Route A
Begin a confidential conversation
Founder to founder. No deck, no pitch.
M&A ADVISORY & EXECUTION
M&A counsel for owner-CEOs — long before the deal.
We engage two years or more before the data room opens. Pre-decision, valuation, readiness, transaction, post-deal continuity — carried end to end by one of us. Europe–Asia cross-border is the standard situation, not the exception.
THE MULTI-YEAR ARC
What M&A counsel looks like over time.
- 01Pre-decision
The question gets named. Sometimes one conversation, more often several. Some decisions cannot be rushed.
- 02Valuation
Today's value, and the higher value the right preparation can unlock. The gap is mapped, the path to close it is named.
- 03Readiness
The company shaped for the situation the owner has chosen, not the one inherited. Processes, structures, finances, governance, narrative.
- 04Transaction
Disciplined process, on the owner's side of the table. Buyer selection by strategic fit, not auction theatre. No deal-speed incentive on our side.
- 05Post-deal continuity
The years after, where most firms hand off and most owners discover what they actually built.
Through all of it, the same one of us — the senior who first sat with the question signs the side letters and takes the call two years after closing. Trust intimacy that cannot be delegated.
References
A few of our cases
Healthcare-vertical SaaS — anonymisedAnonymised
Healthcare SaaS / e-invoicing for hospitals · profitable, low churn · 2024–2025
The founders had built a profitable, technically integrated business with proven market relevance and low churn. They had reached a personal milestone: the next phase would require significantly more capital, broader sales and product capacity, and possibly international scaling. Rather than absorbing those operational risks as independent owners, they wanted to find the right long-term software partner who understood the healthcare-vertical SaaS space and could carry the business forward while letting them realise an exit.
Webformat → ImpresoftNamed
eCommerce software · Magento and Adobe Commerce / System integration · 2022–2023
The owner-CEO faced converging structural and strategic challenges. The Magento-to-Adobe-Commerce platform transition was reshaping the buyer landscape — projects were getting larger and customer expectations were shifting toward broader IT-partner capacity. The company's rural location made talent acquisition difficult, although existing personnel were extraordinarily loyal.
DiIT → Schleuniger / KomaxNamed
Industrial software / MES · Wire harness manufacturing · 2013–2017
The founding CEO of DiIT was approaching the question of retirement. The business was technologically dominant in its niche and highly profitable, but the next strategic phase required either independent capital for international scaling or full integration into a larger industrial group that could carry the company globally. The CEO did not want to remain operationally central into his late years, but he could not see how to step back without the business losing what had made it valuable — its open, vendor-neutral software platform that worked with wire-processing machines from all major manufacturers, not just Schleuniger.
Before you ask
Frequently asked questions
When should an owner-CEO start thinking about exit?
Earlier than feels natural. Most of the work that determines exit value — founder-dependency reduction, second-management-layer strength, customer concentration, buyer narrative — takes 18 to 36 months. Owners who begin when transaction pressure is already real have weeks, not months, to fix problems that took years to build. The strongest mandates start two to four years before a process.
Will you talk to me even if I'm not sure I want to sell?
Yes. Many of our mandates start there. The first conversation is not a commitment — it is a way for both sides to see whether the situation deserves more attention. Some owners decide not to sell after the first conversation, and that is the right outcome too. The work is to make a decision honestly, not to manufacture one.
What does the multi-year M&A arc actually look like?
Five phases. Pre-decision: the question gets named. Valuation: today's value and the higher value the right preparation can unlock, both honestly assessed. Readiness: the company is shaped for the situation the owner has chosen — processes, structures, finances, governance, narrative. Transaction: a disciplined process, on the owner's side of the table, with buyer selection by strategic fit. Post-deal continuity: the years after, where most firms hand off. Total arc typically 18 months to seven years. The DiIT mandate ran 2013 to 2017 — four years from first conversation to close.
What does Europe–Asia cross-border M&A actually mean?
The default geography of the firm's M&A practice — not a special service. Most mandates touch two or more jurisdictions among Germany, Italy, Poland, and China. The work understands both sides of the table: legal structures, decision-process pacing, tax and regulatory architecture, and a senior practitioner present in either jurisdiction. References from cross-border transactions available on request, in personal capacity.
How is your firm different from an M&A boutique that runs a sell-side process?
Three differences. First, the multi-year arc — M&A boutiques typically engage six to twelve months before a process; we engage two years or more before, when the question is forming. Second, the side of the table — we sit with the owner-CEO; brokers run a process on behalf of a brief. Third, the incentive structure — we are paid for time and judgement, not for closing. The recommendation can be "do not sell." Brokers and bankers are paid on close; their incentive does not include that answer.
Two ways to start
Route B
Ask for a seller-side reference
Released into specific conversations rather than published. DiIT seller-side available; Webformat both-side available.