Mitch Skyer, AFI Strategic Partners, on Selling Passio Technologies, Exit Timing, and Staying Relevant After the Sale (The Exit Exchange, Episode 30)
In this episode of The Exit Exchange, host John Ray welcomes Mitch Skyer, founder of AFI Strategic Partners. Mitch advises owners of businesses in the $2 million to $25 million range on turning an income-producing company into an asset they can sell or transfer. He also speaks as an owner who has been through an exit. He and his co-founder started Passio Technologies with $500 each, built it over about 10 years into a 21-person company that puts vehicle tracking, passenger counting, and stop announcement systems on transit buses, and sold it to a private equity-backed roll-up, giving him a firsthand view of selling to private equity.
Mitch explains how the sale began with a private equity firm that kept calling and kept hearing no, and what changed a year later. He and his partner could not see a path to $100 million, and he describes weighing debt, a minority investor, and a sale before deciding that the next step carried more risk than the last one. They sold without a full team of advisors, and Mitch says one more turn on their valuation multiple would have been worth over $4 million. He and John also discuss what owners should expect from an advisor beyond technical skill, how a coach can sharpen strengths as well as fill gaps, and why an owner needs a purpose lined up before the business is gone.
The host of The Exit Exchange is John Ray, and the show is produced by John Ray and North Fulton Business Radio, LLC, the North Fulton affiliate of Business RadioX®.
Key Takeaways from This Episode
- Passio’s owners did not set out to sell. Repeated outreach from private equity led them to ask how big the business could become and what growth would cost, and the answer pointed toward a sale.
- Mitch describes the owner’s position as “infinite risk, but not infinite opportunity.” At some point the next stage of growth can be riskier than everything that came before it.
- He values an attorney or advisor for more than technical skill: guidance on which other professionals to hire, a network, and steady support through the process.
- The advisor work that would have mattered most came three to five years before the sale, when the focus is on what a buyer looks for and how to raise the multiple. On a $3 million business, moving from a three-times to a four-times multiple changes a $9 million payout to $12 million.
- Owners need a purpose after the sale. A friend told Mitch he was “no longer relevant” after retiring, and Mitch warns that golf and book clubs cannot fill 40 hours a week.
Topics Discussed in this Episode
00:24 Welcome and introduction of Mitch Skyer
01:49 What AFI Strategic Partners does for owners
03:48 Passio Technologies and how it was built
04:41 How private equity approached Passio and why the first answer was no
06:45 Deciding it was time: growth limits, debt, and partner options
09:49 “Infinite risk, but not infinite opportunity”
12:52 Choosing the roll-up and meeting the operating team
14:51 Selling without a full team of advisors
16:53 What owners should expect from an advisor beyond technical skill
22:41 Advisors as gap fillers and force multipliers
26:54 One more turn on the multiple and the three- to five-year window
29:22 Life after the exit: purpose and staying relevant
33:28 AFI Strategic Partners and how to reach Mitch
Mitch Skyer, AFI Strategic Partners
Mitch Skyer, CEPA®, C3D®, MBA, spent 30 years doing the thing many advisors only talk about. He ran businesses. He rose from entry-level sales to senior management at MCI, built and led national sales teams at Cognisa Transportation through its 2006 acquisition, founded Solstice Transportation Group, and then co-founded Passio Technologies in 2010, which was acquired by Transit Technologies LLC in 2020. He wrapped that chapter as President of Faster Asset Solutions.
Three decades. Multiple exits. A value growth mindset. Throughout his career, Mitch has had a front-row seat to the same frustrating pattern: talented founders who built something real, working with advisors who offered generic playbooks and no honest plan to maximize value.
That gap is why he founded AFI Strategic Partners to be the advisor he wished he’d had. One who leads with honesty, works from a real process, and keeps the focus where it belongs: on the owner’s goals, timeline, and what a successful outcome looks like for them. His CEPA (Certified Exit Planning Advisor) certification is backed by a BA, an MBA, and instincts that only come from doing it yourself.
He serves as an advisor and board member for small, thriving enterprises and on multiple nonprofit boards with the same clarity and accountability he brings to client work. He and his wife, Lisa, have called Atlanta home for over 30 years. Their three kids are launched and thriving, so a gentlemanly Goldendoodle and his rambunctious Sheepadoodle sister make sure the house is never too quiet.
The Exit Planning Exchange Atlanta
The Exit Planning Exchange Atlanta (XPX) is a diverse group of professionals with a common goal: working collaboratively to assist business owners with a sale or business transition. XPX Atlanta is an association of advisors who provide professionalism, principles, and education to the heart of the middle market.
Their members work with business owners through all stages of the private company life cycle: business value growth, business value transfer, and owner life and legacy. Their vision: to fundamentally change the trajectory of exit planning services in the Southeast United States. XPX Atlanta delivers a collaboration-based networking exchange with broad representation of exit planning competencies. Learn more about XPX Atlanta and why you should consider joining our community by following this link.
The host of The Exit Exchange is John Ray, and the show is produced by North Fulton Business Radio, LLC, the North Fulton affiliate of Business RadioX®, in Alpharetta. You can find the show archive by following this link.
John Ray Co. is a Premier Sponsor of XPX Atlanta.
