Years needed for tech exits

How many years will it take you to exit? We looked at 224 tech companies in various industries that have IPO’d to determine the answer. The list has been updated for recent IPOs.

Software is a long road. SaaS businesses take a long time to get to a critical mass to exit/IPO, taking on median 10 years. Software takes a long time because the customers are mostly enterprises with longer sales cycles. Long sales cycles naturally means you’ll acquire customers at a slower pace. The last 20 software IPO’s were founded 11 years ago on average.

Consumer focused startups exit faster. Consumer oriented businesses like these are naturally viral when they’re successful, hence they acquire customers quickly and somewhat easily compared to other industries. Word of mouth is a powerful thing. The median and average time to exit was 7 years and 8 years respectively.

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