The Myth of An Early Exit with Bruno Bensaid, Investor and Co-Founder of Shanghaivest

Many founders believe an IPO is the only option for an exit. Today, we sit down with Bruno Bensaid, co-founder of Shanghaivest, mentor at Chinaccelerator, and long-term player in China’s startup ecosystem to share his insights on early exits and acquisitions by corporate bodies. Here’s a short quote: “All options should be on the table from very early on”. Shanghaivest helps build and execute investment, expansion, fundraising and exit strategies for companies in China and Overseas. Show Notes: 01:10 Introduce Bruno 01:52 How Bruno made transitions from engineering to business 03:48 Is go public the only ultimate goal? 8:19 All options should be on the table from the very early on 10:40 How’s the acquisition market in China and how it involves 11:55 More transactions in gaming and healthcare industry 12:33 What are those Chinese buyers? What acquisitions are they looking for? 17:35 Local corporate VCs are more active than Google - they have a large range of investment possibilities 19:13 The early exit doesn’t mean that founders get less return. Do you see early exit is good for founders in China? 22:30 You need to think about your exit early. Check out the article: “Why founders need to prepare for exits” https://medium.com/sosv-accelerator-vc/why-founders-need-to-prepare-for-exits-97766d865410 25:01 Example of App Annie 29:03 Why does it make sense to consider an early acquisition in China and what’s the criteria for corporates to decide on acquisition 36:06 Contact Bruno Feel free to leave a comment and start a conversation with us! If you have an ideal guest whom you would like to listen to, please let us know and we'll do our best to realize it! Many thanks to our host Oscar Ramos, guest Bruno Bensaid, editor David and Geep, organizer Chinaccelerator and sponsor People Squared. Be sure to check out our website www.chinaccelerator.com