Built by a founder who sold the company. And never forgot what came next.
Inside Exits is the work of Kevin Donnelly — a founder who built a 600-person company, sold it, and watched the people who helped build it pay the price. This is his answer.
Speed Wire: Kevin's first exit, in numbers
600
Employees at Exit
38
Cities Operated
#1
US Outsourced Smart-Home Provider
30+
Years Building, Coaching & Exiting
A successful exit. A question that wouldn't go away.
Kevin Donnelly knows what it feels like to build, scale, and sell a business.
As founder and CEO of Speed Wire, he grew a national technology deployment and services company to more than 600 employees across 38 cities. At the time of sale, Speed Wire was the largest outsourced security and smart-home services provider in the country.
On paper, it was a successful exit — but what stayed with Kevin was not just the deal. It was what happened after. When you build a business, it becomes more than an asset. It becomes part of your identity. It carries your standards, your culture, your customer promises, and your people. And after the sale, many of the people who had helped build Speed Wire were let go.
That experience left a mark. It changed how Kevin thought about what a "good exit" really means. Is a good exit only about the price? Or is it also about protecting the company, honoring the culture, preserving the team, and making sure the people who helped create the value have a chance to participate in what comes next?
That question became the foundation of Inside Exits.
Most owners assume the best outcome is an outside sale. But many good businesses never sell. Others sell into structures that may not preserve the founder's legacy, protect the team, or keep the company's future aligned with the owner's values.
Inside Exits was created to give founders another path. For the right business, the best transition may be to the people who helped build it. Inside Exits helps owners explore, design, and execute founder-first transitions that preserve legacy, protect the team, and create a financial outcome the owner can retire on.
Inside Exits is the answer. For the right business, the best transition may be to the people who helped build it.
Inside Exits is built for founders who want more than a transaction — they want a transition they can be proud of.
"After we sold, many of the people who helped build the business alongside me were let go. That was the moment I started asking — what does a good exit actually look like?"
Kevin Donnelly · Founder, Inside Exits
The five principles we work by
Founder First
We start with the founder's life, not the transaction. Every conversation begins with what the owner actually wants their next chapter to look like — financially, personally, and professionally.
Win-Win or No Deal
The right transition has to work for the founder, the team, and the future of the company. If one side has to lose for another to win, it is not an Inside Exit.
Legacy with Liquidity
Founders should not have to choose between preserving what they built and achieving the financial outcome they need. The goal is both: a protected legacy and a fair path to retirement.
Real Partnership
We do more than advise from the sidelines. Where the fit is right, Inside Exits may bring capital, operating support, and strategic guidance to help make the transition real.
Built for What Comes Next
The deal is only the beginning. We care about what the company looks like after the transition — whether the team is stronger, the culture is intact, and the business is built to last.
A capital arm with skin in the game
Where the fit is right, IE Partners — Kevin's capital and strategic-partnership arm — may participate in the transition itself. So founders never have to choose between a clean exit and the right buyer.
Millions of business owners. No real exit plan.
We are working on one of the biggest economic challenges of our time — the ownership transition crisis looming across millions of founder-led businesses.
Most Owners Are…
- Underprepared and generally unready for what comes next
- Running a business that is overly dependent on them personally
- Holding the majority of their net worth inside the business
- Operating a company that is more fragile than they realize
Most Businesses…
- Are not truly transferable without the founder
- Lack a credible succession plan
- Have insufficient leadership depth
- Rely on weak reporting and cash flow systems
- Are too founder-dependent to attract serious buyers
Meanwhile…
- PE consolidation is accelerating across every sector
- Communities are steadily losing locally-owned businesses
- Employees rarely participate in the enterprise value they help create
But perhaps the biggest problem of all
Most owners don't have a real exit plan.
Most business owners assume they'll eventually "sell the business." But for many companies, the outside buyer may never come. The timing may not line up. The culture may not survive a third-party sale. And the people who helped build the business may be left behind.
Even when a transaction does happen, many owners discover they were financially, operationally, or personally unprepared for what came next. Most believe they only have two options: sell to an outside buyer — a competitor or an investor — or shut it down and walk away.
Inside Exits exists to help owners create another option: transitioning the business to the people who helped build it. One that protects value, preserves legacy, and creates a stronger future for the company and the people inside it.
We help founders
Founder · Inside Exits
Kevin Donnelly
Kevin Donnelly
Founder, Inside Exits · Building the Win-Win Exit
Kevin started Inside Exits because he believes great businesses deserve better endings. After building and selling his own company, and later working with founders as a coach and exit planner, Kevin saw the same pattern again and again: owners spent decades building valuable companies, loyal teams, and strong cultures — only to reach the exit stage and find their options were too limited.
Inside Exits was created to give founders another path. The firm helps owners transition their companies to the people who helped build them, so they can step away with the team intact, the legacy preserved, and a financial outcome they can retire on.
Where it fits, Inside Exits also brings capital, operating support, and transaction guidance to help make the transition practical, professional, and successful — for the owner, the team, and the business.
Inside Exits is built for founders who want more than "just a deal."
It's for founders who care deeply about their people, their legacy, their freedom, and the long-term future of the company they built.
You may be a fit if…
You are starting to think about "what's next"
You may not be ready to sell tomorrow, but you know you cannot run this business forever exactly as it is today. You are beginning to ask:
- How do I make the business less dependent on me?
- What would happen if I stepped away?
- Is there a path that protects both my wealth and my people?
- What would a meaningful transition actually look like?
You may be a fit if…
You care about the people who helped build the business
You do not see your company as "just an asset." You see it as a team, a culture, a legacy, and a vehicle that has supported families and communities for years. You want to explore whether there is a path where everybody can win:
- The owner
- The leadership team
- The employees
- And the future of the company itself
You may be a fit if…
You want a business that can thrive without you
Inside Exits only work when the company becomes stronger, more transferable, and less dependent on the founder. That means building:
- Leadership depth
- Operational discipline
- Healthy cash flow
- Accountability
- Systems
- And a culture of ownership
This is probably not for you if…
- You want the absolute highest bidder at all costs
- You are looking for a fast flip with minimal transition
- You have no interest in developing leaders or sharing ownership
- You are unwilling to improve systems, reporting, or accountability
- You want a transaction without operational preparation
The Core Idea
Inside Exits is not just about selling a business.
It is about building a company strong enough to outgrow its dependence on the founder — and creating a future where the people who helped build it can participate in what comes next.
A small set of trusted tools, and a partner who can put capital behind the plan.
We don't build a black box. We use a tight set of well-tested diagnostics and frameworks, and where the fit is right we bring our own capital and partnership to the table through IE Partners.
Diagnostic Tools
The Value Builder System
We use the Value Builder System's PREScore (personal readiness), Freedom Score (financial confidence), and Value Builder Score (business transferability) inside the Exit Blueprint to give owners an objective read on where they really stand — and what would need to change to make a clean transition possible.
Cash Clarity & Reporting
Financial Discipline
During the Preparation stage, we work to install genuine cash discipline — cleaning up reporting, building reliable financial visibility, and making the business lender-ready well before any transaction conversation begins. A business that runs on real numbers is a business that can actually be transitioned.
Capital & Strategic Participation
IE Partners
Where the fit is right, IE Partners — the capital arm built alongside Inside Exits — may participate as a strategic and capital partner in the transition itself. This is what "skin in the game" actually looks like: a partner whose outcome is genuinely tied to the company being stronger after the deal.
Curious whether an inside exit could work for you?
Start with the Exit Scorecard. Seven minutes. No sales call. You'll get an honest read on where you stand — and what would need to be true for a dignified transition to your team to be possible.