Exiting Your Startup: 10 lessons I learned at the end that will help you at the beginning

by Patrick Riley | at MinneBar 11

Patrick Riley, CEO and Co-Founder of Modern Survey, shares 10 important lessons he learned while selling his business to Aon, a Fortune 500 company. The transaction closed in February 2016, and as a result has positioned Aon as a global leader offering employee engagement and talent analytics solutions to thousands of companies around the world.

Intermediate

Patrick Riley

Patrick is an accomplished technology entrepreneur and artist based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Patrick was the CEO and Co-Founder of Modern Survey for 16 years, which was fully acquired by Aon in February 2016. Patrick is now a Partner at Aon.

Additionally, Patrick is an accomplished filmmaker and musician. In the mid-90's he played bass and shared lead vocals with his brother Dan in the Defender Records band Cooper. Patrick has directed and produced dozens of music videos, documentaries, television series, and short films. In 2008 and 2009, he was Isabella Rossellini's Assistant Director for an original series she created for the Sundance Channel entitled "Green Porno". Patrick worked for three summers (2003, 2004 and 2007) as an Assistant Director for the Sundance Institute Filmmaker's Lab. Two of the six films Patrick assistant-directed at Sundance went on to become feature films: "Paperman" starring Jeff Daniels & Emma Stone, and "Here" starring Ben Foster.

Patrick's specialties include: entrepreneurship, ideation, product development, enterprise SaaS, team innovation, bootstrap growth strategies, brand building, talent management, and public speaking.

Patrick’s thought leadership has been featured by numerous media organizations including Talent Management Magazine and National Public Radio.