Lessons from selling Seneca, building a defensible business, and what AI means for the future of exits.

It's never been easier to build a startup with AI. But does that make it harder to build one worth buying?

Join Ramen Club for a candid fireside chat with Stephen Wilks, who co-founded and exited Seneca Learning and is now co-founder and CEO of Novabook.

We'll unpack what actually makes a company attractive to buyers, the mistakes founders make when thinking about exits, and whether traditional startup moats still matter in an AI-first world.

What to expect

  • Inside the Seneca exit – How the business was built, what made it attractive to a buyer, and what Stephen learnt from the process.

  • What buyers really value – Beyond revenue and growth, what makes a startup worth acquiring?

  • The exit mistakes founders make – What gets overlooked, what can derail a deal, and what Stephen would do differently.

  • Are startup moats disappearing? – If AI makes products easier to build and copy, where does defensibility come from?

  • Build to sell or build to last? – How to create a valuable business without becoming obsessed with an exit.

Meet Stephen Wilks

Former Co-founder, Seneca Learning | Co-founder & CEO, Novabook

Stephen studied Economics & Management at Oxford before joining Morgan Stanley in 2015. Afterwards, he started an EdTech company (Seneca) which grew to 15 million users, 5 million MAU and reached profitability by 2019. Seneca was acquired by GoStudent in 2022 and for 2 years, Stephen ran GoStudent's AI efforts internally and worked in their Finance team. In 2024, the same leadership team from Seneca launched Novabook, which is an AI-first Professional Services firm, initially focused on offering accountancy services to SMEs.

The format

A relaxed, no-fluff fireside chat hosted by Charlie Ward of Ramen Club, followed by an open audience Q&A.

Bring your questions about exits, acquisitions, AI, defensibility and building long-term value.

Join us for a conversation about what makes startups valuable and what might make yours worth buying.

About Novabook

Novabook is the accountant for startups. We give founders access to the best UK accountants to handle all your payroll, book-keeping, and accounting, and we have a team based in London that you can call anytime. Alongside working with our wonderful team, we have built a software platform to automate all of the admin that we hated as founders. Think automatic invoice ingestion, receipt capture and the like. We aim to save founders time and money whilst providing the best accounting service to UK businesses.

Taking place at Ramen Space in Dalston, home to the Ramen Club founder community.