The Myth of the Perfect Buyer
Most founders have some version of the same story in their head. One day, the perfect buyer will appear. Someone who understands the brand, respects the journey, and pays a premium price without friction. You click on the first call, they love the vision, they barely negotiate, and the deal feels almost effortless.
It's a comforting story. It's also fiction.
How Buyers Actually Think
In reality, buyers come in many shapes and sizes. Some are fast, others are slow. Some are very direct, others invest more in the relationship. Some propose more cash at closing, others suggest structure.
Part of the myth of the perfect buyer is the idea that one person will show up who loves your brand, loves your story, pays top dollar, and makes everything feel easy. That is not how it works. Underneath all the differences in style, serious buyers focus on the same simple question: does this brand make sense as an investment.
They are not buying a dream. They are looking for a stable, well-run brand with healthy margins, clear risks, and a realistic path to returns. They study your preparation, your numbers, your weak spots, and your strengths. If it does not hold up financially, they walk, no matter how good the call felt.
This is where the myth becomes dangerous. While you are waiting for the buyer who feels perfect, the solid, reasonable offer already on the table can quietly disappear.
Emotion Is Expensive
Exits are emotional for founders. They're clinical for buyers. If you bring emotion into every decision, you pay for it, usually in ways you don't realize until it's too late. Here's how emotion quietly drains value:
You give the "nice" buyer more time. They ask for two extra weeks to finalize their offer. You agree because the conversations have been good. They come back with revised terms, $400K lower than expected. You've already invested weeks into the relationship, so you keep negotiating instead of walking away.
You overlook red flags in responsiveness. The buyer you "clicked with" takes three days to respond to emails. Then five. Then a week. You tell yourself they're just busy. Meanwhile, due diligence drags from two months to four. Your team gets anxious. Your operations suffer. The momentum you had six months ago is gone.
You accept worse structure because they "get your vision." They offer a higher headline number but 50% of it is earnout, contingent on growth targets you've never achieved. You convince yourself you'll hit them because this buyer believes in you. Two years later, you’ve lost 50% of the deal value due to targets that haven’t been reached, while the buyer who offered 75% cash upfront is a distant memory.
We've watched founders sacrifice $1-2M in real value chasing buyers who made them feel understood, while walking past offers that were simply better deals. The buyer who compliments your brand story doesn't pay your early retirement. The signed purchase agreement with favorable terms does.
What Buyers Know (That Founders Don't)
Here's what makes this dynamic even more dangerous: buyers know how to manage impressions.
They know that enthusiasm builds rapport. They know that founders respond to validation. They know that if they compliment your brand positioning, your growth trajectory, your team, you'll feel more comfortable with them, even if their offer is structurally weaker than a competitor's.
This isn't manipulation. It's just business. Buyers are rational actors in a high-stakes transaction. They'll use every advantage they have, including making you feel good about a deal that benefits them more than you.
Founders, on the other hand, are often negotiating the biggest financial event of their lives with no experience and high emotional stakes. You remember the compliment, not the clause. You focus on how the call felt, not what the term sheet actually says. You make decisions based on chemistry, while the buyer is making decisions based on spreadsheets.
This is why so many founders look back six months after close and realize they left money on the table. Not because they were bad negotiators. Because they were negotiating emotionally against someone who wasn't.
The Right Question Isn't "Who?" It's "What?"
Chasing the perfect buyer keeps your focus on personality. Building the right deal keeps your focus on outcomes.
Stop asking: "Do I like this buyer? Do they understand my vision? Do we have chemistry?"
Start asking: "Is this deal structured in a way that protects my interests and delivers what I actually need?"
Here's what that looks like in practice:
What percentage is cash at close? The higher the cash component, the lower your risk. Earnouts sound appealing when a buyer frames them as "we'll both win if the brand keeps growing." But in reality, earnouts are the buyer shifting risk onto you. If 40%+ of your payout is contingent on future performance, you're not exiting. You're just working under new terms with less control.
What are the earnout conditions, and are they realistic? A 20% year-over-year growth target might sound reasonable when you're growing 30% annually. But can you hit it after the buyer changes suppliers, restructures the team, or shifts marketing strategy? We've seen founders lose millions in earnout because conditions were tied to metrics they no longer controlled.
How long is their due diligence process, and do they have capital ready? A buyer who needs 4-6 months for diligence and still hasn't secured financing is a red flag, no matter how great the calls are. The best buyers move efficiently because they've done this before and have capital lined up.
What's their track record? Have they closed deals before? How many? How recently? A first-time buyer learning on your exit is a risk you're absorbing, and that risk should be reflected in better terms for you.
How hands-on will they be post-close, and does that align with what you want? Some buyers want you gone in 30 days. Others want you involved for 12+ months. Neither is inherently better, but it matters whether their expectations match yours. Misalignment here destroys transitions and erodes earnout potential.
The buyer who answers all of these questions clearly, with documentation and proof, is worth ten buyers who just "love your story."
Stop Chasing Chemistry. Start Closing Deals.
Great exits don't happen because you found the perfect buyer. They happen because you combined serious preparation with disciplined evaluation and strong negotiation.
The brands that walk away with life-changing outcomes aren't the ones who waited for the buyer who felt magical. They're the ones who:
Prepared their business to be exit-ready long before going to market
Generated multiple offers to create competition and leverage
Evaluated those offers based on structure, terms, and execution risk, not personality
Negotiated from a position of clarity and confidence, not emotion
Closed with buyers who could execute cleanly, even if the chemistry wasn't perfect
There is no perfect buyer. There's only the buyer who, under the right terms and structure, is best positioned to take your brand forward while compensating you fairly for what you've built.
At Van Driel Capital, we help founders separate story from structure, so emotion does not quietly reduce what their brand is truly worth.
