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SG Scott Galloway Scott Galloway Professor of marketing at NYU Stern and author of bestselling books including The Four and The Algebra of Wealth.

“Do not trust your emotions. As a matter of fact, go the opposite on when to sell or not sell… Oh my gosh, business is awesome, let's hold on and ride this out. Oh, wait, things are wobbly. We should sell. The opposite. Acquirers are smart. When you're jamming and it's so bright outside, you got to wear shades, that's when you hire a banker… when things are shaky, the acquirer figures it out really fast.”

The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway · Tech Strategy & Big Tech · November 2026

“Do not trust your emotions. As a matter of fact, go the opposite on when to sell or not sell… Oh my gosh, business is awesome, let's hold on and ride this out. Oh, wait, things are wobbly. We should sell. The opposite. Acquirers are smart. When you're jamming and it's so bright outside, you got to wear shades, that's when you hire a banker… when things are shaky, the acquirer figures it out really fast.” — Scott Galloway, The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway

Context

A listener asked how to decide when to sell a company. Galloway, drawing on companies he has sold, argues founders' instincts about timing are backwards and that selling in a downturn rarely works.

Transcript

The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway Around 30:32 into the episode
Scott Galloway

Welcome back. Question number four comes from AXNR0 on Instagram. How do you decide when it's the right time to sell a company or a business? I have some thoughts here. Go ahead, David. I think

David Senra

you should go first because you sold businesses.

Scott Galloway

Simply put, do not trust your emotions. As a matter of fact, go the opposite on when to sell or not sell, go the opposite way. Because this is what happens as an entrepreneur. Oh my gosh, business is awesome. Let's hold on and ride this out. Of course, we're not going to sell. Things are just jamming right now. Oh, wait, things are wobbly. The economy looks wobbly. Our business is wobbly. I got some key people who are threatening to leave. Oh, God. We should sell. The opposite. Acquirers are smart.…

David Senra

So I would say to the degree that, I mean, there's obviously a ton of entrepreneurs that listen to both my podcasts all over the world to the degree that I have any influence on this. I'm kind of like anti-start scale sell. Yep. I think. I think podcasting is my life's work. I've been doing it for…

Scott Galloway

it costs you money. Well, that's being an entrepreneur. You write a check at the end of the month.

David Senra

Yes. My savings went down every month. And I was like, no, I just believe I'll figure out the business model. And things will turn out. It took me five and a half years to do that. So what I would say is like, there's countless examples of people selling and they're very happy. It sounds like in…

Speaker names come from our own diarization. The position is estimated from where the line sits in the episode.

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