Exit Strategies for Social Entrepreneurs
Thursday, October 21, 2010
On Tuesday, my husband’s company, NetSpend, finally had its IPO. After more than ten years of anticipation, the day came and went surprisingly unceremoniously, culminating not with champagne and a feast but with a frightfully suburban dinner of spaghetti and meatballs including sauce from a can. The juxtaposition of our past expectations of monumentality with the actual ordinary tone of the day spurred me to wonder: Why are exits important? And what, if any, relevance do they have for social entrepreneurs?