Sell Your Business on Your Terms, Not the Market's
Main Street NEXT is a 7-week program for Indiana owners planning a sale, succession, or ownership transition. You leave with a written plan, a target price, and the relationships to get there. Funded by the State of Indiana at no cost to you.
A gBETA program by gener8tor. Since 2015, gBETA has supported 1,617 companies that have raised more than $1.6B and created 7,128 jobs.
7 Weeks. 5 Companies. 1 Plan You Can Run.
Built to fit around a business you're still running.
Length
7 weeks
Format
Mostly online, with a full-day in-person kickoff
Time Commitment
About 5 hours per week
Cost
$0, funded by the State of Indiana
Cohort Size
5 Indiana companies
Cadence
4 cohorts per year
1,000 Owners Retire Every Day. Most Have No Plan.
Over the next decade, $10 trillion in small business value will change hands as baby boomer owners retire. A meaningful share of those businesses will not transition. They will simply close, and the value the owner spent decades building goes with them.
The cost is local. When a town of 10,000 loses its only HVAC company, residents pay more, drive farther, or go without. Jobs disappear. The tax base shrinks. Communities lose the businesses that hold them together.
A good exit is not luck. It is the result of deciding what you want and building the business that delivers it. That is the work of this program.
Indiana doesn't lose this many companies if we plan ahead.Pat East, Executive Advisor
Decide the Outcome First. Then Build Toward It.
Most owners enter the exit conversation reactively. They take inbound calls, meet with brokers, and wait for the market to tell them what the business is worth. The result is a deal shaped by other people's preferences. Main Street NEXT reverses the order.
Write Your Dream Term Sheet
Before any work on the business, you put the outcome on paper:
- Price. The number, net of fees and taxes, that makes this worth it.
- Buyer. Strategic acquirer, private equity, an insider, a family member, or an ESOP. Each implies a different structure and timeline.
- Role. What you want to be doing 12 to 24 months after closing.
Most owners have never written this down. Once it exists, every decision in the program points back to it.
Work the 4 Levers Buyers Actually Price
Buyer due diligence comes down to 4 things. So does the program.
- Revenue and profitability. Predictable, growing earnings command higher multiples.
- Financial clarity. Books a sophisticated buyer can underwrite without a fight.
- Documentation and systems. Operations that don't depend on you.
- Transferable relationships. Customers, suppliers, and team members who stay through the transition.
Work the levers and the multiple follows.
Apply to Main Street NEXT
5 Indiana companies are selected per cohort. The application takes about 15 minutes, and there is no cost to apply or participate.
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We are not currently accepting applications for this program.
Stay tuned. While there aren't any upcoming cohorts at the moment, there are plenty of other available opportunities at gener8tor.
Built for Indiana Owners at an Inflection Point
Industry doesn't matter. The first cohort spans manufacturing, sports licensing, ice cream, technology consulting, and accounting staffing. What matters is where you are.
You're a fit if:
- Your business is based in Indiana and generates roughly $5M to $10M in annual revenue
- You own it, and a sale, succession, or ownership transition is on your radar, on any horizon
- You can commit about 5 hours per week for 7 weeks
- You want a plan you control, not a deal someone else shapes
Not sure you're ready? Most owners who say "not sure" are further along than they realize. Don't self-select out.
A Weekly Rhythm Built for Owners Who Are Already Busy
About 5 hours per week. The structure repeats so it becomes routine fast.
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Week 1, in person
Full-Day Kickoff
The cohort spends a full day together, building the trust and context that makes everything downstream more useful.
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Weekly, 60 minutes
Deep-Dive 1-on-1
A session with Pat at the start of each week to set intention, identify the gap to fill, and build the week's plan.
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Weekly, 15 minutes
Short-Circuit 1-on-1
A check-in 2 to 3 days later to keep momentum from stalling.
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Throughout
Lunch and Learns
Subject matter experts teach on specific exit topics, with time for questions about your situation.
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25 mentors
Mentor Swarms
Rapid-fire meetings with entrepreneurs and experts in M&A and operations.
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15 investors
Capital Swarms
Same format, with investors and bankers actively looking at deals.
Cohorts may also attend an outside entrepreneurship-through-acquisition conference, which gives owners the view from the buyer's side of the table.
What You Leave With
By Week 7, you have a written plan that names the outcome you want, the gaps between today's business and that outcome, and the specific work to close them. The plan is yours. So are the relationships.
Your Dream Term Sheet
Target price, buyer profile, and post-exit role, written down and pressure-tested.
A 4-Lever Diagnostic
Where your business stands on each value lever, with prioritized actions.
A 12 to 24 Month Roadmap
The sequenced work that gets you from today's business to the one that delivers your outcome.
A Working Network
Advisors, mentors, and potential capital partners who already know your story.
None of it is hard. It's just new.Pat East, Executive Advisor
Meet the Mainstayers
The 5 Indiana companies in the inaugural cohort. Established, regionally rooted, and in most cases multi-decade businesses with real teams and real customers. Hover or tap a company to read its story.
Hyndman manufactures and distributes high-temperature resistance wire, a niche product with deep Fort Wayne roots. Owner Joe Hyndman, a Navy veteran and second-generation operator, has largely worked himself out of daily operations and recently expanded through a New Jersey acquisition. With his GM also approaching retirement, Joe is using the program to design a deliberate succession process.
Cloud Accountant Staffing places overseas accountants with US accounting firms. Founders Jordan Sublette and Conner Bland are growing fast on a clean, recurring model anchored in annual contracts. They believe AI is closing the window for selling a staffing firm at full multiples and want to be in market before that discount lands.
Sporticulture holds licensing rights across the NFL, college athletics, MLB, and NHL, spanning more than 70 product categories. Owner Isaac Clark is mid-acquisition on a deal that would expand into major entertainment licenses, and believes 2026 is the year the business inflects. The program is helping him line up capital and structure the deal.
InGen has been running since 1983, when founder Mike Halbig started it as a technology consultancy for large enterprises. Now repositioning around AI advisory, Mike has a clear goal: double the business to $5M by age 72, then step back. What he needs now is execution, specifically identifying and installing the next generation of leadership.
A Bloomington ice cream institution. Under sole owner Justin Loveless, revenue has grown from $250K to $2M across retail, a second location, wholesale to Indiana University Athletics, and an events operation. The plan is to transition longtime operations manager Jordan Davis into majority ownership over 5 to 10 years, and the program is building the financial foundation to get there.
Your Company
Cohort 2 has 5 open spots.
Run by an Operator Who Has Sold a Company, Not a Consultant
Pat East, Executive Advisor, Main Street NEXT
Pat grew Hanapin Marketing from $2,000 in starting capital to Inc. 5000 status, then sold the 75-person company to its largest UK competitor. He went on to found The Mill, an entrepreneurship center in Bloomington, and Flywheel Fund, an early-stage investment fund. In late 2025 he acquired Darn Good Soup, a Bloomington restaurant that broke its all-time sales record by 50% on his first day of ownership.
He sits on the board of the Venture Club of Indiana and has been a Vistage member since 2004. Every part of the program, from the Dream Term Sheet to the 4 levers, comes from what he has seen matter in real transactions on both sides of the table.
Backed by a National Platform With a Track Record
Main Street NEXT is part of gBETA, the 7-week accelerator run by gener8tor, a nationally ranked startup development organization. Since 2015, gBETA has supported 1,617 companies across 314 cohorts. Those companies have raised more than $1.6B and created 7,128 jobs.
Where most gBETA programs serve early-stage startups, Main Street NEXT is purpose-built for established Indiana businesses at the exit inflection point. Same operating model, same caliber of mentor and capital network, applied to a different problem.
Funded by the State of Indiana
The program is provided at no cost to participating companies because the State of Indiana funds it. When owners exit well, the businesses survive, the jobs stay in Indiana, and the tax base holds. When they exit badly, or shut down, the state loses on every dimension.
Funding the program is one of the most direct ways the state can keep good companies running.
Get Started
3 ways in, depending on how ready you are.
Apply for Cohort 2
Cohort 2 begins October 1. 5 companies will be selected. The application takes about 15 minutes and there is no cost to apply or participate.
Apply NowTalk to Pat
A 30-minute call to find out whether the program fits your situation. No prep required. Bring whatever questions you have.
Book a CallJoin the Monthly Webinar
1 hour, the third Tuesday of every month. The right starting point if an exit is on your radar but you're not ready to commit to anything bigger.
RegisterQuestions? Email pat.east@gener8tor.com