Startup exit: how to prepare and succeed?

Recap of the exceptional evening organised by Bpifrance Le Hub, Ventech and Partech with the founders of ImCheck Therapeutics, StickyADS.tv and Mon Petit Placement

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Why an exit is not an option, it is a stage

For a venture-backed startup, the question of the exit is not "if", but "when". Yet in a market where IPOs are becoming scarcer, acquisitions are slowing and buyers are more selective, preparing one's exit has become an art in its own right - one that is worked on well before the decisive moment.

That is precisely the observation that brought together, on 28 April 2025 in Paris, three major players in the French VC ecosystem: Bpifrance Le Hub, Ventech and Partech. For the first time, these three organisations joined forces to host an evening dedicated to exit strategy, bringing together founders who had led genuine successful exits and the investors who accompanied them.

"For a venture-backed startup, the exit is not an option: it is a structuring stage of the model. But between scarce IPOs, fewer acquisitions and a more selective market, a successful exit is prepared well in advance."

"Founders Ultimate Exit Guideline" - the fundamentals according to Ventech

The evening opened with a keynote by Claire Houry, General Partner at Ventech, titled "Founders Ultimate Exit Guideline". Ventech, which has just closed its 6th flagship fund at €175m with a focus on AI, digital health, industrial software, cybersecurity and sovereignty, has forged a strong conviction through its investments: successful exits are not improvised.

At Ventech, the conviction is clear: an exit is built well before the decisive moment. What equity story to tell acquirers? Which milestones to prove before entering negotiations? Who steers internally so as not to be caught off guard? Which resources to mobilise to maximise valuation?

Claire Houry set the frame for the evening by recalling the major questions every founder must anticipate - not in the last months before a deal, but from the growth phase. An approach Ventech describes as "exit-ready" steering at 12, 24 or 36 months.

Three founders, three real exits: behind the scenes of a sale

The round table, moderated by Reza Malekzadeh (General Partner, Partech), brought together three entrepreneurs who had lived major exits from the inside in very different sectors - biotech, adtech and fintech. Concrete feedback, far from theoretical discourse.

• Pierre d'Epenoux

Former CEO · ImCheck Therapeutics · Biotech

Pierre d'Epenoux led ImCheck Therapeutics, a Marseille biotech pioneer in immuno-oncology, specialised in antibodies targeting butyrophilins to activate γ9δ2 T lymphocytes. After years of clinical development and promising phase I/II trials with its lead candidate ICT01 in the treatment of acute myeloid leukaemia (AML), the company was acquired by the pharmaceutical group Ipsen in October 2025. The transaction was valued at €350m at close, with deferred payments that could take the total valuation up to €1 billion - a remarkable exit for the French biotech ecosystem.

• Gilles Chetelat

Former COO & Co-founder · StickyADS.tv · AdTech

Co-founder of StickyADS.tv in 2009 with Hervé Brunet, Gilles Chetelat steered the growth of this French gem in programmatic video advertising. Present with Europe's largest media groups - TF1, France Télévisions, M6, Corriere della Sera, The Economist - the startup established itself as the reference video SSP technology in Europe. It was not for sale when FreeWheel, a division of Comcast, approached it. The acquisition, estimated at around $100m, integrated the entire teams into one of the most powerful players in the global video ad-serving market.

• Thomas Perret

Founder & CEO · Mon Petit Placement · Fintech

Founder in 2017 of Mon Petit Placement, a Lyon fintech that democratises financial investing for individuals from €300, Thomas Perret raised more than €18m and built a loyal client base (60% first-time investors). In 2025, the company took a structural step: Malakoff Humanis, a mutual social-protection group, became majority shareholder, offering liquidity to the 2,500 community shareholders from a Sowefund raise. A "partial exit" that illustrates a concrete alternative between a full sale and an IPO.

What the founders take away: 5 actionable lessons

At the intersection of the three testimonies and the Ventech keynote, several convictions emerge for any founder wishing to approach their exit with method.

01 Build the equity story well before the deal

The most serious buyers do not decide on the last year's figures. They look for a coherent trajectory, a clear narrative on the "why now" and a differentiating positioning. This story is built over several years, not in a few weeks of due diligence.

02 Identify and prove the strategic milestones

Whether it is a regulatory approval (such as ICT01's Orphan Drug Designation), a premium client portfolio or healthy organic growth, proven milestones are the strongest arguments in negotiation. They need to be targeted, built and documented.

03 Organise internal governance for the exit

An unplanned exit can put a startup in difficulty if no one is positioned to steer it internally. Creating a CEO / M&A lead pairing and structuring financial and legal data from the growth phase is how to avoid being caught off guard the day an acquirer approaches.

04 Think of the exit as a spectrum, not a binary event

The Mon Petit Placement case illustrates well that between a full sale and maintaining the status quo, hybrid paths exist: a partial sale to a strategic partner, a recapitalisation with partial liquidity for the founders, gradual sector consolidation. The exit is steered according to the objectives of all stakeholders.

05 Operating Partners: an often underused lever

Ventech and Partech insisted on the relationship between founders and their Operating Partners. Decoding together the codes of the investor-entrepreneur relationship, turning the support received into a genuine growth accelerator - and ultimately into a valuation lever at the time of the exit - is a skill that is cultivated.

In short: the exit is prepared from today

The evening of 28 April 2025 demonstrated something essential: the founders who succeed in their exits are not those who got lucky. They are those who steered their company with a long-term vision, constantly keeping in mind the criteria an acquirer will look at when the time comes.

Building a solid equity story, reaching documented strategic milestones, structuring internal governance and relying on one's investors as true operational partners - those are the lessons the three founders present shared generously.

In a post-2022 market where exits are becoming scarcer and more selective, this culture of being "exit-ready" is no longer a luxury reserved for scale-ups. It is a founder's discipline.