How Long Does a Sale Process Take?

Historically, M&A processes have taken around 12 months end to end, though this varies enormously depending on the acquirer and the startup. In AI, processes are speeding up. Competitive urgency and the pace of technology development mean strategics are compressing timelines significantly.

The longest part of the process is often the preparatory phase: exit readiness. This is the part the founder can actually control, and it is mostly about the strength, depth, and breadth of strategic relationships they want to have in place before starting.

It is useful to think about the timeline in three phases: exit readiness, the active process, and post-LOI exclusivity.

Phase 1: Exit readiness (months to years)

This is the longest phase and one that founders often underinvest in. Exit readiness is about building the strategic relationships and positioning that determine how strong the founder's position will be when a process begins.

The key elements include acquirer mapping, which means identifying the most relevant strategics and understanding where the startup fits within each acquirer's strategic priorities. Then identifying key decision-makers: for each priority acquirer, mapping the champion and the relevant corp dev contact. Tailored positioning follows, thinking through how to present the startup to each strategic in a way that aligns with their specific motivation and the gaps in their product suite. And then relationship-building itself, moving from cold to warm with priority acquirers. The goal is to have warm relationships with at least a handful of relevant strategics before the process formally begins.

There is also the less exciting but necessary work of getting the house in order: clean financials, clear IP ownership, tidy cap table, and resolved legal or compliance issues. None of this drives valuation, but it prevents avoidable delays that can kill momentum once a process is live.

Phase 2: The active process (1 to 3 months)

This is where the process is orchestrated to begin, and the primary goal is to create competitive tension among multiple strategics. Moving from exit readiness into an active process is not always a clean transition. It often emerges as one or more relationships start getting more serious.

How fast this moves depends on the depth of pre-existing relationships and the acquirer's experience. A serial acquirer with a dedicated corp dev team will move faster than an infrequent acquirer figuring it out as they go. In AI, where strategics are under competitive pressure to secure capabilities before rivals do, this phase often compresses to weeks.

Phase 3: Post-LOI exclusivity (1 to 3 months)

Once a letter of intent is signed, the founder enters an exclusivity period, usually 60 to 90 days, for the acquirer to complete due diligence and negotiate the definitive purchase agreement.

For AI acquisitions, the most critical diligence tends to be technical (architecture, code quality, model performance) and talent-related (team depth, retention risk, key-person dependency). When the acquirer's technical team has already evaluated the product through prior engagement, this can move significantly faster. A motivated acquirer can close in 30 to 45 days.

Time kills deals. Founders often relax after signing the LOI, but the deal can still fall apart during diligence, and the longer it drags on, the more risk is introduced.

Total timeline

The process end to end varies enormously, with exit readiness being the main variable. A founder with deep, warm relationships who receives a buyer-led approach can move from first serious conversation to close in weeks. A founder starting from cold may take a year or longer. Most processes fall somewhere in between, with a total of three to six months from the start of the active process to close.