While one can hear a lot about "time-to-market", we strongly believe in the concept of right "time-to-exit" which takes a least three conditions:

Strong historical growth: best evidence of the company's potential of growth

Minimum critical size: to make sure the metrics upon which apply multiple are good enough both on top line and bottom line; apart from rare cases (IP / technology / semiconductor / uniqueness) size does matter to maximise exit valuation

Strong perspectives: in continuity with strong historical growth, a huge pipeline, diversified and recurring sources of revenues, "the g effect" enabling favorable discounted cash flow analysis in complement of other valuation approaches.

If one of those conditions lacks in a context of trade sale, the shareholders will suffer a "cost of opportunity" which can be extremely significant over a period of two or three more years... 

Apart exceptions, if specific personal, business or market conditions justify it, we believe in many cases there are opportunities to perform alternative scenarios until the company reaches its "right time-to-sale" after further developments which can be reached through means of increase in capital accelerating the growth and increasing the size of Revenues and EBITDA on which multiples will apply "top line" and "bottom line".. 

Such increase in capital can be associated with transferts of shares enabling partial liquidity "on the way" before total Exit, in case certain shareholders should be washed out or would have important needs to cach out. When future shareholders agree they have a common interest to win more through an intermediary capital restructuring, everything is possible.
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Complementarities, Outsourced R&D, Strategic premium, Pricing, Exit, Multiple, ROI, Reward, Liquidity...