A disciplined, repeatable engagement sequence.
From your first conversation through final findings and follow-up, our process is built to protect your interests and your decision quality, not to move the transaction forward for its own sake.
Initial Fit & Engagement Formation
Initial Fit Consultation
A no-pressure conversation to understand your target, deal stage, timeline, financing approach, and available information, and to confirm we can provide meaningful, independent value. We'll also flag any conflicts of interest before proceeding.
Written Engagement Agreement
Substantive work begins only after a written agreement defining scope, deliverables, fees, confidentiality, and professional boundaries. Nothing discussed beforehand creates a consulting relationship.
Kickoff
We confirm the decision being evaluated, timeline, key participants, deal stage, known concerns, available documents, missing information, and the outside professionals (attorney, CPA, lender, etc.) already involved.
Discovery & Analysis
Information Request & Evidence Classification
We build a document request list and classify every material input (Verified, Partially Verified, Seller-Reported, Assumed, or Not Yet Verified) so you always know what's solid and what isn't.
Reconciliation & Contradiction Testing
We reconcile material financial and operational information across sources, and actively look for contradictions and missing items rather than assuming consistency.
Financial, Operational, Legal-Risk & Strategic Analysis
We analyze the business across every applicable area: financial reliability, revenue quality, operations, management dependence, legal and licensing exposure, insurance and safety, market position, transaction economics, and transition risk.
Bias & Quality Review
Before anything is finalized, we test our own conclusions for confirmation, anchoring, optimism, recency, and deal-fever bias, and ask what would have to be true for the recommendation to change.
Findings, Recommendation & Follow-Up
Findings & Recommendation
We walk you through the material findings, a confidence view of the evidence behind them, and a primary recommendation: Proceed, Proceed with Conditions, Renegotiate, Pause Pending Additional Information, or Do Not Proceed.
Closing Discussion
We walk through the most important findings, remaining unknowns, conditions to proceed, questions for your other professionals, and what would change the recommendation.
Follow-Up
We remain available to respond to newly received information, help you interpret a specialist's opinion, or support a post-closing transition review if separately engaged.
A fee structure that scales with the stage of your deal.
To keep costs proportionate to where you are in the process, engagements can begin with hourly consultation during early-stage evaluation, then move to a fee-based structure once a Letter of Intent (LOI), Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), or Indication of Interest (IOI) is accepted. This lets you get guidance early without committing to a larger fee before a deal has real momentum.
Client-friendly terms: Acquisitions don't always move forward, and that's not a failure on your part. Our fee arrangement is built with client-friendly cancellation terms if a transaction is derailed early in the process, so you're not locked into fees for work that's no longer needed.
This is a general overview only. See your final fee schedule, invoicing terms, and engagement agreement for complete details.