Let’s start here.
Nobody expects a woman to build something worth buying.
They expect us to start businesses.
They expect us to grind.
They expect us to serve.
They do not expect us to exit.
Especially not women of color.
We are starting businesses at record rates. We are launching faster than any other demographic. We are building brands, creating jobs, holding families together, and doing it all with little capital and a lot of responsibility.
And still, almost none of us sell.
Not because we cannot.
Because we are not taught to.
From the beginning, the narrative is wrong. We are taught to build for passion, for purpose, for impact. All good things. But rarely are we taught to build for value. For transferability. For ownership beyond ourselves.
I did not know a single woman who had sold a business when I started. Not one.
But I knew this much. I did not want to build something that only worked if I was exhausted.
So I decided early that exit was not failure. Exit was the point.
That decision alone put me in a very small group. A group most people never even realize exists.
Here is what I learned quickly. When your name does not sound like it belongs in a boardroom, no one assumes you are building an asset. Banks do not assume it. Investors do not assume it. Brokers rarely assume it.
You are expected to stay small. To stay grateful. To stay busy.
I refused.
That meant I had to build differently. I had to bootstrap differently. I had to be more disciplined, not less. I could not afford chaos. I could not afford sloppy systems. I could not afford to build something that only made sense to me.
I built like someone was going to inspect everything. Because eventually, someone would.
I did not wait until the business was impressive to start thinking about exit. I thought about it while it was still fragile. While revenue was modest. While most people would have told me to just focus on getting by.
That is the part people misunderstand.
Exit is not a moment.
It is a posture.
It shows up in how you document.
How you price.
How you hire.
How you protect the business instead of overextending it.
I was not trying to prove anything to anyone. I was trying to build something that could stand without explanation.
Statistically, I should not have made it to the table.
But I did.
Not because I was lucky.
Because I was deliberate.
I did not build assuming someone would save me. I built assuming no one was coming. That mindset changes how you move.
I did not need validation. I needed viability.
And when it was time to sell, I was not explaining potential. I was presenting proof.
This is what I want more women to understand.
You do not need permission to want the exit.
You do not need to justify wanting the check.
You do not need to shrink your ambition to make others comfortable.
You are allowed to build something valuable.
And you are allowed to leave with it.
I built with the assumption that I would exit.
And eventually, I did.
~Karamel McCoy