Hosted by Corporate Connections UK
The Founder’s
Exit Blueprint
One day to increase your company’s value, reduce founder dependency, and build a business that’s ready for exit, investment, or scale
What you’ll walk away with
Clearer thinking on what makes a business genuinely exit ready, not just attractive on paper, but stronger in structure, more valuable in the market, and less dependent on the founder.
You’ll uncover what increases valuation, what creates risk, and what needs attention now if you want more options in the next 12-24 months.
Alongside this, you’ll gain insight from founders, operators, investors and advisers who understand the realities of scaling, structuring and preparing a business for sale, succession, acquisition, or long term wealth creation.
This is not theory or generic exit advice.
It’s practical, commercially grounded insight designed to help you build a stronger business now, while creating more strategic options for the future.
About the event
The Founder’s Exit Blueprint is one of four carefully designed one day national events hosted by Corporate Connections UK in 2026 for members and their invited guests.
Each event in the series focuses on a critical stage of founder growth. Together, they are designed to strengthen learning, relationships and commercial outcomes across the year.
This event is specifically for business owners and CEOs who want to understand how to increase business value, reduce dependency, prepare for future sale or succession, and make stronger decisions around growth, ownership and long term wealth.
This is not a conference filled with passive content and surface level interaction.
It is a curated, high trust environment where the right people are in the room, conversations go deeper, and founders leave with more clarity, stronger connections, and better strategic options than they arrived with.
Your Seat at the Table
Event Details
Date
16 June 2026
Time
09:30 - 16:30
Location
Hilton Hotel Liverpool City Centre,
3 Thomas Steers Way. L1 8LW
Dress Code
Smart Casual
Lunch, tea and coffee included
You ticket includes:
Full access to the event
All speaker sessions and founder discussions
Lunch and refreshments
The opportunity to connect with high calibre founders and CEOs from around the UK
Invitation only Event
If you value clarity over noise, trusted relationships over transactional networking, and want to build a business with stronger exit options and long term value, this is the room.
The Founder’s Exit Blueprint in a nutshell
Most founders leave exit thinking too late. They say “I’ll sell in 5 years” but when asked, they don’t have a specific enough plan to actually be able to exit by then.
They focus on growth, delivery and immediate commercial priorities, while the deeper drivers of valuation, succession, optionality and buyer readiness remain underdeveloped in the background. But the strongest exits are rarely built in the final six months.
They are built over time through better decisions, stronger structure, clearer positioning, healthier financials, reduced founder dependency, and a business that becomes more attractive to buyers, investors, or future leadership.
The Founder’s Exit Blueprint is designed for this stage
It brings founders into a room where they can think more strategically about what they are building, what it could become worth, and what needs to be true for future exit, investment, acquisition, or succession to happen well.
Instead of surface level advice or vague inspiration, the day combines practical insight, real founder stories, expert perspective and structured connection, so you leave with clearer priorities, sharper questions, and a stronger path forward.
What this day is designed to do
The Founder’s Exit Blueprint is built to give you something most founders lack at this stage:
Space to think clearly, step back, and make better long term decisions.
In one focused, high impact day, you will:
This is not about
collecting ideas.
You won’t leave with pages of notes you never use
You will leave with clear priorities, sharper thinking, and practical next steps
You’ll know exactly where to focus to increase value, reduce risk, and strengthen your position for the future
Who should attend?
The Founder’s Exit Blueprint is designed for business owners and CEOs leading established companies with £5M - £50M in annual revenue.
This day is particularly relevant if you are:
Building a business with an eventual exit in mind (even if the timing isn’t fixed)
Considering a sale, succession, or acquisition within the next 12–36 months
Wanting to increase valuation before making your next strategic move
Exploring how investment, group structures, or acquisitions could accelerate your position
Surrounded by advice, but still lacking clear, trusted, peer-level perspective
You’ll be in a room with:
Founders and CEOs operating at £5M–£50M+
Leaders navigating real decisions, real risk, and real scale
People who value depth of conversation over surface-level networking
This is not the right room if you are:
Still finding product market fit
In early stage growth
Looking for tactics rather than strategic clarity
What you’ll experience on the day
The Founder’s Exit Blueprint is deliberately designed to help you move from vague future thinking to practical strategic action.
Every part of the day is built around sharper judgement, stronger commercial understanding, and decisions that improve the future value of your business.
On the day, you can expect:
Short, punchy expert sessions focused on the real decisions founders face when preparing for exit, growth, capital and succession
Immediate discussion and application, so insights turn into action rather than notes Peer-level conversations with founders building at a similar or higher level
Access to perspectives across capital raising, acquisitions, investment, exit strategy and long-term value creation
Structured opportunities for introductions and high-quality conversation without awkward or forced networking
Time to reflect, assess, and identify the strategic moves that matter most over the next 12–24 months
The energy is high, the conversations are generous, and the entire day is designed to help founders strengthen both their business and their future options.
Your Hosts:
Peter Higgs
National Director, Corporate Connections UK
Creating the rooms where better decisions happen
Peter leads the Corporate Connections UK ecosystem with a focus on building high trust environments for ambitious founders and CEOs.
At The Founder’s Exit Blueprint, Peter will co host the day and help shape an experience that combines practical insight, quality relationships and meaningful commercial opportunity.
Darryl Buchanan
Executive Director for London
A highly experienced business growth strategist and Executive Director of Corporate Connections London, with over 25 years in referral marketing and relationship-led business development.
Having played a key role in expanding BNI across multiple international markets including the UK, New Zealand, Australia, and supporting growth in Scandinavia, and Italy.
Darryl has built a reputation for connecting influential leaders and unlocking high-value commercial opportunities. He is passionate about creating powerful executive communities where CEOs and business owners collaborate to accelerate growth, and is currently leading the development of Corporate Connections in London, bringing together some of the city’s most ambitious and well-connected business leaders
Brian Quinn
Executive Director for Liverpool
Brian develops high-performing leaders through structured peer advisory and strategic connection. With over 30 years’ experience in the UK education sector, he brings a people-first, developmental approach.
As a Global Network Leader and Executive Director, he helps senior executives unlock growth, sharpen decision making, and build powerful, results driven relationships.
Your Speakers:
Jeremy Harbour
Unity Group & Associated Companies
A globally renowned expert in mergers and acquisitions for small-to-medium-sized enterprises, Jeremy is an international speaker, a Wall Street Journal bestselling author, and the founder of Unity Group.
Over the past decade, he has built an impressive track record growing Harbour Club to over 2,000 active members and helping generate $77 million in audited exits in 2020 alone.
Through Unity Group, he has taken more than 100 companies public, created hundreds of millions in shareholder value, and completed transactions across 12 countries. Along the way, he has gained invaluable insights and lessons from operating at the forefront of global deal-making.
Simon Zutshi
Property Magic Investment as a strategy
Simon Zutshi is a private wealth mentor, founder of the property investor network (pin), survivor of an 8 figure exit, and has been helping business owners maximise their investments since 2023.
At The Founder’s Exit Blueprint, Simon will explore:
How to use your business assets to build your personal wealth before your exit
How to get HMRC to fund your investments
The best property investment to make as a business owner
How to avoid the property mistakes made by many exiting founders
Pamela Wynn with
Simon Walker
Rethinking Growth: How Founders Position for Scale, Investment & Exit
A strategic perspective on founder growth, value and next stage thinking they brings insight into the conversations, positioning and relationships that support ambitious founders as they grow, evolve and consider what comes next.
Their session will add a valuable perspective for founders looking to strengthen both their business and the quality of the opportunities around them.
At The Founder’s Exit Blueprint, Pamela & Simon will explore: How founders can position themselves more strategically The power of the right relationships at the right stage What ambitious leaders often overlook as they prepare for their next chapter.
Rachel Murphy
The Grafter - How to exit your business within 24 months
Rachel Murphy will focus on the practical realities of preparing a company for exit within a defined timeframe. Her session is designed for founders who know they want options and need to understand what has to change now in order to create them.
At The Founder’s Exit Blueprint, Rachel will explore: What buyers look for when assessing a business What founders often leave too late How to prepare for exit in a way that increases value and reduces risk.
Why this event matters now
Many founders are building valuable businesses without building businesses that are truly transferable.
Revenue may be growing. The team may be stronger. The brand may be improving.
But without the right structure, financial clarity, leadership depth, commercial resilience and strategic planning, the business may still be harder to sell, harder to scale and harder to step away from than it needs to be.
The Founder’s Exit Blueprint exists to help founders close that gap.
Whether your horizon is 12 months, 24 months or further away, the decisions you make now affect future valuation, future leverage and future freedom.
This is a chance to step back, look properly at what you are building, and make better decisions while there is still time to improve the outcome.
Event partners and sponsors
Headline Sponsor
Corporate Connections UK
Corporate Connections UK is a high-trust peer community for ambitious business owners and CEOs leading established, growth-focused companies.
Unlike traditional networking organisations, Corporate Connections is built on depth, not volume. Members are carefully curated, conversations are intentional, and the focus is always on creating meaningful commercial opportunities through trusted relationships.
Across the UK, CC brings together founders operating at £5M–£300M+, providing access to peer insight, strategic perspective and introductions that would be difficult, if not impossible, to replicate elsewhere.
The result is a community where growth accelerates not through noise or pressure, but through clarity, connection and shared experience.
The Founder’s Exit Blueprint is part of CC’s national events programme, designed to extend this environment beyond local chapters and give members and guests access to the quality of conversation that defines the CC experience.
Supporting partners
This event is supported by a select group of Corporate Connections partners and contributors who specialise in areas critical to founder growth, valuation, and exit. These partners are not here to pitch. They are here to add value, share insight, and support founders navigating complex decisions around scale, structure, and future transition.
Partnerships opportunities
A limited number of partnership positions are available for organisations aligned with the Corporate Connections audience and values. This is not a volume-based opportunity It is a high trust, high calibre environment designed for meaningful engagement.
Partners will:
Be featured on the event landing page and event materials
Have visibility in the room on the day
Be recognised as contributors to a national founder ecosystem
Have the opportunity to build relationships with founders actively thinking about exit, growth, and future strategy
Contact Pete for further details on how to partner with Corporate Connections UK
Frequently Asked Questions
Is this event for members only?
No. The Founder’s Exit Blueprint is open to Corporate Connections members and invited guests. It is designed to give non-members a genuine experience of the CC environment, while delivering high value for existing members.
Do I need to be planning an immediate sale to attend?
No. This event is relevant whether you are planning an exit in the near future or simply want to build a more valuable, more transferable business with stronger long-term options.
Will there be selling or pitching from the stage?
No. This is not a sales event. Any deeper opportunities, including membership, are clearly optional and never disruptive to the core experience.
What size businesses will be in the room?
Most attendees will be founders and CEOs of businesses between £5M and £50M. The room is intentionally curated to protect peer-level conversation.
What’s the dress code?
Smart casual.
What’s included in the ticket?
Your ticket includes full access to the event, all sessions, lunch, and tea and coffee throughout the day.
Are places limited?
Yes. Places are limited in order to protect the quality of conversation and connection.
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