Either niche companies or companies in slower growth industries. In regards to the latter, EdTech is a good example. Time to exit is at a minimum double what i

Either niche companies or companies in slower growth industries. In regards to the latter, EdTech is a good example. Time to exit is at a minimum double what it is in the enterprise or consumer space. This is driven by the bureaucratic nature of the sales process which in turn leads to much longer sales cycles (think 6-18 months to close a deal). The upside of course are things like high customer retention / low churn and almost guaranteed collection rates. Companies that operate in industries like these reach a point where they have a proven product and real product, but profit may not be high enough or is not growing fast enough for the founders to make the investments they KNOW will generate additionally growth. Large VCs are turned off by these companies because the industries they operate in are not big enough to sustain the large 9-10 digit exits they seek, while smaller VCs looking for smaller exits are equally turned off because the ROI comes too slow. For these companies, oftentimes the only option is either private Angels who are personally vested in the space or bank loans. It's hard to find the former and even then they can't offer much $$$ and the latter tends to be unworkable because of either the lack of assets, misunderstanding of the business models, or established (5+ years) historical revenue track. Just my $0.02