obsessed with the exit?

As you may have noticed my clients have been on a hiring spree which is why I’ve been writing so much about different facets of the recruiting process.  Unfortunately, during the interviews, more than one candidate has asked me:

what’s your exit strategy?

Fair enough question, I guess.  But why aren’t they focusing on what the company is currently building instead of wanting to know how they are going to leave it (before they’ve even started!)?  I mean, seriously,

would you go into a relationship planning the breakup? would you write the prenup on a first date? would you meet with a divorce lawyer the morning of your wedding? that would be ridiculous, right? Rework, building to flip is building to flop, Page 59

I want to hire people who are jazzed about what the company is offering today and they’re *so* excited they want to be a part of delivering that vision.

And as many of the candidates don’t have a financial background perhaps they don’t know that they way you run a company to be acquired is substantially different than building something great.  For acquisitions you are always looking and contorting your offering to the company you guessed may want to buy you.  What about your customers? building long term relationships? doing anything for the success of the venture?

What if I said we were planning on being bought by Microsoft?  Google?  Would that make them take the job?  If they didn’t follow up with (a) how much of the stock option pool do I get? and (b) what percentage of the outstanding shares is the pool? - well, then, even though we were bought they may still get nothing.  But no one every asks me *those* questions so they haven’t really thought this “exit strategy” question through - other than the idea that it is kinda like winning the lottery.

I usually answer that we are trying to be the best little company we can be.  Because we are.  However, the exit strategy question is a bit of an indicator for me that their priorities are a bit out of whack.  Just sayin’.