By the time Joshua Kirshbaum co-founded Impact Ventures International (IVI) with Kelly Grandmaison, he had already guided businesses through multimillion-dollar exits, restructured organizations across four continents, and spent 15 years watching the same structural gaps surface in companies of every size and sector.
IVI was designed to close those gaps, not through advisory reports or periodic check-ins, but through a fully integrated system of programs that rebuilds how businesses operate, scale, and transfer ownership.
The firm operates across the United States, Canada, Europe, and Latin America, serving founders, family offices, and mid-sized enterprises at various stages of growth and transition. Its model is built on three interconnected programs, each addressing a distinct layer of the problem most business owners face when they try to reduce their personal dependency on their own companies.
CEPA: Structuring Businesses For High-Value Exits
The Certified Exit Planning Advisor program (CEPA) is IVI’s framework for preparing business owners for ownership transitions well before those transitions become necessary. Most exit planning engagements begin when a sale is already imminent, which leaves little time to address the structural and financial factors that determine valuation. IVI’s approach inverts that sequence.
CEPA-certified work begins years before any transaction, focusing on enterprise value optimization, risk reduction, ownership documentation, and aligning personal and business financial strategies into a single, coherent plan. The result is a company that enters any transition process, whether a planned sale, a generational transfer, or an unexpected forced exit, already positioned to command its full market value.
The distinction matters in practical terms. A business with documented systems, diversified revenue, clean financial records, and a clear succession structure attracts stronger buyers, supports higher valuations, and closes faster than one that has been prepared reactively. IVI’s CEPA program builds that foundation over time rather than attempting to construct it under the pressure of an active deal.
“We ensure that when the time comes, owners have options, not obligations,” Kirshbaum mentions.
VentureMax360: Removing The Owner As The Bottleneck
VentureMax360 is IVI’s operational scaling program. It targets the single most common structural weakness in privately held businesses: the concentration of critical knowledge, decision-making, and client relationships in the founder. Businesses built around a single individual are inherently fragile, and that fragility shows up in valuation, operational efficiency, and the owner’s ability to take time off without the company deteriorating.
VM360 follows a structured process of systems documentation, workflow automation, and operational restructuring, using AI-driven analytics to identify where owner dependency is highest and hands-on consulting to implement the changes needed to redistribute it. Clients who complete the program report businesses that perform consistently regardless of the founder’s day-to-day involvement. “If you left your business for 30 days, would it still be thriving when you got back?” Kirshbaum shares, pointing to the question he often asks his clients. “If the answer is no, that’s the problem we fix.“
The program runs alongside IVI’s CEPA work, with the two designed to reinforce each other. A business that has removed its operational dependency on the founder is also structurally easier to value, document, and transition, which means VM360 directly supports the exit-planning outcomes CEPA is working toward.
IVSS Digital Office: The Operational Backbone
The IVSS Digital Office is the technology layer that supports both programs. An integrated CRM, operations management, and client retention platform, it provides the infrastructure that allows businesses to run efficiently through periods of leadership change, rapid growth, or ownership transition.
Most businesses arriving at IVI are operating across multiple disconnected tools, using separate systems for client management, sales tracking, financial reporting, and internal communication. IVSS consolidates that infrastructure into a single automated environment.
The practical effect is a reduction in the administrative burden that typically falls on founders, freeing them to focus on high-value decisions rather than operational maintenance. It also creates the kind of documented, system-driven operating environment that supports strong business valuations and clean due diligence processes during a sale.
Together, CEPA, VM360, and the IVSS Digital Office form a system rather than a menu of services. Each program addresses a different dimension of the same underlying problem, and each produces outcomes that make the others more effective. IVI coordinates the full process directly alongside clients, working with their existing legal, financial, and operational advisors to ensure alignment across every element of the engagement.
“We don’t hand you a plan and walk away,” Kirshbaum emphasizes. “We build it with you, implement it with you, and stay until it holds.”
