By Diwakar Sinha
Founders talk about timing as if it’s something they’ll eventually feel. They imagine there will be a moment when the business is perfectly tuned, the market is perfectly aligned, and they themselves are perfectly ready. But readiness is emotional, and the market doesn’t operate on emotion. It operates on calendars, cycles, and preparation.
What most founders don’t realize is that the ability to source debt or equity isn’t something you can activate the moment you decide to pursue it. It takes time, real time. Lenders need months to underwrite. Equity partners need months to build conviction. Buyers need months to understand your story, your numbers, and your leadership team. And you need months to prepare the business, so you’re not walking into the process with avoidable gaps.
Six months is the minimum. Twelve is better. Eighteen is ideal. And we’re already close enough to 2027 that the window is tightening whether you acknowledge it or not.
This is where founders get caught off guard. Not by the market, not by the buyers, not by valuation, but by the calendar. If you wait until 2027 to start preparing, you’re not selling in 2027. You’re selling in 2028 or 2029, and that’s assuming the market still looks the way you hope it will. The idea that you can simply “start when you’re ready” is one of the most expensive assumptions a founder can make.
What makes this moment even more important is that the environment right now is healthier than anything we’ve seen in years. Debt is cheaper than it was. Capital markets are open. Private equity is active again. Strategics are expanding. Multiples are stabilizing. In many ways, this is what the market founders said they were waiting for. And yet many are still waiting.
Waiting for what? A feeling? A sign? A perfect moment that doesn’t exist?
The founders who achieve the strongest outcomes aren’t the ones who time the market perfectly. They’re the ones who prepare early enough to take advantage of whatever the market gives them. Preparation is what creates optionality. Optionality is what creates leverage. And leverage is what drives valuation.
If you want to have real control over your outcome in 2027, the work doesn’t start next year. It starts now. The next six months determine whether you walk into 2027 with leverage or without it whether you’re choosing your partner or settling for whoever is left, whether you’re negotiating from strength or explaining weakness.
Founders don’t get punished for moving early. They get punished for moving late. And the cost of waiting rarely shows up all at once. It shows quietly, in the form of fewer options, less leverage, and a narrative that’s already been written for you.
