If the first time you are speaking with a corp dev exec from a large potential acquirer is at the start of or during a sale process, it’s already too late. Hours of relationship building with the potential acquirers (corp dev AND relevant business unit execs) should already have been invested into prior to any formal sale process. This begs a few questions: 1) should you speak with corp dev teams? 2) when? 3) how much should you share with them? and ultimately 4) what is the difference in corporate development vs. exit validation?