The buy-side perspective on lower-middle-market acquisitions, useful for understanding what the other side of the table is thinking. Deibel writes for searchers and self-funded buyers, which makes the book unusually clear on the diligence process and the decision criteria a buyer actually applies.
Founders preparing for a transition benefit from reading buy-side material because it removes the founder’s blind spots. Deibel’s chapters on diligence, customer interviews, and the deal-killer categories are the closest analog to what a real diligence team will do in week one through week eight of a transaction. The recurring-mix chapter and the customer-concentration chapter are particularly useful as a buyer-side preview.
Read for: chapters on diligence, customer interviews, deal-killers. Read past: the early chapters on the searcher’s journey, which are oriented to a different audience.