What happens when a business becomes successful—but not “exit-shaped”?

In this episode of From Angel to Exit, Bruce Eckfeldt interviews Johnny LeHane, an exited founder and investor who helped grow WAKA (World Adult Kickball Association) from a bar-napkin idea into a national social sports company operating across 70+ cities and 35 states, reaching roughly $10M in revenue.
Johnny didn’t start with a traditional entrepreneur story. With an engineering background and early career at America Online during the rise of consumer internet, he expected a stable corporate path. Instead, a single line—“why don’t people play kickball?”—turned into a side project that became a full-time business. He describes a smart “off-ramp” into entrepreneurship: build the business while employed, then transition with savings and risk controls (including a leave of absence request) rather than leaping from zero.

As WAKA scaled, new problems replaced early momentum. A three-founder structure created decision friction, forcing the team to hire (and eventually fire) a CEO. They explored franchising as a growth and “entanglement” strategy—trying to lock in local operators—but discovered that as technology became commoditized, it got easier for competitors to replicate operations. Later, they pursued acquisitions and a potential roll-up strategy, but a key acquisition dragged out, was undercapitalized, and immediately created cash strain—an issue worsened by market headwinds.

Johnny’s exit ultimately became a negotiated buyout from partners rather than a massive sale. He’s blunt about the real negotiation: not just price, but terms—payout horizon, front-loading, promissory risk, and what happens when “worst case” hits (like COVID’s impact on outdoor social sports). He also highlights the emotional cost: partner relationships change, identity shifts, and earnout-style payouts keep founders psychologically tethered long after they “leave.”

The closing lesson is bigger than the business: founders should build optionality early—financially, strategically, and personally—so the next chapter is something they’re moving toward, not something they’re forced into.

Key takeaways:

• Don’t rely on “we’ll figure it out” leadership in multi-founder teams.
• Growth strategies must match capitalization reality.
• Franchising isn’t just a model—it’s an entanglement strategy.
• A niche business can reach $10M and still be hard to exit.
• Terms are runway design.
• Minority owners have limited leverage.
• Earnouts and deferred payouts are emotional strings.
• Build a new identity before you exit.

Timestamps:
00:00 Exit Planning Intro
00:50 Meet Johnny Lehane
01:31 Accidental Kickball Startup
05:40 Going Full Time Leap
07:39 Business Model Growth
09:00 Expectations Versus Reality
10:48 Founder Tensions Leadership
12:01 Franchising Experiment
15:00 CEO Changes Recession
16:55 Stepping Away Acquisition
19:37 Return And Buyout Talks
21:12 When Exit Became Real
21:45 Valuation Without Buyers
22:50 Growth Stalls and Margin Squeeze
23:34 Franchise and Private Equity Talks
25:06 Realizing the Big Exit Wont Happen
26:38 Tech Pull and Rollup Dream
28:24 Buyout Options and Partner Exit
29:28 Negotiating Terms and Protections
31:04 COVID Stress Test on Earnout
33:31 Identity After the Exit
40:13 Finding Purpose Through Giving Back
42:24 Where to Find Johnny Now

Links & Resources

• Johnny LeHane

  • LinkedIn: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jwlehane/

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