Perspectives
Written analysis on M&A, valuation, and deal execution — for founders who value substance.
Valuation
What Your Company Is Worth: A Founder's Guide to EBITDA Multiples in 2026
How buyers translate profit into price — and what moves your multiple by a full turn.
Read →When a 409A Isn't Enough: Choosing the Right Valuation Standard
409A, fair market value, fair value, investment value — the standard determines the number as much as the business does.
Read →Why Every Owner Over 55 Needs an Independent Valuation Report — Even If You're Not Selling
The seven scenarios that require a defensible number, and the cost of not having one when the scenario arrives.
Read →ESOP Feasibility: When an Employee Stock Ownership Plan Is the Right Exit
How to evaluate whether an ESOP is a viable path for your business — before you spend six figures on structuring.
Read →M&A Market
Sell-Side Timing: Reading the Middle-Market M&A Cycle
The three signals that matter more than the S&P 500 when deciding whether to bring your company to market.
Read →Independent Sponsors vs. Committed Capital: What Sellers Should Know
Not every buyer with a term sheet has the money in hand. Here is how to tell — and how to protect yourself.
Read →The Silver Tsunami: Why 2.9 Million Boomer-Owned Businesses Will Change Hands This Decade
The largest intergenerational transfer of private business ownership in U.S. history is under way — and the window for owners to shape their outcome is narrower than most assume.
Read →Selling a Business in Texas: What Houston, Dallas, and Austin Owners Should Know in 2026
Why the Texas middle market is one of the most active in the country — and how to run a process that captures the premium.
Read →Deal Process
Quality of Earnings, Explained: What Buyers Will Test and How to Prepare
The single most common cause of retrading is a QoE that surfaces adjustments a seller could have identified first.
Read →Working Capital Pegs, Earn-Outs, and Escrow: The Post-LOI Fine Print
Headline price gets the champagne. These three mechanisms decide how much of it you actually keep.
Read →The Retirement Cliff: How Unprepared Sell-Side Preparation Destroys Boomer Exits
The five preparation failures that cost boomer owners more value at closing than any single term in the definitive agreement.
Read →ESOP, Family Transfer, or Third-Party Sale? A Boomer Owner's Decision Framework
Three viable paths, three different definitions of a good outcome. A framework for choosing between them before the market chooses for you.
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