Dave Parker at Silicon Y’all 2026
Beyond the Founder
Reducing risk and building business value in an AI world
A business becomes more transferable when its people can make good decisions without depending on one person. Start with one recurring decision, give someone the context and authority to own it, and measure what changes.
Talk notes
One decision your business can make without you
Choose a decision that repeatedly comes back to you. Use these questions in your next leadership meeting.
- 1What is the decision, and why does it still depend on you?
- 2Who will own it, and what authority will they have?
- 3What context, relationships and exceptions do they need to understand?
- 4When will you test the handoff, and what result will show that it works?
- 5Who will hold you accountable for following through?
A completed task does not prove a risk has gone away. Look for evidence: fewer escalations, sound decisions, customers served well and results that hold over time.
AI needs the context your business depends on
AI can organize information and prepare options quickly. When important inputs are missing, it can produce a confident answer to an incomplete question. Capture the context, name the accountable person and review the result.
Earnings growth and multiple expansion
Earnings growth increases what the business earns. Multiple expansion means a buyer pays more for each dollar of those earnings. Both can affect enterprise value.
| Scenario | Adjusted EBITDA | Multiple | Enterprise value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starting position | $8M | 5× | $40M |
| Earnings growth alone | $10M | 5× | $50M |
| Same earnings at a higher multiple | $10M | 6× | $60M |
In this illustration, earnings growth adds $10M of enterprise value. A higher multiple adds another $10M. Earnings rise 25%; the combined enterprise value increase is 50%.
These multiples are hypothetical, not market benchmarks. A higher multiple is not guaranteed by growth or a readiness checklist. Business quality, sector conditions, financing and buyer fit affect the outcome. Enterprise value is not the owner's net sale proceeds.
The market context
Bain's 2026 Global Private Equity Report describes how rising multiples powered more than half of buyout returns during the easy-money decade leading up to 2021. Its analysis emphasizes the greater operating improvement needed in the current environment. That is context for the work owners can control, not a promise of multiple expansion.
Read Bain's analysis ↗How Get Trajectory helps
Experienced Guides, fractional expertise and AI tools
Get Trajectory helps founders and private equity owners reduce business risk and build more valuable, transferable companies. Your Guide coordinates the work and accountability. Fractional specialists address the financial, technology and growth work that needs deeper expertise. AI tools help organize information and track evidence between conversations.
Guides
Experienced founders who have exited businesses help owners prioritize what matters, agree actions and follow through. For PE owners, the work supports portfolio-company leaders and complements the investment team's value-creation plan.
Fractional support
Financial, technology and growth specialists support the Guide and company team. Financial work can include normalization, pro forma preparation and forecast-versus-actual review. Technology and growth work can address technical diligence, roadmap priorities and AI readiness. Specialist work is scoped to the company and the decisions at hand.
AI tools and the scoreboard
A shared workspace connects findings, actions, owners and evidence. AI assists preparation and reporting; people review the inputs and make the decisions. Financial scenarios show assumptions explicitly and do not treat readiness improvements as automatic valuation increases.
Where an engagement begins
Assess the risks, then agree on the work
The Exit Readiness Assessment identifies risks a buyer may use to challenge price or terms. It produces a board report and a staging data room with an index of evidence, gaps and action items.
From there, the Guide and owner agree the ongoing engagement. Financial-model preparation and other fractional projects are separately scoped and delivered in phases according to complexity. The software supports the work and makes progress visible.
For a founder, the goal may be a less dependent business or a better-prepared exit. For a PE owner, it may be a stronger management team, more reliable reporting or clearer execution against the value-creation plan.
Connect
Continue the conversation with Dave
Dave Parker is a six-time founder with three exits, author of Trajectory: Startup and former CEO of the Entrepreneurs’ Organization. At Get Trajectory, he works on helping owners turn business risks into measurable improvements.
What is one decision your company still relies on you to make?