Cory Janssen co-founded Investopedia.com in 1999 and helped grow it into one of the Web's largest financial sites devoted to investor education. In April 2007, the company was sold to Forbes Media.

1. We were very careful about not building the company around our personalities so eventually, we could sell it if we wanted to.

2. We interviewed brokers and selected a firm in Silicon Valley who had done some similar deals and started a formal process with them.
3. After two months of preparation, the broker put the offer out to 40 to 50 organizations.  After four months, we narrowed the list to ten firms who came to visit us. 
4. LOIs were requested and we further narrowed the list to three companies.  We visited the three companies at their locations and closed with Forbes in April, nine months after we initiated the process.
5. The biggest lesson I didn’t realize beforehand is you have to manage your team differently at different stages of the process. Early on, the investment banker is your best friend because they are incented to get your idea in front of the right people. However, your lawyer is your worst enemy because he’s just racking up your bill.
6. Later in the process, it flips at the point there where the broker figures they got you as much as they can, so at that point, your lawyer is your best friend because your broker doesn’t care about everything you’re doing in the legal agreement. 
7. You have to manage the exit team, e.g, tax planners, accountant and other exit planners.  They are all on your team, they’re all for you, but you need to treat and manage each differently based on where you are in the deal.
8. You want to align your interests. Before selling my partners and I wrote down our goals for the deal. It helped ground us near the end of the deal when things are going back and forth and you can’t keep your head straight, it grounded us. 
9. We also gave the broker an above-market fee over a certain dollar to incent him. Alignment of interests works for whether you’re trying to hire a sales person or whether you’re trying to sell a business.

10. Looking back, we could have made the deal much smoother by having a better exit plan. I didn't know what an exit plan was at the time, to be honest.