The Exit Optional Summit
You spent decades building your practice. Now build the freedom to leave it on your terms. Get Exit Ready this October.
Every applicant gets The Exit Optional Playbook — free, accepted or not. Three minutes to apply. Five years saved.
“Until something breaks, you don't see anything broken. No Plan B. No exit path. No idea how the money works after the work stops. We see it all the time.”— Dr. David Phelps, Founder · Freedom Founders
“I wish I had started thinking earlier about how I was going to get out. It doesn't mean you have to do it right away. It's just important to have a plan.”
— Dr. Tina Herington, Freedom Founders Member
“I was so busy building it and building it, I had no idea how I was ever going to extract myself from it. Don't wait too long to think about your exit — and your next.”
Dr. Tina HeringtonPractice Owner · Freedom Founders Member
“Our CPA told us we were on cruise control — just keep doing this for twenty more years. We looked at each other and said: cruise control? We wake up and fight every single day to keep this car on the road.”
Drs. Brent & Ally RickheimPractice Owners · Coeur d'Alene, ID
“My father worked hard his whole life. A year after he retired, he passed. All the things he said he'd do — he never got to do any of them. I wasn't going to let that be my story.”
Dr. Kevin CollinsPractice Owner · Freedom Founders Member
Dr. David Phelps · Founder, Freedom Founders
David Phelps sold his practice on his own terms — not because a broker called or burnout forced his hand, but because he'd built the option to.
Freedom Founders exists because no room existed where practice owners could talk honestly about transitions without being sold something. So he built it.
Not a broker. Not a financial advisor. Nothing to sell you at the end of the conversation — which is why the conversation is different.
Your pathway, chosen. Your number, known. Your move, made.
The Pathway
Associate-to-partner. Private sale. ESOP. DSO. All of it — on one table.
Most events sell you one pathway — theirs. This is the whole landscape: associate-to-partner, private sale, ESOP, DSO and private equity. One blueprint to weigh them against your practice, your timeline, your life. You leave knowing which pathway is yours — and why.
The Number
Freedom number. Replacement income. The complete financial picture.
The freedom number is where this starts — not where it ends. You'll build the full picture: the replacement income your capital must produce, the real gap to “enough,” and the framework to close it as your own financial advocate. Stop outsourcing the most important math of your life.
The Move
You already know the move. This is where you make it.
Information isn't what's missing — momentum is. This room is built for decisions: the clarity and permission to make the moves you already know you need to make, beside peers a few steps ahead who'll tell you what actually happened. You are not the first. You are not alone.
The person three years ahead of you is in this room — along with the specialists who navigate these transitions for a living.
Owners mid-transition
Navigating associate buy-ins, partnerships, and sale decisions right now — sharing in real time.
Owners on the other side
Done with their transition, on their terms. They'll tell you what they'd do differently — and what the first year after really looks like.
Transition specialists
Positioning, valuation, succession structuring — curated for alignment, not commission.
Capital & income strategists
Helping members build income that doesn't depend on production — because the exit question and the income question are the same question.
“It was the first time Jen and I finally got on the same page with our finances as a couple. We saw this inevitable tunnel of not being able to control our lives — and we had to figure out how to separate ourselves from the practice while still building wealth from it.”
Drs. Brad & Jennifer Mokris · Practice Owners, South Carolina
“Sondra came in skeptical. She said we would not sign up for anything. By Saturday we both agreed we'd found our community.”
Dr. Ben Jensen · on attending their first event
A transition is never one person's decision. Couples attend together — and leave on the same page.
Every conversation is only as good as the room. The application protects that.
“I read every single book David put out. I could see and sense his integrity in what he was doing. I've always joined study groups or brought in consultants — and I always gained a lot more than I spent. I've been thankful for the way things have worked out with Freedom Founders.”
Drs. Ed & Lisa Wentz
Lisa's transition: complete. Ed's: in motion. Both on their own schedule.
“Freedom for us means knowing we have the option to pivot to do something different if we want to — because we aren't dependent on solely practicing dentistry to make a living.”
Drs. Brent & Ally Rickheim
From “no exit strategy except twenty more years” to a practice they own — instead of one that owns them.
“I had some health issues and ended up needing to sell the practice before I was really ready to. Had I not done Freedom Founders, life would be a lot more chaotic and a lot more stressful.”
Dr. Brad Dixon
When an unplanned exit arrived early, the preparation was already done. A pivot — not a crisis.
Away from the practice, the noise, the inbox. Two days built for the conversations that don't happen at home.
A note on the venue. The Delta is owned by one of Freedom Founders' long-standing operator partners — we're gathering at a property run by people from inside the community.
Three minutes. Reviewed personally. Response within 48 hours.
Read by a real person. We're looking for a real transition question and readiness to engage.
Strong fit gets a personal response with full event and investment details.
Reserve your seat, then receive a pre-event brief — including how to think about your freedom number before you arrive.
Apply and get The Exit Optional Playbook — free, regardless of outcome. David's blueprint for building a business you can sell, but don't have to. It's the foundation for everything that happens in the room.
Practice and business owners with a real transition question ahead — an associate decision, a potential sale, a succession plan, or no exit path at all. The question this event answers isn't “how do I build something successful?” It's “how do I transition what I've built — on my terms?”
Especially then. The entire premise of the Exit Optional Summit is that the best transitions are built years before they're needed — and that an exit-ready practice is a more valuable, more manageable, more enjoyable practice even if you never sell it. Optionality is the goal. Selling is just one of the options.
No. Freedom Founders is not a brokerage, not a financial advisor, and not a deal marketplace. Nobody in the room is compensated by the outcome of your transition decisions. The specialists and advisors present are curated for alignment and expertise — they answer questions; they don't pitch. That independence is the entire point.
The annual income your capital must produce — independent of your production — for work to become a choice. Most owners have never calculated it. Yours is one of the first things this event delivers.
Investment details are shared personally with accepted applicants. Submitting an application is free, takes about three minutes, and carries no obligation — and every applicant receives a complimentary digital copy of The Exit Optional Playbook regardless of outcome.
Yes — strongly encouraged. Transition decisions are family decisions, and the members who make the most progress are almost always the ones whose spouses were in the room for the same conversations. Indicate in your application if you'd like to attend as a couple.
Yes. Freedom Founders is rooted in dentistry, but the transition challenges this event addresses — succession, exit readiness, the freedom number, what comes next — are universal to closely held business owners. If you own a business with real value at stake and a transition question ahead, you're a candidate regardless of industry.
Yes, meaningfully. A referral from inside the community tells us something important before we've spoken. Include the member's name in your application — member-referred guests are prioritized in review.