Built by a founder who sold the company. And never forgot what came next.
Inside Exits is the work of Kevin Donnelly — a founder who built a 600-person company, sold it, and watched the people who helped build it pay the price. This is his answer.
Speed Wire: Kevin's first exit, in numbers
600
Employees at Exit
38
Cities Operated
#1
US Outsourced Smart-Home Provider
20+
Years Building, Coaching & Exiting
A successful exit. A question that wouldn't go away.
Kevin Donnelly started out as an entrepreneur and operator. He founded and scaled Speed Wire — a national technology deployment and services company — to more than 600 employees across 38 cities, eventually selling it as the largest outsourced security and smart-home services provider in the country.
On paper, that was a successful exit. But what stayed with him even more than the deal itself was what happened after. When you build a business, it stops being just an asset. It becomes a second family. And after the sale, many of the people who'd helped build that business alongside him were let go.
That experience left a mark. It forced him to think more deeply about what a "good exit" really means. Is it just about price? Or is it also about legacy, stewardship, and what happens to the people who helped create the value?
That question is the spine of Inside Exits. Most owners assume the only successful outcome is an outside sale. But the reality is harder: very few businesses that go to market actually sell — and even when they do, the result is often misaligned with the owner's values, their people, or the legacy they hoped to leave behind.
Inside Exits is the answer. For the right business, the best transition may be to the people who helped build it.
"After we sold, many of the people who helped build the business alongside me were let go. That was the moment I started asking — what does a good exit actually look like?"
Kevin Donnelly · Founder, Inside Exits
The five principles we work by
- Founder-first — every conversation starts with what the owner actually wants their next chapter to look like.
- Win-win or no deal — if the team, the legacy, and the founder can't all win, it isn't the right transition.
- Skin in the game — where the fit is right, IE Partners may participate as a capital and strategic partner alongside you.
- Quiet, honest, no-pressure — this work is too consequential to be sold. We help, then we step back so you can decide.
- Long horizon — the goal is a stronger company two years after the deal, not a shinier press release.
A capital arm with skin in the game
Where the fit is right, IE Partners — Kevin's capital and strategic-partnership arm — may participate in the transition itself. So founders never have to choose between a clean exit and the right buyer.
Four words. Worth being clear about.
The exit industry runs on jargon, hype, and conflicting incentives. Here is exactly what we mean — and what we build — when we use these words.
An Inside Exit
A planned transition of a privately held company to the people who helped build it — managers, key employees, or the broader team — instead of selling it to private equity, a strategic acquirer, or a third party. Done well, an inside exit protects the team, preserves the legacy, gives the founder a real liquidity event, and creates a stronger company on the other side of the deal.
The Inside Exit Pathway
The structured, two-year sequence we use with founders. Four trust-building stages on the front end (Awareness, Education, Assessment, Architecting) and three execution stages on the back end (Preparation, Implementation, Strengthen). It's how we move owners from "is this even an option?" to a closed transition that everyone is proud of.
The Exit Blueprint
The strategic hinge of the whole model and the first paid engagement we offer. The Blueprint converts the Scorecard's diagnostic into a decision-grade plan: owner goals, financial needs, transition options, readiness gaps, deal team requirements, and a 90-day roadmap. It's not a deliverable — it's the moment a founder gets honest clarity about what is actually possible.
IE Partners
The capital and strategic-partnership arm built alongside Inside Exits. Where there is mutual fit, trust, and a compelling business case, IE Partners can participate as a capital partner, strategic guide, or co-investor in the transition itself. It's the answer for founders who want their next-step partner to have skin in the game — not just an invoice.
Founder · Inside Exits
Kevin Donnelly
Kevin Donnelly
Founder, Inside Exits · Principal, IE Partners
Kevin spent the first chapter of his career as an operator — building Speed Wire from a single market into a 600-person, 38-city national services platform, and selling it as the largest outsourced security and smart-home services provider in the United States.
Since then he has spent more than a decade as a coach, business growth advisor, and exit planner — helping owners build companies that are stronger, more profitable, less owner-dependent, and more valuable. Work that naturally evolved into exit planning, because for many owners the real goal isn't just to grow — it's to create freedom and choices.
Inside Exits is the next chapter of that work. It's everything Kevin has lived and learned — entrepreneurship, value creation, exit planning, and a deep belief that owners deserve more options — focused around a mission that is deeply personal: helping founders architect transitions that work not just financially, but humanly.
Three founders we recognise on sight.
Inside Exits isn't built for everyone, and we don't pretend otherwise. These are the founders we have spent the most time with — and the ones who tend to find the most value in this work.
Founder · 60+ · 25–40 years in the chair
The Long-Tenured Operator
You built it from nothing. Walking away to a financial buyer who'll strip it for parts feels like a betrayal of the people who showed up for you every day.
Founder · approaching retirement, no clear successor
The Reluctant CEO
You'd hand it over tomorrow if there was a real plan. There isn't. So you keep working, the company keeps depending on you, and the runway keeps shortening.
Founder · already explored selling, walked away
The Quiet Architect
The PE conversations made you uncomfortable. The strategic-buyer conversations made you angry. You want a third option that doesn't require you to lie to your team.
A small set of trusted tools, and a partner who can put capital behind the plan.
We don't build a black box. We use a tight set of well-tested diagnostics and frameworks, and where the fit is right we bring our own capital and partnership to the table through IE Partners.
Diagnostic Tools
The Value Builder System
We use the Value Builder System's PREScore (personal readiness), Freedom Score (financial confidence), and Value Builder Score (business transferability) inside the Exit Blueprint to give owners an objective read on where they really stand — and what would need to change to make a clean transition possible.
Financial Discipline
Profit First
Where useful, we layer in Profit First mechanics during Preparation — to install cash discipline, clean up reporting, and make the business lender-ready well before any transaction conversation begins. A business that runs on real numbers is a business that can actually be transitioned.
Capital & Strategic Participation
IE Partners
Where the fit is right, IE Partners — the capital arm built alongside Inside Exits — may participate as a strategic and capital partner in the transition itself. This is what "skin in the game" actually looks like: a partner whose outcome is genuinely tied to the company being stronger after the deal.
Curious whether an inside exit could work for you?
Start with the Exit Scorecard. Seven minutes. No sales call. You'll get an honest read on where you stand — and what would need to be true for a dignified two-year transition to be possible.