlighted a broader issue for female founders raising capital: investment for women has been stuck at around 2 per cent of equity and fell further, to 1.3 per cent, in 2025. Her practical advice was to seek specialist investors and secure SEIS funding early, because that signals to buyers that important groundwork has already been done.

The lesson for founders is that proving the model works beyond the UK can matter more for valuation than domestic growth alone, even if the first overseas steps are small.

To explore the themes raised in the discussion, SCALE Manchester will take place on 25 November. Sessions include Building a Sellable Business, featuring Sam Simpson, Founder Catalyst; Going Global, featuring Bod Buckby, Head of UK Primary Markets, North \u0026 Large-Cap at the London Stock Exchange; an investor panel in partnership with the EIS Association and PXN; a Fairer Fundraising panel; and a Women Who Scale funding masterclass.

Primary link: