Find what matters
Challenge add-backs, assumptions, customer concentration, working capital, capex, and other issues that can affect value.
Engineer · MBA · Executive Operator · M&A and Diligence Expert
Make the deal clearer before it gets expensive.
Buying or selling a business is a major financial and personal decision. I help buyers and owners understand what the numbers, risks, and deal terms actually mean — and how they affect value, cash flow, negotiation leverage, and closing risk.
Fewer surprises. Better leverage. More confidence in the deal.
Turn findings into leverage
Quantify the impact and turn it into better questions, stronger negotiation positions, and clearer decisions.
Take work off your plate
Organize diligence, model scenarios, chase down questions, and coordinate with legal, accounting, and technical specialists.
Financial & Transaction Diligence
What do the numbers actually mean for your deal?
I focus on the financial and operating questions that can change what you pay, what you receive, how a deal is structured, or whether it still makes sense.
Validate assumptions before they become expensive surprises.
- Are the add-backs real and repeatable?
- What happens if sales drop, margins move, or capex is higher?
- Is customer concentration or owner dependence carrying the valuation?
- What findings should change price, structure, or negotiation strategy?
Prepare the financial and operating story before buyer questions become retrades.
- Can normalized earnings and add-backs be defended?
- Does the data room support the story being sold?
- What working-capital, capex, customer, or margin questions will buyers ask?
- What needs to be cleaned up before diligence slows the deal down?
Scope: not a QoE, audit, tax opinion, or legal opinion. The focus is on economic implications, specialist questions, valuation impact, and negotiation strategy.
Financial statement interrogation
Valuation & add-backs
Modeling & stress testing
Issue clarification
Before the Deal Gets Complicated
Get clear on the business before price and terms harden.
Thinking About Buying?
Know what you are buying before you inherit the surprises.
I can help pressure-test the seller's story, frame a valuation range, and identify the assumptions and risks that should influence price, structure, or what you need to learn next.
Buyer readiness review
- Does the price hold up under normalized earnings and realistic assumptions?
- Which customers, margins, add-backs, capex, or working-capital assumptions matter most?
- What risks should affect the LOI or deal structure?
- What questions need answers before you commit more time or capital?
Thinking About Selling?
Find out whether the business is ready before buyers do.
You have spent years building the business. Before going to market, I can help determine whether the financial story is ready, what buyers are likely to challenge, and what should be cleaned up, supported, or explained before it affects price or credibility.
Pre-sale readiness review
- Is the asking price supported by normalized earnings and realistic assumptions?
- Are add-backs documented and defensible?
- Will customer concentration, owner dependence, capex, or working capital create questions?
- Do the financials, tax returns, and operating story line up?
- What should be fixed or better supported before the business goes to market?
Where the Work Creates Value
Useful before LOI and after LOI — on both sides of the deal.
For Buyers
For Sellers
Pre-LOI
- Pressure-test the CIM and seller narrative before putting a number on the table.
- Build a valuation range and identify which assumptions are doing the most work.
- Spot risks that should affect offer structure — seller financing, holdbacks, earn-outs, or other protections.
- Help decide what still needs to be known before submitting an LOI.
- Help determine a defensible asking price.
- Polish the financial and operating story before going to market.
- Identify weak add-backs, inconsistencies, or obvious buyer objections before they surface.
- Prepare support for valuation, normalized earnings, and growth assumptions.
Post-LOI
- Validate the assumptions used to justify the offer.
- Reconcile financials, tax returns, and supporting information.
- Quantify issues that could affect price, structure, or willingness to close.
- Turn diligence findings into negotiation leverage and targeted follow-up questions.
- Organize supporting documents and respond efficiently to buyer questions.
- Explain financial results in a way that is accurate and favorable to the seller.
- Model future cash flows and scenarios to support growth or valuation claims.
- Reduce avoidable retrades, delays, and confusion during diligence.
Translate the Deal Team
Understand what your advisors are telling you — and what it means for the business.
Lawyers, accountants, lenders, brokers, and technical specialists all look at a transaction through different lenses. I help connect those perspectives and translate the jargon into clear business implications.
The question is not just “what did the lawyer or accountant say?” It is “what does that mean for value, cash flow, risk, structure, and the next decision?”
I work alongside the existing deal team — not in place of it — and help keep the client informed, organized, and focused on the issues that matter most.
Relevant Experience
Operator judgment, not just spreadsheet analysis.
Engineer + MBA | Former SVP / Partner | PE-backed operating experience
Former SVP / Partner in a PE-backed company built through mergers and acquisitions, with experience across asset deals, equity transactions, custom commercial structures, and multidisciplinary deal teams.
Led teams across engineering, operations, commercial, finance, administration, and outside advisors.
Built and reviewed economics, valuation assumptions, operating forecasts, and downside cases.
Worked directly with boards, executives, lawyers, accountants, technical experts, and operators to get deals closed.
Applied the same framework recently to lower-middle-market acquisitions across several industries.
Engagement Model & Value
Built to work alongside the advisors already on the deal.
Engagements can be direct with a buyer or seller, or contracted through counsel or another transaction professional when appropriate. Scope is tailored to deal size, diligence stage, data quality, and client sophistication.
Typical pricing
Engagements are scoped to transaction size and complexity, often around 0.3% of transaction value.
Typical deliverables
Concise issue list, valuation-impact observations, scenario analysis, follow-up questions, and items to escalate to legal, CPA, lender, or specialist review.
Why it can pay for itself
$50K of unsupported add-backs at a 3× multiple can create a $150K valuation challenge.
Process leverage
Structured diligence processes and AI-enabled tools make first-pass review faster and more repeatable — while keeping judgment at the center.
Discuss a transaction
Need another set of eyes on a deal?
Whether you are evaluating an acquisition, wondering if your business is ready to sell, or working through diligence with a lawyer, accountant, lender, or broker, I’m happy to talk through where I could help.
Ready to talk through a transaction? Reach out directly and I’ll respond personally.