{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"Build a Business Worth Buying","title":"Keep Your Sanity: The Real Cost of an Earnout","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":2628,"description":"Selling a business is usually treated as the finish line. For Jeremiah Curvers, founder and CEO of Polysleep, it was the beginning of a different chapter. After building a Canadian mattress brand from scratch — in one of the most competitive, capital-intensive consumer categories out there — Jeremiah sold part of the company and chose to stay on as an operator under new ownership.\nIn this conversation, Jeremiah and Aaron dig into what that transition actually feels like: the two-year process of becoming \"attractive\" to a buyer, the moment he realized the business was growing faster than his own ability to lead it, and why he calls letting go of the company \"close to grief.\" They cover why a profitable, well-built brand can still struggle to sell, how founder-led companies underestimate the importance of a clean data room, why earnouts tied purely to performance can quietly wreck a founder's health, and what changes — for better and worse — once you're no longer the sole owner of the thing you built. It's a rare, honest look at the part of the exit story most founders don't talk about: what comes after.","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/phsiZGVABXNGagv9Pf58BfoPvAl4NAkTvAu1ewlPQvU/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS8yYmE0/MDQ1Zjg3MDQ4ZmI0/YWEwMTYzNDFjYTNm/MmYyOC5qcGc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}