The one percent

The last one percent

The first ninety-nine percent of a company can take a lifetime. Customers are found. People are hired. Mistakes become processes. A name slowly begins to mean something.

Then comes the last one percent. It may be the smallest part on paper, but it carries a different weight. It asks whether what was built can continue without the person who built it.

That part cannot be solved by a valuation alone.

At some point, the founder has to let go of one side of the table and someone has to be willing to sit on the other.

To understand the business closely enough to take responsibility for what happens next. To arrange the capital. To build a successor. To move decisions from one pair of hands into another without losing what made the company worth keeping.

Sometimes that begins with three days around the same table. The numbers matter. So do the people and somewhere between them is the question that eventually has to be answered: Can this business outlive its founder?

We often start with the one percent. If there is enough substance underneath it, we may take responsibility for the other ninety-nine.