No Pretty F*cking PowerPoints: How Rachel Sold for £13.3m in 1,000 Days

January 20, 2026

23mile

What does it take to plan a five-year exit and achieve it in 1,000 days?

Rachel Murphy planned to exit in five years. She did it in 1,000 days for £13.3 million.

When Rachel left her corporate career as CIO at the Department for Education, she approached a friend running a small recruitment firm with a bold proposition: give me 50% of the shares and I'll get this thing sold for eight figures within five years. She transformed Difrent from a recruitment company into a healthcare and government delivery agency, landing major contracts including the NHS Jobs platform and building the UK's COVID home-testing service in just 8 days during the pandemic.

But the exit wasn't the fairy tale she expected. Instead of celebrating on a beach, she found herself feeling more lost than liberated. Her identity had been so tied to the business that selling it left her heartbroken. After the earn-out, she went to Ukraine, did a psychedelic retreat, and eventually built The Grafter, where she now helps founders prepare for exits emotionally, not just financially. This is a masterclass in building to sell, the realities of earn-outs, and why the cheque doesn't fix everything.


GUEST BIO

Rachel Murphy is the Founder and CEO of The Grafter, a consultancy helping founders with £1-30M revenue scale, maximise value, and prepare for exits. Her team of "Exiteers" are all exited founders who sit alongside businesses for 12 months to make exits happen.

Before The Grafter, Rachel built and sold Difrent for £13.3 million to TPXimpact in September 2020. She joined the company as CEO in 2017, transformed it from a recruitment firm into a delivery agency, and scaled it to £7.4M revenue with major NHS and government contracts.

Rachel is a twice-exited founder, having also built and sold a social care software implementation business in her 20s. She spent 25 years across the Big 4 consultancies, served as CIO at the Department for Education, and led patient-facing transformation at NHS Digital where she built the NHS app. She has been sober for 11.5 years and is known for her direct, no-nonsense approach to helping founders navigate the emotional and financial realities of selling a business.

Agenda:

  • Introduction:  Rachel's background and the 1,000-day exit story

  • Growing Up & Work Ethic: Born outside Manchester, moved to Surrey at 10, rebellious streak, origin of "The Grafter" name

  •  Skipping University: "I knew if I went to uni, I would just get pissed for three years"

  • The Addictive Nature & Sobriety: 11.5 years sober, how addiction became a work superpower

  • Big 4 & Corporate Career: KPMG, Accenture, CIO at Department for Education, NHS Digital

  • The Trigger to Start: Expensive divorce at 39, financially not in a great place, "right, let's have it"

  • First Exit in Her 20s: Social care software implementation business, £1M revenue year one

  • Building to Sell Intentionally: "What are you building it for?" – the question that terrifies founders

  • Joining Difrent: NHS transformation background, spotting the gap for a health-focused agency

  • The 50% Equity Ask: Approaching Steve with the bold proposition

  • Why Partner vs Start From Scratch: Trading history, government frameworks, speed to transact

  • Exit Strategy From Day One: "Most people shit themselves at the thought of a conversation about exiting" The P2B Investor Origin Story

  • Mistakes Along the Way: Multiple companies under holding group, going too wide on services

  • B2G Sales Reality: No actual selling, just bidding. Slow but you get paid

  • Building the COVID Testing Service: Sunday night call, 24-hour mobilisation, live in 8 days, over 1 million kits shipped

  • The Acquisition Process: First approach November 2019, running a process during pandemic while shielding

  • No Corporate Finance: Father's lawyer, no exiteer support, emotional impact nobody discusses

  • Deal Structure: Cash and shares, 18-month lock-in, 3-year non-compete, listed company share price risk

  • Post-Exit Reality: Family dinner at Villa Giordino, Porsche that lasted 6 months, identity crisis

  • Finding Purpose After Exit: Ukraine aid trips, psychedelic mushroom retreat, wife's ultimatum

  • Building The Grafter: Wanted the service she hadn't had

  • Top 3 Founder Blockers: Working in vs on the business, lack of experienced support, imposter syndrome

  • Entrepreneurship in One Word: "Lively"

  • Three Essential Founder Traits: Coachable, prepared to do the work, emotional intelligence

  • Rebellious vs Coachable: "Coachable is very different to compliant"

  • Biggest Myth About Entrepreneurship: "It's gonna be easy and it is not"



KEY TAKEAWAYS

  1. Build with the end in sight – Rachel set the exit strategy on day one. The team knew from the start that the goal was to sell within five years

  2. Use existing infrastructure to move fast – She joined an existing company rather than starting from scratch to leverage their trading history and government framework access

  3. Double down once you find your niche – Difrent made "so many mistakes" going wide on services before realising that focusing on government and healthcare user-centred design was the winning formula

  4. B2G has advantages over B2B – Government sales are slow but you know you'll get paid. No chasing invoices

  5. Corporate finance isn't enough – Rachel had lawyers but lacked an exited founder to guide her. That gap inspired The Grafter

  6. The emotional impact is real – Nobody talks about how you'll feel after selling. Rachel's identity was tied to the business and she "felt quite heartbroken"

  7. Earn-outs with listed companies carry risk – Share prices can go down as well as up. Brilliant learning, she says

  8. Coachable beats rebellious – The founders who succeed are open to feedback, not those who think they have all the answers

Memorable Quotes

"My sell to him was give me 50% of the shares and we'll get this thing sold in a five year period for an eight figure sum. It was a ballsy move."

"Most people absolutely shit themselves at the thought of a conversation about exiting. I'm really comfortable having that conversation." "I like to be in and out in five years. My brother's run a company for 20 years. That terrifies me."

"Sunday night, 10 o'clock, I took a call from the Chief Clinical Information Officer at the NHS... can you build this service and can you mobilise in 24 hours? And the answer was yes, because I'm an entrepreneur." – Rachel Murphy

"My identity was so heavily linked to that business... I really, really struggled. I felt quite heartbroken with letting the team go."

"This isn't corporate finance or pretty fucking PowerPoints. This is the hard yards sitting alongside in the trenches making it happen."

"My wife said to me, just go back and build another company because it's a combination of heading to war zones or doing plant medicine."

"The biggest myth is it's gonna be easy and it is not... you end up having five jobs and if you're lucky, you're getting paid for one."


Links And Resources Mentioned

Companies:

  • The Grafter – Rachel's current consultancy for founders

  • Difrent – Healthcare and government delivery agency (sold to TPXimpact)

  • TPXimpact – Acquirer of Difrent (listed business)

  • NHS BSA – Client for NHS Jobs platform

    People:

  • Steve Dhillon – Original founder of Difrent, Rachel's business partner

  • Rita Brockless – People Director at Difrent, helped build exit strategy

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