Home / M&A Advisory / Choosing an M&A Advisor
The advisor you choose to sell your company has more influence on the outcome than almost any other decision in the process. The right one runs a competitive process, knows the buyers in your sector, and is senior enough to be in the room when it matters. This is what to look for, and what to avoid.
A generalist advisor can run a process. A specialist knows which strategics and sponsors have an open mandate in your sector this quarter, knows the corporate development heads personally, and can benchmark your metrics against deals that actually closed. That knowledge surfaces buyers a generalist never reaches, and it shows up in the final price.
Most advisors will tell you they are senior, specialized, and well connected. These are the questions that reveal whether it is true.
Sector specialization. Do they work in your sub-sector specifically, and can they name comparable transactions they have run?
Senior-led execution. Will the person who wins the engagement run the process, or hand it to a junior team after signing?
Buyer access. Do they already know the strategics and sponsors active in your space, or will they build the list from scratch?
A real process. A structured process with multiple qualified parties is the only reliable way to discover market value. One inbound offer is not a process.
Aligned fees. Understand the retainer and the success fee, and make sure the structure rewards the outcome you want.
The pattern is simple. The advisor who wins your trust should be the same person who does the work.
A pitch built on a headline number. An inflated valuation in the pitch is the oldest way to win a mandate, and it ends in a stalled process.
Junior execution after signing. If the senior banker disappears after the engagement letter, the quality of the process goes with them.
No real buyer list. An advisor who cannot name the likely buyers in your sector before the process does not know your market well enough to run it.
Sector specialization, senior-led execution, genuine access to the buyers active in your space, a structured competitive process, and a fee structure aligned to the outcome. The person who wins the engagement should be the one who runs the process.
At a boutique, the senior advisor who wins the engagement runs the process, manages buyer conversations, and negotiates the terms. Sector-focused boutiques often know the specific buyers in a niche better than a generalist team at a larger institution.
Typically a retainer plus a success fee earned on close. The structure should reward the result you want. Understand both components and how the success fee scales before you sign.
Founder-led companies with roughly $5M to $100M in revenue and $1M to $20M in EBITDA, across technology sectors in the United States and Canada.
Windsor Drake runs confidential, competitive sale processes for founder-led companies. Request a private, no-obligation read on where your business would price today and which buyers are active in your market.
Every inquiry is strictly confidential. Nothing is shared without your written consent.
Receive the research founders read before they sell.
The full research briefing, sent to your inbox. Confidential, no obligation.
