Insights
Straight talk for owners and dealmakers.
Operator-grade thinking on the deals big firms won't touch: what actually moves the price of a business, how a buyer reads your earnings, and how to be ready before you go to market. Written by the people doing the work. No pitch, and we add to it over time.
Start here
If you read three things.
Article
Two owners. Same profit. Very different price.
Two owners sold the same year with profit within rounding distance of each other, and walked away with very different checks. The gap was never the earnings number. It was how provable, how durable and how transferable those earnings were, and all three are things an owner controls.
Field Guides & Whitepapers
Institutional guides, free to read.
Downloadable, plain-spoken guides for owners and deal teams. Built to the standard of the ones the big firms hand their clients.
Field Guide
Bought, Not Sold
The owner’s guide to the five things a buyer scores before they pay, with an honest self-assessment. Read it in full on the site, or download the printed edition.
Field Guide
Getting to Yes on Capital
Why the answer is usually the package, not the business, and what a lender or investor opens first. The owner's guide to being fundable.
Field Guide
What a Buyer Checks
Proof of cash, add-backs, revenue quality, and working capital: the buyer's-eye read of your earnings, and how to get ahead of the retrade before you list.
More guides are on the way. Want one we have not published yet? Ask us.
Articles
Field notes on value, earnings, and getting ready.
Jared Luegers, CFA · 25 March 2025 · 11 min read
RIA Enterprise Valuation: What Drives It
Valuation in the RIA space comes down to what buyers will pay and why. Organic growth, margin discipline, client age, niche expertise and team depth move the number more than headline AUM, and the multiple shifts sharply across the size spectrum, with mid-tier platforms drawing the strongest interest.
Jared Luegers, CFA · 17 March 2025 · 6 min read
The RIA CFO Role: From Cost Center to Value Driver
As an RIA scales from $200 million to $2 billion in AUM, finance has to stop being a back-office cost center. The modern CFO partners with the CEO on capital, pricing and growth decisions, using real-time data rather than closing the books and filing them.
Selected Work
What the work looks like.
Named, client-approved case studies go here as engagements close. Until then, an illustrative walk-through shows the format and the kind of read we deliver. We never manufacture proof.
A Quick Self-Check
Twelve questions a buyer will ask before you sell.
If you can answer these cleanly, you are closer to ready than most. If a few make you wince, that is your punch list, and better to find it now than at the closing table.
If you, or your key person, were gone for a month, what would break?
Can you tie every dollar of profit you claim to the bank account?
Which add-backs could you defend to a skeptical buyer, out loud?
What share of revenue rides on your single biggest customer?
How much of the revenue recurs, versus starts from zero each year?
Who makes the day-to-day decisions when you are not there?
Is the plan written down, or is it in your head?
Could you raise price 10% and keep nearly every customer?
Do the monthly numbers close cleanly, and on time?
What is the business actually worth, and what would you net after the deal?
Who are the two or three most likely buyers, and why?
What will you do the day after the check clears?
get started
Reading is a start. A conversation is faster.
Book a straight call with both partners, no pitch.