Indiana’s diligence and operating partner firm
We prove what a
business earns. And how
to make it worth more.
LIMESTONE Strategic Partners runs fixed-fee quality of earnings and diligence for buyers and sellers of businesses earning roughly $500K to $5M of EBITDA, delivered in 10 to 25 business days, with a CPA and an operator on every engagement. Owners who want the work to continue keep us on as their embedded CFO and operating partner. Indiana-rooted, serving buyers and owners nationwide.
100+
Quality of earnings reviews, buy and sell side
$500K to $5M
of EBITDA, the businesses and deals we serve
10 to 25
business days from the last critical item to delivery
CPA + operator
on every engagement, from scoping to delivery
Start Where You Are
Which one is you?
Two Ways To Work With Us
Start with a project. Grow into a partnership.
Hire us for one fixed-fee project, such as a quality of earnings or an Exit Readiness Review, or put us in the CFO and operating partner seats every month.
Deal Services · Fixed fee
When a deal or a decision
is on the table
Each is one fixed fee, quoted in writing after a scoping call, for deals of roughly $500K to $5M of EBITDA, delivered in 10 to 25 business days from the last critical item.
- Quality of earnings, buy-side or sell-side
- Operational due diligence
- Capital and lender readiness
Embedded · Ongoing
When you want it to run without you, and be worth more when you sell
The CFO seat, the operating partner seat, or both, with you every month on a six-month minimum. The CFO owns the numbers. The operating partner drives the value plan and the decisions that have to move off you.
- Embedded CFO and Operating Partner
- Exit Readiness Partnership
- Take one seat or both
Deal Services
The numbers, tested. The operation, read.
LIMESTONE runs fixed-fee quality of earnings and operational due diligence for buyers and sellers of businesses earning roughly $500K to $5M of EBITDA, quoted in writing after a scoping call and delivered in 10 to 25 business days. We show the add-backs we reject, and we name the seats a buyer will price.
Quality of Earnings
Operational Due Diligence
Exit Readiness Review
The Value Gap
Same profit. Very different price.
Two businesses can earn the same profit and sell for very different prices. A business that runs through the owner tends to trade nearer 3 to 4 times profit. A lower-risk, buyer-ready one commonly trades at 5 to 6 times, sometimes more. The difference is the risk a buyer sees. We close that gap on purpose. A buyer-ready business gets bought on your terms. The rest get sold on the buyer’s, or do not sell at all.
The Problem
Sound familiar?
If the owner were gone Monday, what would the next 90 days look like? Ask it about your business, or the one you are about to buy.
A buyer is at the table and the numbers have to hold
The buyer’s reviewer will tie your earnings to the bank and test every add-back. We do that first, and we show you what fails.
You are buying a business on the seller’s numbers
Everything you know about it came from the person selling it. We test the numbers against the bank and read the operation, then tell you the thing that matters: whether the earnings survive the handoff.
You’re a few years out and not ready
A buyer prices the business on the day the reviewer opens the books. Two years is enough time to change most of what they will find, and to be worth more when you sell.
The business runs through you
A buyer will ask what breaks in the first month without you. We map the seats that depend on you and the order to fix them.
The Embedded Model
An operating partner and a CFO. In the business with you.
Most embedded engagements start with what a project found: a quality of earnings, an Exit Readiness Review, an operational read. Those findings become the value plan, and the two seats run it from inside the business. The operating partner drives the plan; the CFO owns the numbers. One seat or both. Your team still reports to you.
Operating Partner
Owns the value plan and keeps it moving: the levers the work sized, the leaders and seats it takes, the decisions that have to move off you. Brings in the specialists where the plan needs them, and stays accountable for the result.
CFO
A monthly close by a set day, with commentary you can read. A 13-week cash view, updated weekly. Add-backs written down when they happen, so a buyer’s reviewer finds them documented.
Specialist partners
Process documentation, systems and data, and AI once the operation is written down run through specialist partners we choose and manage. The first job is making the business visible enough to show what has to change and what can. The plan, and the accountability, stay with us.
The Work, In Practice
What changes when we get in the numbers.
They fully embedded themselves into our business, helping us navigate complex decisions and significantly accelerating our path to market readiness. LIMESTONE’s proactive, comprehensive support has been invaluable.
They’re not just financial advisors, they roll up their sleeves and get involved in every aspect of the business. What really sets LIMESTONE apart is that they operate like true partners, not outsiders.
Jared has shown consistent knowledge in the finance and scaling of our company. We have three complex divisions and his ability to navigate and create factual strategies has been a great help.
The Team
You’re hiring Jared and Ryan.
Ryan Anoskey, CPA, has more than ten years in audit and transaction advisory, has run more than 100 quality of earnings reviews, buy-side and sell-side, and spent eighteen months in corporate finance at Roche Diagnostics, forecasting demand and pricing through a category disruption.
Jared Luegers, CFA, spent nearly six years in equity research analyzing businesses and their financials, then moved to the operating side: inside an independent sponsor’s businesses through the $190 million sale of Gladieux Energy and the $3.2 million purchase of a raw pet food producer, and on the executive team of a $9 billion Indiana RIA. He has led professional organizations across Indiana, from CFA Society Indianapolis to OWN Indiana, which he founded.
Founder and Managing Partner
Jared Luegers, CFA
Jasper, Indiana · IU Kelley School of Business
Partner
Ryan Anoskey, CPA
Evansville, Indiana · IU Kelley School of Business
The Free Foundation Check
See where your business stands, in about ten minutes.
Answer a few questions and see your Foundation Score: how your business rates on the five things a buyer prices, and the one weak link worth fixing first. Free, and yours to keep. Self-rated and directional; never a valuation.
A · Clean numbers
B · Runs without you
C · Leadership bench
D · Market and product
E · Deal-ready
Straight Answers
Questions people ask first
Deal services are fixed-fee, quoted as one fee in writing after a short scoping call. Light reviews start at $10,000, Core at $15,000 and Full at $25,000, sell-side or buy-side. A Red-Flag Screen starts at $5,000 and is credited toward a full engagement. Light and Red-Flag are paid in full at signing; Core and Full are half at signing and half at delivery. No part of the fee moves with the findings or with whether the deal closes. Embedded work is a monthly engagement, scoped to the seats you take.
It depends on the scope, and we count in business days from Day 1: the later of the last critical item on our request list and cleared payment, never from signing. A Red-Flag Screen takes about 5 business days; Light and Core run 10 to 15 business days, and Full 10 to 20. A rush, at an added fee, delivers inside 10 business days. Incomplete records are the most common reason a timeline slips. If you are on a shorter clock, say so up front and we will tell you honestly whether we can hit it.
We work for the party that engages us. Our conclusions do not depend on whether the deal closes, we take no success fee, and we never work both sides of a transaction. If a number does not hold up it goes in the report, including when that is inconvenient for the party paying us. Our read only helps if it is honest, so we show the add-backs we reject.
No. Your CPA keeps the reporting, tax and compliance right. Your broker runs the sale. We do the forward-looking finance, the operating work and the readiness in between, and we work alongside both. Different jobs. We are not brokers or investment bankers.
No. Most people start with a single, fixed-fee deal service, a quality of earnings or an Exit Readiness Review. If it makes sense to keep us on as your CFO and operating partner afterward, we can. If what you need is bookkeeping or steady-state back-office help, we will point you somewhere better.
get started
Indiana limestone built the most enduring structures in America.
We work with the owners building Indiana’s most enduring businesses, and on deals anywhere in the country. Send us the deal or the decision. A thirty-minute call, then one fee in writing.