How far in advance should exit readiness work begin?

Twelve to twenty-four months before an intended process is typical. Most value-relevant issues — customer concentration, contract terms, key-person dependency, reporting quality — take several quarters to address credibly.

Do you replace a corporate finance adviser or lawyer?

No. We work alongside them. Our role is preparation, strategic judgement and operator-level insight into structure, terms and integration; the mandated advisers run execution and legal work.

We have received an unsolicited approach. What should we do first?

Establish what shareholders want before engaging substantively, and understand your own value drivers and vulnerabilities. Responding to a buyer's process without that groundwork transfers control of the timetable and the narrative.

Do you support buy-side as well as sell-side?

Yes. We support acquisition strategy, target identification, commercial assessment, structure considerations and integration planning for companies growing through acquisition.

What most commonly reduces value during a process?

Surprises. Contracts that do not say what management believed, revenue that is less durable than reported, undocumented equity arrangements and inconsistent reporting. Nearly all of it is avoidable with preparation.

Service 04

M&A and strategic advisory for founders

Transactions concentrate years of decisions into a few months. What determines the outcome is rarely the process itself — it is whether the company was built to be bought, whether the numbers and contracts hold up, and whether the leadership team knows what it actually wants. We work with founders and boards well before a process begins, and stay with them through it.

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Who this is for

Founders considering a sale, partial exit or investor liquidity event
Companies pursuing acquisitions as part of a growth strategy
Boards weighing strategic options against continued independent growth
Leadership teams navigating unsolicited approaches
Management teams preparing for post-deal integration

Common triggers

An inbound approach from a trade buyer or financial sponsor
Shareholders with divergent views on timing and outcome
A market consolidating faster than organic growth can match
An acquisition opportunity that would change the operating model
A previous process that surfaced avoidable diligence issues

Our approach

How we work through it.

01 —

Clarify the objective

Value, timing, continuity, team outcomes and what each shareholder actually needs. Processes fail most often because these were never made explicit at the start.

02 —

Build exit readiness early

Contract quality, revenue durability, customer concentration, key-person dependency, IP position, reporting integrity and governance. These are built over quarters, not fixed in diligence.

03 —

Position the equity story

How the business is framed to a specific buyer type, why it is worth more inside their portfolio, and where the value creation logic sits — supported by evidence rather than assertion.

04 —

Support the process

Buyer or target identification, information preparation, management meeting readiness, diligence coordination with your corporate finance and legal advisers, and structure and terms interpretation from an operator's point of view.

05 —

Plan integration or separation

Day one, first hundred days, and the operating decisions that determine whether the deal thesis survives contact with the combined organisation.

Typical deliverables

Strategic options review and shareholder alignment
Exit readiness assessment and remediation plan
Equity story and positioning for target buyer types
Buyer or acquisition target mapping
Diligence preparation and information management support
Structure, terms and offer evaluation support
Integration or separation planning and board advisory

Relevant experience

Our transaction work draws on executing and supporting buy-side and sell-side processes, institutional fundraising, public listings and post-deal integration, alongside board and advisory roles with founder-led companies and institutional investors across EMEA and North America.

More about our operator-led model

Engagement example

Anonymised illustration — editable content block

Context

A founder-led business that received an unsolicited approach with no prior preparation and no shareholder alignment on timing or outcome.

What we did

We established what each shareholder needed, ran an exit readiness assessment that surfaced concentration and contract issues, sequenced remediation, and supported the board through evaluation of the approach against continued independent growth.

Outcome

The board made an informed decision on timing with a clear view of value drivers and risks, rather than reacting to the approach on the buyer's timetable.

FAQs

Questions we are asked often.

How far in advance should exit readiness work begin?: Twelve to twenty-four months before an intended process is typical. Most value-relevant issues — customer concentration, contract terms, key-person dependency, reporting quality — take several quarters to address credibly.
Do you replace a corporate finance adviser or lawyer?: No. We work alongside them. Our role is preparation, strategic judgement and operator-level insight into structure, terms and integration; the mandated advisers run execution and legal work.
We have received an unsolicited approach. What should we do first?: Establish what shareholders want before engaging substantively, and understand your own value drivers and vulnerabilities. Responding to a buyer's process without that groundwork transfers control of the timetable and the narrative.
Do you support buy-side as well as sell-side?: Yes. We support acquisition strategy, target identification, commercial assessment, structure considerations and integration planning for companies growing through acquisition.
What most commonly reduces value during a process?: Surprises. Contracts that do not say what management believed, revenue that is less durable than reported, undocumented equity arrangements and inconsistent reporting. Nearly all of it is avoidable with preparation.

Talk to us about m&a & strategic advisory.

Tell us where you are and what decision is in front of you. We will tell you honestly whether we are the right people to help.

Start a conversation