Back in 2000, I had one of the most disastrous exits from a startup—Internet Direct. It was so bad, when I went through the drive-through at McDonald’s afterward, the girl at the window said, “I think I saw you on the news last night.”

Not the way you want to be recognized!

I share the full, gruesome details in my book, Start. Scale. Exit. Repeat. but suffice it to say. while I lost 98% of my wealth in the company’s downfall, I gained a wealth of knowledge about what not to do in an exit.

The hard truth is you can spend 10 years starting and scaling a company…and then screw up the exit. With more successful exits since then, including the sales of Hostopia, TuCows, and .CLUB, here’s what I’ve learned along the way about how to successfully sell your startup.

Read the full article by Colin C. Campbell on Forbes!