How buyers actually price your business, and the work that closes the gap before the room.
Most founders walk into the room expecting one price and hear another. The gap is built in the years before the room, not at the table.
The Five Risk Axes, explained for operators.
Customer concentration, key-person dependency, documentation quality, recurring mix, decision-rights legibility. The five inputs buyers actually score.
Responding to an unsolicited LOI in the first 48 hours.
What to say, what not to say, who to call, what to read. The 90-minute window where most founders give the buyer leverage they cannot get back.
Industrial services · $40M EV · Closed at LOI price
Strategic acquirer; clean diligence; no working-capital adjustment at close. What the founder did 18 months out that made it possible.
Ten common diligence findings in the lower middle market.
Ranked categories of findings buyers surface in LMM diligence. What they look for, what they discount for, and the operational work that addresses each.
Hiring the second-in-command you have been avoiding for nine years.
Why the COO you keep almost-hiring is the single decision that moves enterprise value more than any other. Plus, the script for opening the conversation.
The Exit Readiness Scorecard.
Score yourself across the five risk axes a real diligence team uses. 12 minutes, no email gate, honest output.
The Eight Value Drivers, and what is still useful in 2026.
Warrillow's framework, with our commentary on what holds up, what is dated, and how the five-axis read updates it for current LMM conditions.
The HVAC roll-up that almost happened, and the four months the founder will not get back.
Reconstruction of an LOI that died in week 11 of diligence. Told from inside the seller's kitchen. The fix was 24 months earlier.
Ten common diligence findings in the lower middle market
Ranked categories of findings buyers routinely surface in LMM diligence, with the operational fix that addresses each. Frequency data forthcoming with the next Foundry data refresh.
Understand how buyers will price your business.
Score yourself on the same risk axes a real diligence team uses. Read how buyers think about pricing in your sector. Foundry does not produce valuations; it teaches the buyer's pricing logic so you can prepare for it.
See your business through buyer eyes, early.
Most exit advice arrives 6 months out, when the work that would have moved the price is already too late. Foundry catches you 2 to 4 years before, when operational decisions still compound into what you walk away with.
Find the answer to today's question.
"Should I take this LOI seriously," "how do I hire the COO I have been avoiding," "what is an indemnification cap." Foundry has it. Look it up, take it with you, send it to your CFO.
Get smarter without getting sold.
No sales calls, no consulting funnels, no peer groups with dues. The reading and the reference. If you ever want to go deeper, the Cordis MRI is one click away.