If you want to understand how deals really get priced, stop looking only at the headline number. Founders often fixate on valuation as a single figure—enterprise value, purchase price, multiple. Buyers see it very differently. …
Founder dependency is one of the most common—and least understood—reasons buyers discount valuation. It’s also one of the hardest for founders to hear. After all, dependency is often the very thing that created the business. …
Cyber risk used to sit on the margins of M&A diligence. Today, it’s front and center—and for good reason. A decade ago, buyers worried about firewalls and backups. Now they worry about ransomware, data exfiltration, …
Few valuation discounts feel more personal to founders than this one. You’ve built the company. You’ve led the growth. You’ve made the hard calls. And now a buyer is telling you—sometimes indirectly, sometimes bluntly—that the …
Founders tend to think about contracts as operating tools—agreements that helped the business grow, land customers, secure vendors, or hire talent. Buyers look at those same contracts very differently. To them, contracts are future obligations …
Few things derail M&A momentum faster—or more quietly—than uncertainty around intellectual property ownership. Founders are often surprised by how intensely buyers scrutinize IP. “We built it,” they’ll say. “It’s ours.” From an operating standpoint, that …
Environmental and regulatory risk rarely announces itself as a deal-killer. It shows up quietly—through cautious questions, expanded diligence scopes, heavier indemnities, and valuation models that suddenly feel more conservative than founders expect. I’ve seen strong …
Few topics make founders more uncomfortable in M&A conversations than customer concentration. It’s not because founders don’t understand the issue. It’s because they do—and they know buyers will care deeply. I’ve worked with many founders …
Founders often treat litigation as a side issue in M&A—something the lawyers will “deal with” once a deal is already in motion. Buyers don’t see it that way. To them, litigation and legal exposure aren’t …
Reverse mergers tend to live in a strange corner of the M&A world. They’re not quite traditional acquisitions. They’re not IPOs. And they’re often misunderstood by founders who hear about them secondhand—usually framed as a …