Map the Exit, Own the Entrance
"This event is a part of #ATLTechWeek - a week of events hosted by builders, VCs, and startups to showcase Atlanta as a global innovation hub.”
Every founder who experiences a successful exit owns a balanced "three-legged stool" that supports their personal, financial, and business objectives. Most founders develop this framework on their way out the door, when the greatest chance for impact has passed them by.
This interactive workshop flips the model to day one. Before you write a business plan or pitch an investor, consider the harder question: Why are you really doing this? Your appetite for risk, your time management skills, your fears, your family, and your sense of self-worth aren't soft distractions from the work of building a company; they are load-bearing concerns and separate true entrepreneurs from the crowd.
Led by Certified Exit Planning Advisor Mitch Skyer, this session introduces the three-legged stool framework originally developed for business owners planning their exit and reinterprets it for founders at the very beginning of the journey. You'll see, side by side, how the path looks for an early-stage entrepreneur versus a mature business owner nearing exit, and why getting the balance right from the start changes everything that follows.
In this workshop, you'll:
Unpack the three legs of the stool: personal (identity, purpose, health), financial (long-term security and wealth), and business (building something that can eventually run, or sell, without you)
Compare the "founder's outlook" at the start up stage to the "owner's approach" at exit stage, and see how the legs shift over time
Work through an interactive exercise to create and balance your own three-legged stool
Leave with a physical takeaway, a hands-on model of your three-legged stool you can revisit and rebuild as your business (and your "why") evolves
This isn't a lecture on hard skills like capital and resources. It's a working session on the harder-to-name, but ultimately more critical, soft skills that determine whether the hard skills ever get the chance to matter.
Who this is For
Early-stage founders and entrepreneurs
Anyone attending Atlanta Tech Week
About the Facilitator:
Mitch Skyer’s entrepreneurial journey began in 2007 when he founded Solstice Transportation Group and continued in 2010 as co-founder of Passio Technologies. Earlier in his career, he held finance and national sales leadership roles with MCI and Cognisa Transportation. Following Passio’s successful acquisition by Transit Technologies in 2020, Mitch remained with the organization, leading portfolio company Faster Asset Solutions until July 2025. AFI Strategic Partners, founded in 2025, helps business owners accelerate growth, increase enterprise value, and achieve successful exits. A New York native and Atlanta resident for 30+ years, Mitch, and his wife Lisa, have three grown children and share an empty nest with two beloved doodles.