ExitLabs is an operator-led strategic partner that enters early, joins the board, and shapes your business so growth accelerates through the sale — never stalls under it.
We close that asymmetry. ExitLabs partners early to shape and execute a disciplined, high-value sale — with the discipline of an operator and the depth of an insider.
Enter early — before the sale starts, not after.
Shape the business for sale — governance, positioning, growth story.
Execute with discipline — protect performance throughout the process.
The window for premium outcomes in the technology services market is open — and moving fast. Four forces are pulling multiples, and founders, in opposite directions.
They sell businesses. They do not shape them. The result is a transaction optimised for speed — not value.
Starting the sale before the business is engineered for sale is the single most common value-destroying mistake we see.
We don't broker transactions. We engineer outcomes — and we're in the business long before the first conversation with a buyer.
Engaged long before a formal process — while the narrative is still being written.
Governance discipline and senior judgement, embedded where decisions are made.
Sharpen the story, the ecosystem fit, and the buyer-side proposition.
Insulate BAU from process drag — so growth trajectory holds through diligence.
Set the standard for the sale process and steer it alongside the squad — operator rigour, not transactional urgency.
Skin in the game. Our outcome is your outcome.
We work for founders. Not funds, not buyers, not league tables. Our loyalty is singular.
We bring operator intensity with an advisor's discipline — and we don't let a deal become the goal.
We've sat in the seats we advise from. We know how decisions get made — and unmade — under pressure.
Technology services isn't a vertical we cover. It's the terrain we live on — cloud, managed services, security, data and AI. We know the buyers, the levers and the signals.
Tight focus is the point. We engage with the businesses where our model produces asymmetric advantage.
This only works if it's mutual. Here's what you can expect — and what we'll expect back.
Founders deserve asymmetric advantage. Preparation beats reaction. Reputation compounds. Optionality creates leverage.
Most exit advice comes from people who've never done one. John has — and built ExitLabs to help other tech founders do it right.
In 2017, John founded Eighty20 Solutions — a cloud transformation consulting firm in Sydney. Bootstrapped from day one with no outside capital, it grew to 200+ specialists in under three years, delivered enterprise transformations for clients including Woolworths, Suncorp and TPG, won back-to-back Deloitte and CRN Fast 50 growth awards, and became a Top Tier Microsoft Partner within three years.
In October 2021, NCS Group (Singtel) acquired a majority stake — one of the fastest founder-to-exit journeys in Australian IT consulting.
John stayed on as CEO and led the integration into NCS's Asia-Pacific operations. He successfully completed the full earn-out — hitting every milestone, retaining key talent, and fulfilling every commitment made to the acquirers during the sale. Honouring that handshake matters: most founders don't make it to the other side of an earn-out intact. He then took on a regional role as Global Microsoft Alliance Lead across ASEAN before stepping away to be a full-time dad to his two young kids.
He's lived every stage of the founder exit journey: building a company worth acquiring, running a competitive sale process, negotiating deal terms, navigating the earn-out, integrating into an acquirer, and knowing when to walk away.
"The exit isn't the finish line. It's the halfway point."
— John Kelly
An exit is won by a small, senior group working in lockstep — strategy, process and law, aligned to the same outcome from day one.
Operator-led. We enter early, join the board, and shape the business so it is engineered for sale — then hold the strategy steady through the process.
Corporate advisory and brokerage. Allier runs the transaction — buyer access, competitive tension, valuation and negotiation through to close.
allier.com.au →
Global transactional counsel. Deal structuring, documentation, due diligence and cross-border complexity — handled by a firm buyers already respect.
bakermckenzie.com →Operator-led M&A is an advisory model where the people guiding the exit have built and sold companies themselves. Instead of arriving late to broker a transaction, an operator-led partner engages early — joining the board, shaping positioning, and protecting growth through diligence — so the business is engineered for sale rather than rushed into one.
Traditional brokers optimise for transaction velocity. ExitLabs optimises for outcome. We enter long before a formal process, sit on the board, and shape the business so growth accelerates through the sale rather than stalling under it. We work only with founder-led Australian technology services businesses, and we take skin in the game so our outcome is aligned with the founder's. When a process runs, sell-side execution sits with Allier Capital and legal counsel with Baker McKenzie — we stay on the founder's side of the table throughout.
Founder-led Australian technology services businesses with $20m+ revenue and strong, positive EBIT. Posture matters as much as size: ambitious, coachable, ecosystem-native brands with genuine standing in the vendor ecosystems they build on — where our operator-led model produces asymmetric advantage.
Engagements typically run 18–36 months from board integration to commercial exit. The point is to enter early — well before a formal sale process — so the business is shaped, governance is sale-ready, and the buyer-side narrative is set on the founder's terms.
John is the founder of ExitLabs. He founded Eighty20 Solutions in 2017 — a bootstrapped Sydney cloud transformation consultancy that grew to 200+ specialists and Top Tier Microsoft Partner status in under three years, with back-to-back Deloitte and CRN Fast 50 awards. NCS Group (Singtel) acquired a majority stake in October 2021. John completed the full earn-out, then served as Global Microsoft Alliance Lead across ASEAN before founding ExitLabs.
Yes. Technology services is not a vertical we cover — it's the terrain we live on. We know the buyers, the levers, and the signals across cloud, managed services, security, data and AI. Tight focus is the point.
As early as possible — ideally 2–4 years before any contemplated sale. Starting the sale before the business is engineered for sale is the single most common value-destroying mistake we see. Optionality creates leverage; preparation beats reaction.
If you're building toward an exit — or even quietly thinking about one — it's worth a conversation now, not later.