I sold Ripple.Here's what I learned. 

It’s Friday, November 1st, and today is the first day in the last 3 years I don’t own a cash-based Physical Therapy clinic.

As of yesterday, I’ve officially sold and exited Ripple.

It’s been a ride! And, I’m writing this to hopefully look back on in 5 or 10 years and think, “Hey, that was pretty cool.”

Also, if you own a clinic and are looking to do the same, this brain dump might help you get there. At the very least, I hope it makes you realize that it’s possible!

I’ll be honest, I wasn’t sure how I’d feel when this day came. Ripple has been my baby and identity for the last three years. I’ve always wondered what will happen if I eventually exit.

Selling was never in the plan. I didn’t think it was possible. 3 years ago I knew nothing about M&A. Do people acquire little PT practices? I only thought that was for big, billion-dollar tech companies. Plus who the hell would want to buy a physical therapy clinic? Especially one that I started!!

That’s the cool part looking back at all this. 3 years ago I was so stupid. I knew nothing about business, how to build one, and how to properly scale. A big part of selling the clinic was my lucking into scenarios.

‘Engineered Serendipity’ is what I like to call it. I worked my ass off to get super lucky. I was in the clinic everyday at 5am. 6 day a week wake-ups at 430am. I’d take discovery calls at any hours of the day. There were nights I slept on the reception couch. COVID was 7-day, 12-hour work weeks.

Getting lucky because of super hard work is engineered serendipity. That’s what happened.

What will be helpful for me to share is the good, bad, and surprising parts of selling the business. I didn’t have anyone I could talk with who went through this process. This will help when you get there.

The good — I left Ripple in incredible hands. The two people who purchased Ripple were a previous clinic owner and my clinic director. The previous clinic owner was also my executive coach. And my clinic director ran the day-to-day way better than I ever could. 

The bad — it’s still business. And as easy as you think the process is going to be, or it’s told it’ll be. It’s not. And won’t be. It's stressful. Takes up all your mental bandwidth. And the amount of time it’ll take to get done and the hours you need to put in are 10x what you think.

The surprising — it can be done. When I received the LOI and throughout the process 50% of me assumed this would never go through. But, to my surprise, after months of 1 step forward and 2 steps back, it’s finally done.

At Patch one of the most common questions I get from the clinic owners we work with is ‘Do you think I can do that too?’

I always laugh at that question. I’m not any different than you. I’m not some Unicorn — anyone can do this.

You might look at Ripples' growth over the last 3 years and think I was pretty risk-tolerant. But if there’s one thing that I’d change it'd be to take more risks.

Ripples doing over 7 figures a year now. But with more ads spend, harder marketing, and more focus on aggressively hiring we could have been double in size.

I grew up in a super small town with not a ton of money. This sale, even though not life-changing, is way more money than I could ever imagined having.

But I can’t help to think if I had taken more risk, what would the clinic be worth? 2 million? 5 million? 10 million?!

This is something to think about if you’re looking to sell your clinic. How risk-tolerant and aggressive you want to grow will determine your valuation.

I got stuck at this point at the beginning of this sales process. When I first got the clinic valuation, the price wasn’t worth selling for. This is when my brain started to shift from ‘clinician’ to ‘entrepreneur’ and my ads spend went from $500/mo to $5k a month.

Looking back, it should have gone to $10k/mo.

Ah well — can’t go back now. I’m still super grateful of the 5am openings, learning how to build a business, and getting my first real crack at entrepreneurship. It was a fucking blast.

Today, I’m going to enjoy myself a Guinness (currently sitting in a London pub writing this.) And I’m excited to take the weekend to reflect on the process and how appreciative I am of everyone involved. If you were one of them, thank you.

But Monday is what I’m really excited for.

Monday’s the first day I am no longer splitting my time between two jobs.

It’s the first day I can officially put 100% of my time, effort, and energy into Patch.

I legitimately cannot wait.

LFG.