Scale to Exit™ with Alejandra Santos

How to Align Yourself to Your Type of Exit with Alejandra Santos

Not every exit looks like selling your company for millions — and not every founder wants that.
In this solo episode, Alejandra Santos breaks down the different types of exits founders and business owners can pursue — from strategic sales and recapitalizations to management buyouts, family transitions, and simply stepping back from day-to-day operations.
You’ll learn how to:💡 Define what “exit” truly means for you💡 Identify your “freedom number” — the number that gives you the life you actually want💡 Understand how personal factors (like health, burnout, or retirement goals) influence your ideal exit path💡 Evaluate the trade-offs between selling, staying involved, or delegating operations
Whether you’re building toward retirement, preparing for a market-timed sale, or simply craving more freedom from your business, this episode helps you get clear, grounded, and aligned with your next move.
 
You can connect with Alejandra Santos https://www.linkedin.com/in/aalejandrasantos
www.intothenext.com
www.thealejandrasantos.com
 

Bootstrapped to Exit: How Justin Gray Built, Sold & Now Backs Founders

Serial entrepreneur turned VC, Justin Gray, joins Alejandra to unpack how he built LeadMD from a bedroom idea to $17M in revenue, exited at the top of the market, and why his operator-immersive VC model bets on singles, doubles, and triples, not unicorn lottery tickets. We get tactical on making revenue predictable, using equity to retain A-players, diagnosing a real pipeline (not hope), and knowing when it’s time to sell emotionally and operationally. If you’re scaling a services or vertical SaaS company, this is your masterclass.
You’ll learn: bootstrapping vs. VC, GTM hiring that actually works, partner ecosystems that spark M&A, and how to prep your business so buyers believe your forecast.
Hit follow, share with a founder friend!
Show notes/highlights.
Bootstrapping mindset vs. venture fuel
Building predictable revenue (and what “real pipeline” means)
Equity as a retention engine in services
Timing the exit: performance + founder energy
Operator-immersive VC: hands-on GTM help
Partners as your M&A on-ramp
You can connect with Justin Gray on 
https://www.linkedin.com/in/inrevenue/

Turning Big Vision into Real Results: How to Align Your Team Using the Balanced Scorecard with Alejandra Santos

Every founder starts with a vision, but somewhere between the whiteboard and the workday, that vision gets lost in the noise of operations. In this episode,
Alejandra Santos breaks down how to use the Balanced Scorecard to turn your vision and mission into a living, breathing strategy that guides every decision across your business.
Discover how to align your leadership team, define what success actually looks like, and create clarity so every employee understands how their role contributes to the bigger picture. Whether you’re preparing for an exit or simply want more freedom, structure, and focus, this episode will help you build a company that runs with intention, not by accident.
 
Connect with Alejandra Santos 
https://www.linkedin.com/in/aalejandrasantos
www.thealejandrasantos.com
www.intothenext.com
 

From Red Picnic Basket to 6 Locations: How Amy Chinian Is Disrupting Lice Care

In this conversation, Amy shares how an “itchy” crisis during pregnancy led to the creation of a purpose-driven company with six locations, a private-label product line, and thousands of happy families. We cover the real costs of Amazon, why YouTube & micro-influencers are next, how to keep rent low while expanding, protecting culture when hiring, and what buyers look for when you’re planning an exit.
You’ll learn:
How to test new markets before signing a lease
The hiring lens Amy uses to find needle-in-a-haystack teammates
Diversifying revenue: salon, in-home, schools/camps, Amazon, DTC
The KPIs that make your business predictable (and acquirable)
Preparing for exit: moving to employees, reviews, and repeatable ops
Connect with Amy: myhairhelpers.com • TikTok/IG/FB/YT: @myhairhelpers
Free resource mentioned: Scale & Exit Readiness Index™ (Alejandra’s quick assessment) Into the Next Enterprises

Exit Strategy as a Business Strategy for Hiring & Retaining Employees with Alejandra Santos

Exit planning isn’t something you only think about when you’re ready to sell it’s something you build every single day through the choices you make about your team.
In this solo episode of Scale to Exit, Alejandra Santos dives deep into why employees are one of the most important and overlooked multipliers of business value. From hiring and training to incentives, culture, and retention, every decision shapes whether your company will be worth 2x or 5x in a future transaction.
Alejandra shares practical strategies for turning everyday employee decisions into long-term value drivers, including:
How to hire with exit in mind (long-term value vs. quick fixes).
Why training and development increase both continuity and company worth.
The power of equity, incentives, and culture in retaining A-players.
How employees can be your biggest multiplier or your biggest risk.
If you’ve ever thought, “I’m not planning to exit anytime soon, so why does this matter?” this episode is for you. Learn how building a transferable, scalable business starts with the people decisions you’re making right now.
 
You can connect with Alejandra Santos www.thealejandrasantos.com www.intothenext.com or email her at alejandra@thealejandrasantos.com 
https://www.linkedin.com/in/aalejandrasantos
 

Preserve the Win: Risk-Smart Wealth Moves Before (and After) Your Exit with Tim Smith

In this Scale to Exit episode, Alejandra Santos delves into a conversation with certified financial advisor and entrepreneur Tim Smith on how to preserve the big win well before a sale and long after the close. Tim unpacks the money misconceptions many owners bring from the boardroom to Wall Street, why liquidity beats “asset-rich but cash-poor,” and how to right-size risk without picking five “favorite” stocks.
You’ll hear practical pre-exit moves (tax/estate structures, trust strategies, and due diligence readiness) and post-exit frameworks for diversification, income needs, and avoiding decision paralysis. They also riff on AI hype vs. reality, crypto speculation vs. adoption, and the investor book Tim gives clients.
What you’ll learn
When to start funneling cash out of the business—and why illiquid real estate isn’t always first
A simple liquidity cushion framework + marketable, conservative instruments
Diversification that actually reduces risk (funds/ETFs > five stock bets)
Teaming up: the “quarterback” model across tax, legal, and wealth
Post-exit mindset: preserve the win, don’t chase 20% every year
Resources• Extraordinary Popular Delusions & the Madness of Crowds• Tim’s channel: “The Financial Dad” (YouTube)
ConnectGuest—Tim Smith https://www.linkedin.com/in/timothy-l-smith-cfp-r-b1293443/Host—Alejandra Santos | IntoTheNext.com | Scale to Exit Podcast www.thealejandrasantos.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/aalejandrasantos
 
Chapters00:00 Why Tim does this work02:00 Owners’ biggest money misconceptions04:30 When to start personal wealth planning08:30 Liquidity > illiquid assets12:45 Pre-exit tax & trust strategies15:10 Due diligence that speeds a sale17:10 Portfolio strategy after a transaction22:30 AI & crypto: speculation vs. adoption37:45 Identity shifts post-exit44:00 Practical risk management (diversify)49:15 “Preserve the win” mindset

Get Out of the Way of Your Own Business Success with Alejandra Santos

Scaling a business isn’t just about revenue, funding, or strategy—it’s about clearing the hidden blocks that keep you stuck. In this episode of Scale to Exit, Alejandra Santos breaks down the four biggest invisible barriers that prevent founders from growing and positioning their businesses for long-term success: mindset, leadership style, operations, and team.
From shifting your mindset from operator to owner, to evolving your leadership style, building scalable operations, and aligning your team for outcomes, Alejandra shares real-world insights and strategies that help you unlock growth and move closer to an exit.
If you’ve ever felt like your business hit a ceiling and you can’t quite put your finger on why, this episode will show you where those blocks are hiding—and how to remove them.
Alejandra Santos has over 16+ years and is the CEO of Into the Next where she prepares business for an exit and support business owners in scaling lean and exiting on their own terms.  
You can learn more about her:
www.thealejandrasantos.com
Connect with her on LinkedIn www.linkedin.com/in/aalejandrasantos
or send her an email alejandra@intothenext.com
Episode sponsored by Into the Next- On a mission to help bridge the gap between a business and a sellable asset. Supporting businesses in operations finance and exit planning since 2021. 
 
 
 

From Coas to Cadence with Rachel Losser, How to Keep Your Team Aligned while Scaling.

On this episode of Scale to Exit, Alejandra sits down with Rachel Lasser, Founder & CEO of Lasser Consulting, a project delivery powerhouse serving companies from high-growth SMBs to $1B+ enterprises. Rachel breaks down why “great delivery” is the ultimate growth lever—and how even large organizations stall without the right checkpoints, communication cadence, and leadership follow-through.
We cover the red flags of scaling too fast, how to align global/cross-functional teams around the same KPIs, and why your “say-do ratio” is the foundation of trust in any transformation. Rachel also shares how to choose the right-sized tech stack (no Lamborghinis when you need a Civic), when to start building a data foundation (hint: as soon as you hire your first employee), and practical ways to find and fix bottlenecks—without defaulting to “fire someone.”
You’ll learn:
The #1 red flag when companies scale without a delivery framework
How leaders create accountability (and what breaks it)
A comms playbook for change: repeat, multi-channel, consistent
Simple exercises to kill wasteful meetings (Start/Stop/Continue + “What would a big shot change?”)
KPI traps—and how to measure process maturity before velocity
Bottleneck diagnosis: handoffs, approvals, and…sometimes the leader
Tooling that actually fits (Smartsheet/Airtable/Hive, ERP/CRM + data lakes)
Balancing agility with structure: where to experiment vs. standardize
Who it’s for: Founders, COOs/CFOs, PMO leaders, and any team stuck in “lots of meetings, little movement.”
Connect with Rachel:
LinkedIn Rachel Losser (Lapidus) | LinkedIn Home |
Losser Consulting Solutions | Project Management ConsultingConnect with Alejandra:
www.intothenext.com 
www.thealejandrasantos.com
www.linkedin.com/in/aalejandrasantos
 
 

Exit Strategy as Business Strategy for Every Day Decision Making with Alejandra Santos

On this solo episode Alejandra Santos shares how to incorporate exit strategy as business strategy for every day decision making.
You will learn: 
1-How to stop chasing new clients and instead nurture the ones you have
2- How to understand the value each client brings and how to make them come back for more. 
3- How to set yourself free from the business by following these few strategies. 
 
Alejandra Santos is an entrepreneur, business owners, a fractional COFO, business exit planner and just a super passionate individual to help you build legacy wealth thru your business. 
 
You can find her at: 
www.thealejandrasantos.com
www.intothenext.com
www.linkedin.com/in/aalejandrasantos 
 
Want to understand what your value gaps are and how to fix them? take our Scale & Exit readiness index to get insights deliver to your email. 
Just email us at hello@intothenext.com to get access to this. 
 

How to Exit your Business Properly if you own Real Estate with Caleb David

In this episode of Scale to Exit, host Alejandra Santos sits down with Caleb David, Commercial Director at Keller Williams and seasoned real estate broker, to explore the hidden side of business exits: your real estate.
From negotiating leases to positioning properties for investors, Caleb shares how business owners can maximize value when selling both their company and their commercial assets. But this conversation goes deeper than square footage and cap rates — Alejandra and Caleb dive into identity shifts, burnout, community, and healing when it comes to making big transitions in business and life.
You’ll learn:
The three ways owners can structure a sale when real estate is involved
How lease assignments vs. assumptions impact liability during an exit
Why timing, financial records, and even a $40K HVAC system can make or break a deal
The importance of the right broker — and red flags to watch out for
How slowing down, checking your ego, and aligning with your values matter as much as the numbers
Whether you’re a founder with a storefront, a doctor with a practice, or a CEO thinking about selling both the business and the building, this episode unpacks the practical and emotional sides of scaling and exiting with real estate.
 
You can find Caleb David
https://www.linkedin.com/in/calebdavid/