1 session inside Boa
Kristy Valentine
Founder, Dr. Dough
Kristy Valentine founded doughnut gifting business Dr. Dough, built it through COVID to delivering 50,000 doughnuts a week, and sold it after eight years of ownership while staying involved in the business. She also works across a coworking business, Work Inc., and fashion tech brand High End, having spent eight years alongside the Work Inc. founder. She describes herself as someone who thrives on running several very different businesses at once.
The session
What Kristy teaches
Compress your two to five year plan when a shock hits
When COVID arrived, Kristy had just launched and already had the infrastructure in place. Rather than freeze, the team executed everything in their two to five year plan inside two weeks so they could handle the volume, reaching 50,000 doughnuts a week. Her mentor's line when she thought she had lost everything: "it's not an adventure if you know where you're going, so get on with it."
From Building Dr. Dough and preparing a business for sale →Hire a real accountant, not a cowboy, from the start
Kristy is blunt that finances must be in order from day one: compliant, up to date, ATO happy, payroll never skipping a beat. Her point is that this is not something you can switch on later when you want to sell. An acquirer turns over every stone in due diligence, and if something is not right you will not even be considered.
From Building Dr. Dough and preparing a business for sale →Pay for a CFO earlier than feels sensible
A doughnut shop with a CFO sounds absurd, and Kristy admits it was very expensive and a heavy line on the P&L. She invested anyway. Without it, Dr. Dough would not have been in a position years later to be considered for acquisition at all.
From Building Dr. Dough and preparing a business for sale →Understand director guarantees before you sign anything
Kristy's number one non-obvious item for new founders is director guarantees. Not everyone realises there are ways around signing them and you do not necessarily have to. She has heard from founders of 20 years and more whose guarantees came back to bite them at exit because they assumed guarantees were just part of doing business.
From Building Dr. Dough and preparing a business for sale →
Watch the full sessioninside Boa.
Session notes are free. The recordings, the live advisories and the founders in the room are for members.