Founder retires at 28 after selling startup for Rs 106 crore: 'Wanted to focus more on my family'

In 2023, Nathanael Farrelly sold his startup but stayed at the company for a year and a half before taking a 'family sabbatical'. (Representational image: Unsplash)

Nathanael Farrelly became a registered nurse at 21. The Florida resident had launched a home infusion therapy company at 24, only to sell it for $12.5 million (about Rs 106 crore) four years later. Now, the 29-year-old retired entrepreneur, who has a net worth of around $14 million (about Rs 119 crore), lives with his pregnant wife and three children with ample time to devote to his family.

Farelly's company, Revitalize, supplied nurses to provide treatments like antibiotics or IV medications in patients’ homes. He had started the business in 2020, during the Covis pandemic when there was a massive demand for such services, and right from its early days, Farrelly told CNBC Make It that he began getting calls from private equity firms “wanting to acquire my company for a million [dollars], a couple million.” He, however, did not entertain the proposals. “I knew it wasn’t the right time."

He decided to sell the startup only when he realised it couldn’t keep growing on its current trajectory without external help and noted that a larger company could better support his nurses. “I started to really think about the next season of my life,” he told the publication. “I wanted to focus more on my family.”

In 2023, Farrelly sold Revitalize to one of the largest infusion companies in the US for $12.5 million (about Rs 106 crore) and stayed at the company for a year and a half before taking a “family sabbatical”. Now, he is a stay-at-home parent who is expecting his fourth child.

“That was the true exit for me,” Farrelly told CNBC Make It. He added that the decision allowed him to “really focus on family,” as well as self-development.

Currently, besides enjoying his retirement, Farrelly has become an angel investor and is backing a friend’s coffee company and a fitness app.