The hardest decision is knowing when to stop. The second hardest is doing it right. We specialize in strategic exits that preserve optionality. Sometimes the most strategic move is a controlled wind-down that protects what you've built.
Everyone learns how to start. Almost nobody learns how to stop.
Business education focuses on launch, growth, and scale. Investors fund vision and momentum. Nobody teaches the operational mechanics of strategic withdrawal: how to unwind obligations, settle claims, preserve assets, and exit with legal protection intact.
So when wind-down becomes necessary, founders apply startup skills to a completely different problem. They move fast and break things when they need to move deliberately and fix things. They communicate optimistically when they need to communicate precisely. They protect equity when they need to protect themselves.
The result? Wind-downs that take twice as long and cost three times as much as necessary. Personal liability that follows founders for years. Relationships destroyed that could have been preserved. Value destroyed that could have been recovered.
We've navigated enough exits to recognize the patterns. The creditor who will settle reasonably if approached early but becomes aggressive if ignored. The employee whose departure you can manage or whose lawsuit you'll face. The asset with recovery value if transferred cleanly or litigation risk if handled carelessly.
Strategic wind-down isn't about salvaging a failed business. It's about executing a complex operational sequence that most operators attempt once, under maximum stress, with no pattern recognition to guide them. We bring that pattern recognition—and help you exit without destroying what comes next.
Most exits fail not because the decision was wrong, but because the execution created more damage than staying would have.
We don't deliver compliance checklists. We deliver exits that close clean—no lawsuits, no reputation damage, no surprises that follow you home.
For these scenarios, we work directly with you to structure the wind-down, manage stakeholder transitions, and execute dissolution plans. We provide the strategic guidance and operational support needed for controlled closure.
Your co-founder relationship has broken down irreparably. Disagreements over direction, equity, or control have made continuation impossible. The partnership that built the business is now threatening to destroy it through legal battles, frozen decision-making, or public conflict.
We help you structure separation that protects both parties' interests, determine fair valuation and buyout terms, and manage the transition without operational collapse. We'll help you identify which assets, relationships, and obligations go where, coordinate with legal counsel on dissolution documentation, and design communication strategies that prevent client panic or vendor flight.
This isn't mediation. It's operational surgery. We help you determine whether one party exits while the business continues, whether both parties exit and wind down operations, or whether the business splits into separate entities. We map out who controls what during transition, how to maintain business continuity through separation, and how to communicate changes to employees, clients, and investors without triggering mass defection.
We advise and support your decision-making. We don't arbitrate disputes or force reconciliation. You and your co-founder remain the decision-makers. We bring frameworks for equitable separation, execution roadmaps for controlled transition, and honest assessments of what's worth fighting over and what isn't.
Your obligations exceed your ability to pay. Vendors are demanding payment. Lenders are calling loans. You need to wind down but can't afford to settle every claim at full value. Without strategic creditor management, you'll face cascading lawsuits that consume whatever value remains.
We help you prioritize which creditors to pay, which to negotiate with, and which to prepare for legal action. We design communication strategies that maintain essential vendor relationships while managing expectations, coordinate with legal counsel on settlement negotiations and liability protection, and identify which assets hold liquidation value versus which create more cost than benefit.
This isn't about avoiding obligations. It's about structured triage under resource constraints. We help you determine which settlements prevent litigation versus which invite it, how to liquidate assets for maximum recovery without triggering additional legal exposure, and how to sequence payments and negotiations to preserve operational necessities while winding down.
We advise on creditor strategy and asset disposition. We don't negotiate settlements directly or handle legal proceedings. You remain responsible for final decisions on what to pay and what to contest. We bring pattern recognition on creditor behavior, frameworks for settlement prioritization, and clear-eyed assessment of which fights are worth having and which aren't.
You're closing operations and need to transition employees. Some have critical knowledge you need during wind-down. Some have claims—unpaid wages, promised equity, or contractual obligations. Without managed transition, key people leave immediately while problematic people stay and create legal exposure.
We help you identify which employees are essential for orderly wind-down versus who can transition immediately, structure retention agreements that keep critical people through closure, and design severance packages that minimize legal claims while preserving goodwill. We'll help you communicate closure transparently without triggering mass exodus before you're ready, coordinate outplacement support that maintains professional relationships, and document everything properly to protect against wrongful termination or breach of contract claims.
This isn't HR administration—it's strategic workforce management under terminal conditions. We help you determine how long you need each person, what retention costs versus litigation risk costs, and how to transition employees in a sequence that maintains operational capacity through final closure while minimizing ongoing obligations.
We advise on workforce transition strategy and timeline. We don't manage HR processes, handle employment law compliance, or provide outplacement services directly. You maintain authority over employment decisions. We bring frameworks for retention versus transition decisions, communication templates for transparent closure, and honest assessment of which people help versus hurt the wind-down process.
You're exiting the market but have active client contracts, ongoing service obligations, and customer relationships to manage. Some contracts have early termination penalties. Some clients will demand refunds. Some relationships matter for future ventures. Mismanaged client exit destroys reputation and triggers litigation.
We help you categorize which contracts can be fulfilled, which need to be transferred, and which require negotiated termination. We design client communication that maintains trust during transition, identify which customer relationships to preserve through referrals or asset sales, and structure contract exits that minimize refund obligations and legal claims while protecting your professional reputation.
This isn't customer service—it's strategic relationship management during withdrawal. We help you determine which clients to serve through closure versus which to transition immediately, how to position exit to minimize reputation damage, and whether to sell customer contracts as assets versus terminate them individually.
We advise on client transition strategy and communication. We don't manage customer service, handle contract law, or execute client transitions directly. You remain responsible for client relationships and contract decisions. We bring frameworks for contract triage, communication templates for professional exit, and pattern recognition on which approaches preserve relationships versus burn bridges.
You're closing but have valuable IP, proprietary technology, customer data, or physical assets that could generate recovery value. Without proper structure, these assets get entangled in creditor claims, lost in dissolution, or transferred in ways that create ongoing liability.
We help you identify which assets have genuine market value versus which you're overvaluing, structure asset sales or licenses that generate cash while protecting against liability, and ensure proper documentation and transfer to prevent future disputes. We'll help you determine whether to sell assets individually, package them as bundles, or license them for ongoing revenue, coordinate with legal counsel on transfer documentation and liability limitation, and identify potential buyers who see value others might miss.
This isn't asset appraisal—it's strategic value extraction under time pressure. We help you determine realistic asset values in distressed situations, which assets to prioritize for quick sales versus longer-term negotiations, and how to structure transfers that generate maximum value while minimizing ongoing obligations or warranty exposure.
We advise on asset recovery strategy and prioritization. We don't conduct asset appraisals, broker sales directly, or handle legal transfer documentation. You control asset disposition decisions. We bring market insight on realistic recovery values, frameworks for asset packaging and positioning, and honest assessment of what has genuine market value versus what's only valuable to you.
Is Strategic Exit Your Best Path Forward?
Not every struggling business should close, but continuing past viability destroys more value than strategic wind-down. Let's assess whether controlled exit protects what matters most in your situation.
Initial conversation is confidential and carries no obligation.
Strategic wind-down operates at the intersection of operational, legal, and financial domains.
We provide wind-down coordination and strategic decision support, then help you assemble the specialized experts (legal, financial, technical) your situation demands.
You cannot pay creditors and need protection from lawsuits while winding down. You're facing involuntary bankruptcy filings or need to file voluntarily for legal protection. Your dissolution requires court oversight, creditor committees, and formal legal proceedings.
We help you coordinate response across legal, financial, and operational fronts, maintain essential business functions during bankruptcy proceedings, and make strategic decisions about Chapter 7 liquidation versus Chapter 11 restructuring. You'll need bankruptcy attorneys for legal representation and petition filing, forensic accountants for financial documentation and creditor reporting, and trustees or receivers as court-appointed administrators. We provide the operational coordination and strategic decision support while specialists handle legal proceedings and financial compliance.
You operate across multiple countries and need to wind down international entities, manage foreign subsidiaries, and exit markets with different legal requirements. You have cross-border contracts, international employees, and assets in multiple jurisdictions.
We help you sequence international exit to minimize legal exposure and maximize asset recovery, coordinate timing across jurisdictions to prevent cascading failures, and make strategic decisions about which entities to close versus which to sell. You'll need international legal counsel for jurisdiction-specific dissolution requirements, tax advisors for cross-border tax implications and transfer pricing, and local specialists for employment law, contract termination, and regulatory compliance in each market. We provide coordination across jurisdictions and strategic sequencing while specialists handle local legal requirements.
You're closing with investor capital still in the business. Shareholders expect transparency about loss of investment. Your cap table has convertible notes, preferred shares, or complex instruments that need resolution. Without proper investor management, you'll face shareholder lawsuits and reputation damage.
We help you communicate closure to investors transparently without triggering immediate legal action, determine fiduciary obligations and priority of distributions, and manage expectations around recovery versus total loss. You'll need securities attorneys for shareholder agreements and distribution requirements, tax specialists for investor tax documentation and 1099 filing, and potentially corporate litigators for shareholder dispute resolution. We provide investor communication strategy and decision support on distribution priorities while specialists handle securities compliance and legal obligations.
You operate in a regulated industry and need to exit while maintaining compliance through closure. You have licensing obligations, regulatory reporting requirements, and data retention mandates that continue after operations cease. Improper regulatory exit creates ongoing liability and prevents future industry re-entry.
We help you map regulatory obligations that persist through and after closure, coordinate timing of operational wind-down with regulatory notification requirements, and structure exit to maintain license standing and prevent enforcement actions. You'll need regulatory attorneys for compliance requirements and agency communication, compliance specialists for data retention, record keeping, and final reporting, and industry-specific consultants for licensing surrender and regulatory notification. We provide coordination across regulatory and operational timelines while specialists handle technical compliance and agency relations.
You discovered fraud, embezzlement, or misappropriation during wind-down. Assets you thought existed are gone. Someone diverted funds, sold assets improperly, or created obligations you didn't authorize. You need to recover assets while also managing closure.
We help you assess the scope of fraud and determine what's recoverable, prioritize fraud recovery versus other wind-down activities, and coordinate investigation with ongoing dissolution requirements. You'll need forensic accountants for financial investigation and asset tracing, fraud attorneys for civil recovery and potential criminal referral, and potentially private investigators for locating hidden or transferred assets. We provide strategic coordination between fraud recovery and wind-down execution while specialists handle investigation and legal recovery efforts.
Execution determines outcomes. Our process turns wind-down strategy into completed closure.
Starting within 48 hours, we assess exit viability, structure dissolution strategy, design stakeholder management, and guide you to closure with clear milestones at every phase.
The first days determine whether you wind down strategically or reactively. We assess your actual situation, identify what's salvageable, and establish realistic closure parameters.
We conduct comprehensive situation analysis to understand obligations, assets, and liabilities, identify critical stakeholders who can help versus hurt the process, and establish decision-making protocols so dissolution doesn't devolve into chaos. We help you face reality ruthlessly—what recovery is possible versus what's wishful thinking—and design preliminary wind-down structure that maximizes value preservation.
This isn't about saving the business or finding miracle pivots. It's about seeing your situation clearly and making strategic decisions about how to close. We help you understand true financial position when founders often overestimate assets and underestimate obligations, separate stakeholders who'll cooperate from those who'll create problems, and establish whether you're winding down with leverage or without options.
Outcome: Clear picture of obligations and assets, preliminary stakeholder map, realistic timeline and resource requirements for orderly closure.
Wind-down success depends on sequencing—who you contact first, what you settle early, which fights you avoid. We design the dissolution structure and stakeholder approach that maximizes recovery while minimizing legal exposure.
We categorize all stakeholders by priority and risk level, design communication strategy for each stakeholder category with appropriate timing and messaging, and structure negotiation approaches for creditors, partners, and vendors. We help you determine which relationships to preserve through referrals or maintained goodwill, which settlements to pursue immediately versus which to defer, and how to sequence communications so early conversations don't trigger cascading problems.
This is where most wind-downs fail—founders treat all stakeholders equally or avoid difficult conversations until forced. We help you understand that your largest creditor may be more flexible than your smallest one, that some vendors will settle generously if approached early but become aggressive if ignored, and that employee transitions require different timing than investor communications.
Outcome: Stakeholder engagement sequence, settlement prioritization framework, communication templates for each stakeholder category, clear timeline for negotiations and transitions.
With structure established, we execute the wind-down—managing stakeholder negotiations, transitioning operations, and recovering whatever value remains while protecting you from unnecessary legal exposure.
We coordinate parallel workstreams across creditor settlements, employee transitions, client handoffs, and asset sales, maintain operational necessities while systematically shutting down non-essential functions, and document everything to protect against future claims. We help you negotiate settlements that close liabilities without prolonged litigation, transition employees in sequence that maintains operational capacity through closure, and identify buyers or recipients for assets with genuine recovery value.
This phase requires operational discipline when everyone wants crisis to end quickly. We help you resist premature shutdown that leaves value on the table or creates legal exposure, maintain documentation rigor when paperwork feels pointless, and execute parallel negotiations without letting one stakeholder's demands derail the entire process.
Outcome: Major stakeholder settlements executed, critical operations transitioned or closed, valuable assets sold or transferred, comprehensive documentation protecting against future claims.
The final phase completes formal dissolution, ensures regulatory compliance, and establishes protections that let you move forward without ongoing liability concerns following you indefinitely.
We coordinate final legal filings and entity dissolution across all jurisdictions, ensure all regulatory requirements are met and documented, and establish record retention and documentation protocols for post-closure protection. We help you complete final tax filings and close accounts properly, obtain formal releases and settlement documentation from key stakeholders, and create clear record of what was settled, what remains disputed, and what exposure persists.
This is where exhausted founders cut corners—filing partial dissolutions, skipping final filings, or failing to obtain proper documentation. We help you complete dissolution properly even when you're emotionally done with the business, ensure you're not creating future tax or legal surprises, and document everything so you can prove what happened if questions arise years later.
Outcome: Formal entity dissolution completed, all regulatory filings submitted, comprehensive documentation archive, clear understanding of any remaining exposure or obligations.
Wind Down Strategically, Not Desperately
Reactive dissolution destroys relationships, triggers lawsuits, and leaves ongoing liability. Strategic exit preserves optionality and protects your ability to build again. Let's discuss how structured wind-down works for your situation.
Confidential consultation with operators who've navigated their own exits.
Lived experience makes the difference when everything feels impossible and decisions carry permanent consequences.
Wind-down requires advisors who understand the weight of closure, not just the mechanics. We've made these decisions ourselves.
Our team has navigated complete business failures, forced market exits, and partnership dissolutions in our own ventures. We've felt the weight of telling employees there's no more runway. We've negotiated with creditors when there wasn't enough money to go around. We've discovered fraud, managed contractor revolts, and rebuilt after catastrophic failures. This lived experience means we understand the emotional weight of wind-down alongside the operational mechanics—and we know which decisions you'll regret and which ones you won't.
We understand the vocabulary of dissolution across legal, financial, and operational domains. We translate between attorneys who think in liability protection, accountants who think in asset recovery, and operators who think in relationship preservation. We know when your lawyer is being overly cautious versus protecting you from genuine exposure. We understand which creditor demands reflect legal obligation versus negotiating posture. We can read financial statements, interpret settlement agreements, and understand cap table implications—so you don't waste time explaining context.
Wind-down operates under compressed timelines with declining resources. We provide frameworks immediately, not after lengthy assessment periods. Our initial consultation delivers actionable structure you can begin implementing within days. We don't require months of engagement to provide value—we help you make better decisions starting with the first conversation. We understand that every week of delayed wind-down burns cash you need for settlements and increases the risk of uncontrolled collapse.
We don't take over your business or become interim management. You remain the decision-maker throughout. We provide strategic frameworks, pattern recognition, and honest assessment—but you make final calls on settlements, stakeholder approaches, and closure timing. We coordinate with your legal, financial, and operational teams rather than replacing them. We're most valuable as strategic advisors who've navigated this path before, not as operators who take control when you're most vulnerable.
Real Wind-Down Outcomes, Real Recovery
See how we've helped businesses like yours exit strategically.
Note: All case studies are anonymized to protect client confidentiality. Details changed to prevent identification while preserving strategic lessons.
Local stakeholder handling tax compliance was underreporting to authorities while misrepresenting obligations internally. We documented the pattern, assessed founder's exposure, and guided clean business wind-down before criminal liability attached. Read more.
Technically competent founder had lost passion for the mission, creating organizational drift. We facilitated mission clarity conversation. Founder acknowledged misalignment and exited voluntarily, preserving dignity and organizational stability. Read more.
Tech founder in Sub-Saharan Africa kept expanding scope, burning out developers. One clarity session reset expectations. Multi-year advisory followed, culminating in graceful wind-down when market realities required closure. Read more.
Strategic exit isn't admitting defeat.
It's protecting what matters most when continuation costs more than closure.
"I've closed businesses I poured years into. I've discovered fraud, navigated partnership breakdowns, and made payroll when I shouldn't have been able to. Closure isn't failure, but doing it wrong compounds the damage. We help you exit strategically, not desperately."
We'll discuss your situation in complete confidence, assess whether strategic wind-down is appropriate, and outline what structured exit would look like for your specific circumstances. No pressure, no judgment. Just honest assessment.
Everything you share remains confidential. We don't disclose client relationships or engagement details. Your stakeholders won't know you've consulted us unless you choose to tell them. Discretion isn't optional in our work—it's fundamental.
Our initial consultation helps you understand your options without any commitment. You'll leave with clarity about strategic wind-down versus other paths, realistic timeline and resource requirements, and whether we're the right advisors for your situation.
We offer Strategic Exit & Wind-Down in the following regions where we've built deep operational expertise:
Beyond our core regions: We remain open to conversations about engagements elsewhere when the situation warrants it. Learn more about our geographic focus.
You're Looking for Turnaround or Restructuring. If your business is viable with the right capital, strategy, or operational changes, you need turnaround specialists, not wind-down advisors. We help companies close strategically—we don't help them avoid closure through restructuring or rescue financing.
You Want Someone Else to Make the Hard Decisions. Wind-down requires decisive leadership willing to make difficult choices about who gets paid, who gets disappointed, and what gets preserved. If you're looking for someone to take responsibility for these decisions, we're not the right fit. We advise—you decide.
You're Hoping to Preserve the Business. If you're still exploring pivot options, seeking additional funding, or believing the business can be saved, we're probably too early in your process. This service is for leaders who've made the difficult decision that strategic exit is the best path forward.