Not all exits are created equal. Some simply mark the culmination of financial success. Others, guided by visionary leadership, redefine industries, reshape customer behavior, and set new benchmarks for valuation. While a well-executed transaction should deliver fair market value and meaningful wealth, certain exits aim higher, becoming catalysts for industry-wide transformation.

Exits That Redefined Industries

In earlier discussions, we explored four exits that disrupted entire industries and reshaped consumer habits. These deals demonstrate the power of visionary strategy when paired with foresight.

• Turning user-generated video into the fastest-growing sector of digital communication and social networking, jump-started in large part through YouTube’s marriage to Google
• Reshaping one of the world’s leading technology product giants into one of the world’s leading brands in the music & entertainment-streaming economy, enabled by Apple’s acquisition of Beats 
• Reaching next-level dominance and interoperability in the retail ecosystem with Amazon’s smart strategic purchases of companies like Whole Foods to expand its reach into lifestyle commerce, setting new standards for market dominance.
• Achieving next level centrality as the industry standard for supplying advanced enterprise-level collaborative software solutions, reinventing Salesforce through its acquisition of Slack

These groundbreaking transactions were not just big. They were transformational. Each sell-side entity unlocked outsized value for buyers, sparking industry shifts that made the deals more than just financial events. They became milestones in economic evolution.

Lessons for Small-to-Middle Market Players

In each of these cases, the sell side was correctly perceived as a valuation-multiplier for the buy side, with the potential for unlocking significant value and impacting entire industries, resulting in next-level valuations. You might wonder, what relevance do these mega-deals hold for smaller market players? The answer lies in the conditions for disruption. When the market favors change, and when owners and advisors share a bold vision, even small-to-middle market companies can achieve outsized results.

This was precisely the case with Death Wish Coffee, a small but ambitious brand that rose to redefine its market and deliver exceptional returns on exit.

Coffee with Attitude

Death Wish Coffee began as a scrappy, craft coffee brand in a handful of Upstate New York coffee shops.  What it lacked in size and scale, it made up for in vision, ambition and the ability to foresee an emerging trend favoring specialty brands with something to say and something to pour. Its founder, Mike Brown, envisioned more than just selling coffee. He tapped into an emerging cultural shift, one that celebrated bold, independent brands with strong personalities.

When Mike partnered with SHG,  we conducted a strategic asset review to identify what could elevate Death Wish from a niche player to an industry leader. Death Wish supplied excellent products at sustainable price points.  But that wasn’t what set them apart.  In fact, their sustainable competitive advantage wasn’t to be found inside the company at all.   

We identified a cultural movement favoring unapologetically bold branding, “Coffee with Attitude.”  This was our secret sauce that we discovered with Mike and his team.  An untapped need within the most lucrative and profitable growth-segments of young, coffee-as-lifestyle aficionados and influencers that would champion the brand.

From this insight, we built a campaign that aligned the brand with this emerging vibe. The turning point came with bold marketing stunts like:

• Gaining free airtime during Super Bowl 50 with edgy, zeitgeist-driven content.
• Supplying specially packaged coffee to astronauts in space, turning coffee into a lifestyle statement.

These initiatives transformed Death Wish from a regional supplier into an off-the-grid lifestyle brand, creating immense valuation potential.

The Sale to TA Associates

When the time came, Death Wish Coffee found the perfect buyer in TA Associates. As a forward-thinking private equity firm, TA had the resources and vision to propel the brand to even greater heights. The sale wasn’t just a financial win, it was a milestone in the evolution of coffee culture.

Rethinking the Term Exit

For exceptional cases such as Death Wish Coffee, the term exiting might be too restrictive, too narrow of a view of what success could mean in terms of valuation maximization and returns-on-exit. 

In these rarified cases, the go-to-exit campaigns must go well beyond building a business to cash in on.  Rather, they need to involve building a new industrial paradigm and elevating the valuation performance horizons. Not just of companies, but of whole industries.That was the case with Death Wish Coffee.  And that is the case with several other extraordinary companies that SHG helps uncover extraordinary pockets of value that are often hiding in plain sight.

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