ExitLabs is an operator-led strategic partner that enters early, joins the board, and shapes your business so growth accelerates through the sale — never stalls under it.
We close that asymmetry. ExitLabs partners early to shape and execute a disciplined, high-value sale — with the discipline of an operator and the depth of an insider.
Enter early — before the sale starts, not after.
Shape the business for sale — governance, positioning, growth story.
Execute with discipline — protect performance throughout the process.
The window for premium outcomes in the Microsoft ecosystem is open — and moving fast. Four forces are pulling multiples, and founders, in opposite directions.
They sell businesses. They do not shape them. The result is a transaction optimised for speed — not value.
Starting the sale before the business is engineered for sale is the single most common value-destroying mistake we see.
We don't broker transactions. We engineer outcomes — and we're in the business long before the first conversation with a buyer.
Engaged long before a formal process — while the narrative is still being written.
Governance discipline and senior judgement, embedded where decisions are made.
Sharpen the story, the ecosystem fit, and the buyer-side proposition.
Insulate BAU from process drag — so growth trajectory holds through diligence.
Run the sale with operator rigour, not transactional urgency.
Skin in the game. Our outcome is your outcome.
We work for founders. Not funds, not buyers, not league tables. Our loyalty is singular.
We bring operator intensity with an advisor's discipline — and we don't let a deal become the goal.
We've sat in the seats we advise from. We know how decisions get made — and unmade — under pressure.
Microsoft is not a vertical we cover. It's the terrain we live on. We know the buyers, the levers, and the signals.
Tight focus is the point. We engage with the businesses where our model produces asymmetric advantage.
This only works if it's mutual. Here's what you can expect — and what we'll expect back.
Founders deserve asymmetric advantage. Preparation beats reaction. Reputation compounds. Optionality creates leverage.
Most exit advice comes from people who've never done one. John has — and built ExitLabs to help other tech founders do it right.
In 2017, John co-founded Eighty20 Solutions — a cloud transformation consulting firm in Sydney. Bootstrapped from day one with no outside capital, it grew from two founders to 200+ specialists in under three years, delivered enterprise transformations for clients including Woolworths, Suncorp and TPG, won back-to-back Deloitte and CRN Fast 50 growth awards, and became a Top Tier Microsoft Partner within three years.
In October 2021, NCS Group (Singtel) acquired a majority stake — one of the fastest founder-to-exit journeys in Australian IT consulting.
John stayed on as CEO and led the integration into NCS's Asia-Pacific operations. He successfully completed the full earn-out — hitting every milestone, retaining key talent, and fulfilling every commitment made to the acquirers during the sale. Honouring that handshake matters: most founders don't make it to the other side of an earn-out intact. He then took on a regional role as Global Microsoft Alliance Lead across ASEAN before stepping away to be a full-time dad to his two young kids.
He's lived every stage of the founder exit journey: building a company worth acquiring, running a competitive sale process, negotiating deal terms, navigating the earn-out, integrating into an acquirer, and knowing when to walk away.
"The exit isn't the finish line. It's the halfway point."
— John Kelly
If you're building toward an exit — or even quietly thinking about one — it's worth a conversation now, not later.