This tech entrepreneur received 98% of the purchase price of his company up front when he exited. Here’s how.

By Verne Harnish

When Gerry Tombs sold his company, Clearvision, in October 2022, his acquirer paid him 98% of the purchase price up front. When he sold it to the software development powerhouse Eficode, known for its leadership in DevOps and the Agile movement, he was able to bypass the unpredictability of a large earnout.

Tombs launched Clearvision, a Southampton-based solutions provider, in his garage. He grew it into a tech consultancy with 100 employees across the U.S. and U.K., serving clients across the Fortune 500 with solutions from Atlassian, GitLab, and open-source tools. 

What helped Tombs position Clearvision for the successful acquisition was its operating system, which relied heavily on the Scaling Up platform. He applied the ideas in Scaling Up with the guidance of Scaling Up Certified Coach Dominic Monkhouse, along with other advisors. 

When they started working together in 2015, Clearvision had about 40 people and $45 million in revenue. By the time of the acquisition, it was bringing in more than $104 million annually. 

“None of this happens by accident,” he says. “Growth doesn’t happen by accident. A successful exit doesn’t happen by accident. A strong culture certainly doesn’t happen by accident. You have to be intentional.”

Here is how he pulled off his successful exit.

Building a cash fortress

Tombs’ first priority with Monkhouse was building a strong cash position. He learned the importance of cash the hard way after the telecom crash of 2000-2001, when a previous business relied too much on telecom clients and collapsed.

This time around, he focused on having at least three months of total costs in the bank, aiming to keep nine months’ worth. Eventually, the company had 12 months of cash on hand.

“Businesses will go through shocks,” he says. “Markets change. Industries crash — as I experienced in telecoms. Key people leave. Deals fall through. Economic cycles shift. If you build purely for growth without building resilience, you are fragile. That’s why cash discipline mattered so much to me the second time around.”

Hiring based on values

Tombs recognized early on that hiring the right people would greatly enhance the company’s ability to scale. To build a strong team, Tombs looked for people who embodied the company’s Core Values, such as “Decency,” “Remarkable,” and “Mastery.” The leadership team created scorecards before advertising any position, clearly outlining responsibilities, deliverables, and reporting lines. “You can teach skills, but values are inherent,” he says. 

He also focused on developing a senior leadership team that could run the company without him. As the transaction neared, he made himself scarce in daily operations. 

“As a founder, you want to be involved in everything,” says Tombs. “Especially as you approach an exit, you cannot afford to be the most important person in the room. You have to let it all go, hand over any accounts you’ve been running, and delegate everything so the business runs without you. Otherwise, during an acquisition, they will want to keep you in the business if you are essential.”

Building a great culture

Completing the One-Page Strategic Plan, Tombs prioritized building a great culture through a variety of initiatives. For example, the company encouraged reading, allowing employees to expense any book they or their family needed. Team members could use an annual training fund to access any program that enriched their well-being. 

“Culture is what happens when the founder is not in the room,” says Tombs. “If your culture depends on you, it won’t scale. The operating systems codified behaviors, values, expectations, and standards. That made culture self-reinforcing.”

When it came to benefits, the company offered flexibility in how employees could deploy their pension contributions, within government requirements. “We recognized that the needs of a 25-year-old differ significantly from those of a 55-year-old,” says Tombs. Team members also had free access to mental health advisors. Meanwhile, the company’s Challenger Loan program offered financial assistance to employees facing unforeseen financial challenges. “We had to comply with tax rules; nevertheless, they were better than banks or other lenders,” says Tombs.

Setting a people-centric BHAG

To spur the company’s progress, Tombs set a Big Hairy Audacious Goal (BHAG) to reach the top 100 of the Best Companies award in the U.K., working toward it for over seven years. 

The company spent two years preparing to enter. In its first year of submission, it placed 96th. Over five years, it improved its position. In the year it was sold, it reached the top spot as part of Eficode. “That required employee alignment, strong culture, communication, one-to-ones, career progression, and fair pay. These are all things Scaling Up emphasizes,” he says. 

To stay focused on the company’s ambitious BHAG, Tombs asked himself five questions when considering new priorities and initiatives:

●      Does this align with our values?

●      Does this move us toward our three-year target?

●      Do we have the capability and capacity to execute it well?

●      What does it do to our cash position?

●      Who is accountable for the outcome?

“Those questions prevented a lot of distraction,” he says. “Distraction is expensive. It consumes focus, fragments teams, and erodes momentum. One of the hidden benefits of structure is protection from distraction.”

Regular meeting rhythms

Using Atlassian tools, Clearvision’s team built automated dashboards to track progress. The company’s finance lead automated data feeds, so no one wasted time gathering numbers. 

To keep everyone aligned on improving the numbers, Clearvision held weekly meetings for department leaders, with separate meetings for subgroups. At Monkhouse’s suggestion, all leaders in attendance were assigned a key metric in the business for which they were responsible. “If you’re a spectator, you shouldn’t be there,” says Tombs. 

Building loyal partnerships

Clearvision’s strong execution allowed it build deep partnerships with customers and partners, which helped make it a strong acquisition target. By the time of the acquisition, it had won awards such as Atlassian Partner of the Year for Dev Tools, Atlassian Platinum Partner in the UK and the US, and GitLab Inc.’s EMEA Partner of the Year. After the sale, Eficode became Atlassian’s largest global partner.

“Over time, what you’re really building is reputation,” Tombs says. “With customers. With employees. With partners. Reputation becomes an asset on the balance sheet, even if it doesn’t appear there formally. When we eventually sold, I believe part of the value was not just financial performance but consistency, culture, and credibility.”

Scaling with AI

Tombs is now working on his next startup, Agenttimise.ai, which helps companies with processes such as AI agent development and AI leadership training. 

“After selling, it wasn’t about retiring,” he says. “It was about asking, ‘What’s the next problem to solve?’ For me, that’s helping leaders navigate AI responsibly and strategically—without fear or naivety. That connects to what I learned about scaling: Clear values. Accountability. Communication. Psychological safety. Cash discipline. Structured execution. AI amplifies the need for these fundamentals.”