197 The Founder Tax: What Buyers Discount at Exit

What if the thing you're proudest of is the thing buyers pay you less for?Founder-led businesses sell every day at multiples that quietly account for one number: how much of the company runs through you. Chris Franks and Stephanie Hays unpack the risk-adjustment math that decides exit valuations — why a $1.5M services business with $1.3M in expenses is worth less than an $800K one with $300K, why SDE and EBITDA reward opposite strategies, and why a buyer's first job in due diligence is to find every concentration risk and shrink your multiple for it.The conversation breaks down the asset categories nobody teaches service founders to build, the post-exit emotional reality nobody warns you about, and the one mistake from a first exit — the one that ended in four rounds of federal lawsuit — that any founder can avoid in a single sentence.If you've ever assumed "someday I'll sell," this is the conversation that belongs between today and that day.Keywords: founder exit strategy, business valuation, SDE vs EBITDA, founder dependency, building sellable business, private equity exit, post-exit transition, productized services