Articles, analysis, observations, and the occasional interview on valuation, due diligence, and what actually happens when businesses change hands.
Most people buying a small business make one of the biggest financial decisions of their life based on the seller's financials, some demographic research, and a lot of hope. Christopher Johnson spent a decade at Capital One building the data tools that could change that. We talk oversaturated pet care markets in Austin, the franchise fee problem, and how to tell a great business from a great location.
Read the interviewPE firms aren't paying a premium for the 80-hour weeks that got you here. They're buying the runway ahead, and every owner dependency is a discount to your multiple.
ReadDSO, cash conversion, circular financing. The metrics one analyst used to question a trillion-dollar company are the same ones that expose problems in million-dollar deals.
ReadThe biggest blind spot in small-business acquisitions isn't revenue or margins. It's the net working capital trend, and what it means when liquidity is leaving the business before you arrive.
ReadNotes from my session at the Texas Forum on International Tax: What the restructuring of the IRS Engineering & Valuation program means for practitioners, and two predictions for where this goes.
ReadIt's been a minute. A short note on who we are, who we serve, and what this next chapter looks like.
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