Programs · Search Advisory
Most advisors find you leads. We find you your company.
$57,000 engagement / application only
Full-service, principal-led buy-side representation for searchers and business owners. A principal sits on your side of the table, from thesis to close. Application only.
The engagement
White-glove buy-side advisory
Search Advisory is for acquirers who want the machine run for them. You bring conviction and capital. We bring the system that sources, screens, structures, and closes, with a principal in the room at every step. Engagements target businesses in the $2M to $20M revenue range.
01
Strategy and Thesis
A custom acquisition thesis: buy box, capital plan, and the criteria that let you say no fast.
02
Precision Sourcing
Three to five curated, pre-screened opportunities a month against your thesis. Not a list. A shortlist.
03
Evaluation and Structuring
Underwriting, valuation, and deal structure on every candidate that survives screening.
04
Diligence and Close
Diligence built from the failure record, negotiation support, and close execution.
The terms
The whole fee structure, in writing.
Most firms make you apply to find out what it costs. Here is ours, before you spend a minute on a form.
Engagement total
$57,000
Application fee
$2,000, invoiced if your application moves to evaluation. Nothing is charged when you submit the form.
On acceptance
$25,000 deposit, due within 48 hours
Balance
Paid monthly over 12 months
Success fee
Modified Lehman formula, with your annual retainer credited against it
THE STRUCTURE
Two ways this gets priced. Ours is the one you can read.
The standard buy-side engagement is a monthly retainer plus a success fee calculated on enterprise value. You pay every month the search runs, closed deal or not, and you pay again at the close. The retainer is a cost of doing business. It buys you nothing at the finish line.
Ours is one number, printed above before you fill in a form. Every retainer dollar is credited against the success fee when a deal closes, so you never pay twice for the same work.
Before you sign with anyone, ask three questions. What is the monthly retainer. What is the success fee as a percentage of enterprise value. What happens to the retainer if the deal actually closes. Then compare the answers to what is printed on this page.
THE TWELVE MONTHS
What happens after you wire.
The most reasonable question at this price is what actually occupies the next year. Here is the shape of it. Deals do not run on schedules, so treat the months as sequence rather than as promises.
Thesis and buy box
Your acquisition thesis, the buy box specific enough to query, the capital plan, and the criteria that let you say no in a single call.
Sourcing, monthly
Three to five curated, pre-screened opportunities a month against your thesis, sourced off-market. Not a list you filter. A shortlist someone already argued with.
Underwriting and structure
Earnings quality, working capital, the adjustments a broker buries, then price, structure, and terms. Every candidate that clears screening gets underwritten before it gets an offer.
Diligence and close
The diligence checklist built from the post-mortems, QoE and legal coordination, negotiation support, and close execution with a principal in the room.
THE PRINCIPAL
A principal on every seller call.
Not an analyst pool. Not a junior team working from a script. The person who underwrites your deal is the person in the room with the seller.
That person has also been on the wrong side of a bad one. A merged pair of landscaping companies, $2.5M in revenue, 35 employees, and eight months later a business bankruptcy, more than $1M in personally guaranteed debt, and a settlement that cost his family its home. What came next was 60+ interviews with failed and struggling buyers, written down.
That corpus is the screen your candidates run through. Most advisors learned diligence from deals that closed. This screen was built from the ones that did not.
Read the whole storyPLAINLY
What this page cannot show you.
Most advisory sites open with a wall of closed-deal logos. This one does not have that wall. The practice is new, and dressing it up would be the first red flag on our own list.
What we can do is publish everything else before you spend a dollar: the entire fee structure, the incentives sitting behind it, the process month by month, and the screen every candidate runs through. Compare that against the last advisory site you read.
If a track record is the thing you need before you hire someone, that is a reasonable thing to need. Wait, and hire on evidence.
Questions
Straight answers.
How many deals have you closed for advisory clients?
None yet. The advisory practice is new. The sourcing, screening, and underwriting systems behind it are the ones already taught and used in the school, and the principal has bought, operated, and lost a business of his own. If you want a firm with a closed-deal list, that is a fair requirement and this is not that firm yet.
What is the $2,000 application fee for?
It pays for the evaluation itself: reading your thesis, pressure-testing the buy box, and telling you straight whether the mandate is one we can run. Nothing is charged when you submit the form. It is invoiced only if your application moves to evaluation, and only after you agree to proceed.
What is a modified Lehman formula?
A success fee that steps down as the deal gets bigger: a higher percentage on the first tranche of enterprise value, lower on each tranche above it. It is the standard structure in lower middle market M&A. Your annual retainer is credited against it, so the $57,000 comes off the success fee rather than sitting on top of it.
What happens if no deal closes?
You keep the thesis, the buy box, the target list, and every underwriting file we built, and you owe no success fee because there was no success. That is the point of paying for the work rather than only for the transaction: walking away from a bad deal costs us nothing and saves you everything.
Do you ever take a fee from the seller?
No. We sit on one side of the table, and it is yours. An advisor paid by both sides is not an advisor.
What size deals is this for?
Businesses in the $2M to $20M revenue range. Below that the economics do not justify the engagement and you are better served by the community and the Academy. Above it you want a bank.
The application
Bring the thesis. Or bring the ambition and we will build it.
There is a $2,000 application fee for engagements that move to evaluation. Nothing is charged when you submit this form; the fee is invoiced after we review your application and agree to proceed.