For founders / What we buy
The buy-box, and what we pass on.
Eight criteria. We publish them so you can rule us in or out in a minute. If you fit six of the eight, the first call is worth fifteen minutes. Under 55 or outside the template? Still call. The buy-box is a description of our typical deal, not a rule.
The buy-box
Eight criteria.
Registration
SEC-registered RIA
Assets
$100M to $700M
Sweet spot
$100M to $700M
Owner
Typically 55 or older
Successor
No funded succession plan
Revenue
Fee-based, recurring
Process
Off-market preferred
Stake
100 percent. No minority positions.
Where we pause
Four situations where we are probably the wrong buyer.
Partial sales or minority stakes
We buy the whole firm or we do not buy it. A growth check with a board seat is a different business, and it is not ours.
Concentration
When a handful of relationships carry the book, the firm is a person, not a business. We can still talk. The structure looks different.
The ninety day exit
If you want to be gone by spring, we are the wrong buyer. Clients need to see you for a while after the paperwork.
The live auction
Four bidders and a banker-run process is not where we do our best work. We would rather be early than highest.
Revenue that walks
If the relationships leave when you do, there is nothing to buy. We will tell you that on the first call rather than the fifth.
The honest version
We would rather be early than highest. A banker-run auction with four bidders is where a buyer underwriting an exit wins, and they should. We do our best work with a founder who has two or three years of runway, a team worth keeping, and a book that does not walk out the door with him.
If that is you, send the ADV number and the assets. A partner returns a valuation range quickly. If it is not, we will tell you on the first call rather than the fifth.