How we work
Every engagement starts the same way and stops wherever you decide. The first two steps cost you nothing or very little, and they tell you exactly what a buyer would see.
Book a free 60-minute conversationThe five steps
A free 60-minute conversation.
Remote, no deck. A structured set of questions that sorts out where the business leans on you most and what a buyer would notice first. You leave knowing both, whether or not we go on.
A 30-day look inside.
Mostly remote, with two or three days on site: a handful of interviews, your numbers, time on the floor. You get, in plain words, the list of things a buyer would discount and roughly what each is worth, plus a scoped proposal for what to fix first. Fixed fee, credited in full against the first 90-day block when it starts within the window in your proposal.
The build, in 90-day blocks.
Each block has a fixed price and named deliverables, done with your team, not handed to them. A sales process that doesn't run through you. A named person responsible for every core process. An operating rhythm. The list of what your CPA needs to clean up before anyone looks. Some businesses need one block; some need a year. The diagnostic lays out the whole path, and each block is agreed on its own.
Keeping it running, if the business supports it.
An ongoing retainer, sized to the business, visits included. The second layer. Fewer eggs in the biggest customer's basket. The growth work. Every process handed to its owner, so the business runs without me as well as without you.
The evidence.
Two or three months before you go to market: the commercial and operating proof a buyer's diligence team will ask for, assembled before they ask.
How it's priced
The conversation is free. The 30-day look is a fixed fee, credited in full against the first 90-day block when it starts within the window in your proposal. Each block has a fixed price with named deliverables, agreed one at a time. The retainer is sized to the business and includes the visits. There's no expense line. You'll know every number before you commit to the next step.
What it costs to leave it
Buyers don't pay for potential. They pay for the trailing twelve months, and they discount what they find. The table shows what the discounts are, where the numbers come from, and what reaching the median is worth on a business with $2M in earnings. All multiples are of EBITDA; figures as of October 2026.
| What buyers discount | The benchmark | What reaching the median is worth on $2M EBITDA | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| A business that runs on its owner, concentrated in a few customers, with books on a cash basis | M&A advisors estimate one to two years' earnings (1x to 2x EBITDA) off the headline, against medians of 5.6x (Pepperdine, $1–$5M EBITDA) and 5.8x (IBBA, $5–$50M purchase price) | $2–$4M of headline price | Pepperdine Private Capital Markets Report; IBBA Market Pulse Q2 2026; the 1x–2x estimate is practitioner opinion (FIH, Jan 2026), not a measured figure |
| An earnout or seller note instead of cash | In SRS Acquiom's 2025 data, 30% of deals valued at $50M or less (outside life sciences) included an earnout or milestone payment. In a separate SRS study of 100 earnout deals of all sizes, closed from 2021 to mid-2024, buyers had paid about one in five of the potential earnout dollars so far | $0.5–$0.9M in expected value (Flow's arithmetic: an earnout of a quarter to a third of price, about one in five dollars paid) | SRS Acquiom 2026 Deal Terms Study; SRS Acquiom earnout study (100 deals); the expected value is Flow's calculation |
| A price cut during diligence | A third to 40% of deals are retraded, typically 5–12% (practitioner estimates); of Axial's 75 broken LOIs in 2025, about one in five broke over earnings that didn't hold up in a quality-of-earnings review and about one in four over other diligence findings | $200–$350K in expected value | Axial Dead Deal Report 2025; practitioner estimates |
| Together | From about $6.5–$8.8M expected to the $11.2–$11.6M medians, same earnings | $2.7–$5M | Flow's arithmetic from the rows above. The owner-dependence row is M&A advisors' estimate; the other two rest on published figures plus Flow's assumptions, and are labeled so |
Two things to be honest about. The people you hire so the business doesn't need you cost money. A general manager and a sales lead at a twelve-person company are roughly $300–$500K a year, my estimate, and a buyer already deducts part of that for an underpaid owner. And the growth half of "worth more" takes two or three years to show in the numbers a buyer will credit. Neither changes the arithmetic; both change the timing.
Sources are linked in the table. Figures are Flow's reading of published reports and practitioner estimates, not a valuation or a prediction for any one company.
What drives value, and where Flow could help
Business value depends on more than last year's profit. Buyers, valuers and lenders look at how dependable the earnings are, how much the business relies on its owner, and whether it can keep growing. Flow focuses on the commercial and operating work, with your CPA, attorney and other advisors on the rest.
| What drives value | Signs of strength | Examples of where Flow could help |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue and profit growth | ||
| 1.Clear financials | Books that tie to tax returns; earnings that repeat |
|
| 2.Dependable revenue | Repeat customers and agreements; no over-dependence on any customer |
|
| 3.A growth engine | Proven growth, and a believable path to more |
|
| Market positioning | ||
| 4.Why customers choose you | Customers can say why they pick you beyond price, with proof, and it's hard to copy |
|
| Reliable operations | ||
| 5.Owner independence | The business sells, prices and delivers without the owner in every decision |
|
| 6.A strong team | Managers who can lead without the owner |
|
| 7.Delivery and suppliers | Dependable delivery, with no single supplier or partner whose loss would stop delivery |
|
| Transition and review readiness | ||
| 8.Easy to transfer | Licenses, permits, leases, contracts, brand, IP, data and software that carry over under any deal structure, with a backup for any license tied to one person |
|
| 9.Ready for review | Issues found and explained before a buyer, valuer or lender finds them |
|
Flow's own grouping, drawn from IRS Revenue Ruling 59-60, AICPA VS Section 100, SBA SOP 50 10 8.1 and Stanford GSB's Primer on Search Funds (2026). Value also depends on the balance sheet, size, industry and market conditions. Flow does not provide valuations or legal, tax or accounting advice, or promise a specific value.
What it looks like when it's done
Three businesses, three seats, the same job: make the business worth more to the next owner and need the people at the top less.
-
EarthRoamer
Co-founded and ran it as CEO. Created the expedition-vehicle category from nothing; Inc. 5000 #597; 11% net margin in year three. A founder-built business that grew past its founders.
Read the case study -
Four companies, one commercial system
Three were portfolio companies that each ran on a founder and a few key people; the fourth was the investment firm itself. For four and a half years I was the CMO to all four, in advanced materials, genomics and instrumentation: $220M+ in pipeline, three rebrands, four launches, revenue operations standardized. And the buyer’s side: I participated in the commercial and/or technical diligence on four potential acquisitions, at different depths; two were completed, and two we walked away from.
Read the case study -
Axcend
COO and CMO after a venture buyer's close, in a company that ran on a few people. Documented the build, fixed the evaluation process, added leadership depth. Lead time 20 weeks to 6; revenue up 65% in year one.
Read the case study
Questions owners ask here
What do I get from the 30-day look?
A written list, in plain words, of what a buyer would discount and roughly what each item is worth, and a scoped proposal for what to fix first and what the first 90-day block would deliver. It is yours whether or not we go on.
What is in a 90-day block?
Named deliverables agreed before it starts: usually a piece of the sales process, one or two core processes with a named owner, and the operating rhythm to keep them running. Built with your team on site and remote, not written up and handed over.
What if we stop after the diagnostic?
Then you have the list and the plan, and that’s the only fee.
Do you work with my CPA and attorney?
Yes. The books, the tax side and the deal itself are theirs. My half is the pipeline, customer and operating evidence that has to exist before anyone can trust the numbers.
Your business depends on you. I fix that so it's worth more and needs you less.
Book a free 60-minute conversationNot ready to talk? Chasing Flow comes out every other week: what a buyer would discount, and how to build it out of the business before you have to sell. Read the latest issue