I know what the buyer's diligence team will find. Better that you find it first.
I ran financial due diligence for corporate and private equity buyers, then built and ran corporate development on the other side of the table. I now advise a small number of companies preparing to be sold — and companies preparing to buy.
Advice with nothing riding on the outcome
No success fee
An advisor paid on completion has a view on whether you should transact. I don’t. My fee is fixed and agreed upfront, and it is the same whether you sell, buy, or decide to do neither.
Buy-side eyes
Most exit preparation is done by people who have never sat on the buyer’s side of a data room. Everything I look for is something I have previously used to argue a price down.
Deliberately small
I take a limited number of engagements alongside a full-time finance leadership role. You work with me, not with an associate who was assigned to you.
The questions travel. The earnings quality is what moves.
Diligence and corporate development travel. The questions are the same whether revenue is contracted subscriptions, project work, or volume through a distribution network — what changes is where the earnings quality actually sits.
I have worked across software, industrials, energy and consumer goods, and I will tell you plainly if a sector is far enough outside that experience that you would be better served elsewhere.
Two engagements, run properly
Sell-Side Readiness
For companies six to eighteen months from a process. We find what the buyer’s diligence will find, while there is still time to fix it rather than pay for it.
Fractional Corporate Development
For companies growing by acquisition without an in-house deal team. Strategy, pipeline, first-pass diligence, valuation and the board memorandum — run properly, without hiring a department.
Start with a conversation
Thirty minutes, no charge, no pitch. Tell me what you are considering and roughly when. I will tell you whether this work is worth doing now, later, or not at all — and if I am not the right person for it, I will say so and point you to someone who is.