About
A firm built by founders, for founders
FNDRS is a founder-to-founder advisory firm for founder-led businesses. We build value with owners of businesses between $3M and $30M in revenue, and on the sell side we work with companies of typically $1 million to $25 million of adjusted EBITDA. We assess your current valuation, build the value with you, run the sale for you, and plan for what comes after. One team, from valuation to the years after the sale.
Why FNDRS exists
The firm we wished we had on our own way out
Nick Long, CEO and co-founder, on why he and Troy Hoffman built FNDRS. On their own way to an exit, the help they needed was scattered across advisors who had never sat in the founder's chair. FNDRS exists because it did not exist for them.
01 · THE GAP
Advice in pieces
Founders who want to scale and sell meet a market of separate advisors, each with a piece of the answer, often in conflict, and no single plan that ties them together.
02 · BY DEFAULT
Exits that happen to you
Nick and Troy met in a mastermind, each on the way to an exit, and neither exit was going to happen by design. Troy's own sale carried decisions he would have made differently with better information.
03 · ONE PLACE
One plan, one team
FNDRS puts it in one place: a step-by-step process built around what you want, advisors who have been founders, and a platform that shows your progress toward the exit as it happens.
Inside FNDRS
Everything your exit needs, inside one firm
Most owners hire a valuation firm and a broker separately, and each one starts from zero. At FNDRS, the people who value the business and the people who sell it are one team working from the same numbers. The advisor who scores your business is still in the room when the deal closes.
- 01
The advisor
A FNDRS exit advisor scores your business against the six areas every buyer examines, ranks the gaps by dollar impact, and works through them with you until your target number and the timing line up.
The FNDRS process - 02
The dealmaker
When the number is right, you and the FNDRS M&A team design the deal together: the kind of buyer, the price, and the terms you will accept. FNDRS prepares the materials, brings qualified buyers to the table in confidence, and negotiates at your side through to close.
Sell-side M&A - 03
The plan for after
We start with your number: what you need to walk away with, and why. The plan for the proceeds starts during the sale, alongside your own tax and wealth advisors, so it is in place before the wire lands.
Post-exit planning
How we think
We believe what a buyer is willing to pay can be measured
Three ideas shape how FNDRS works with you, from the first valuation to the years after the sale.
- 01
Buyers price elements and compounds
A buyer is not paying for your story. They are paying for the elements your business is made of and for the compounds those elements form. When those move, your price moves.
- 02
Your number is measurable
At FNDRS, we score each of the 36 elements from 0 to 100 in the assay, today and at target. The gap between the two scores is your roadmap, and you watch it close as your value rises.
- 03
The elements set the plan
Your plan begins with the weak element with the biggest dollar impact, then moves to the next. The scores set the order, not the loudest problem in the building.
The framework
The 36 elements a buyer sees in your business
A buyer does not see your business the way you do. They weigh and value 36 elements, grouped into seven families. FNDRS uses the same lens, from Nick Long's book Exit Elements, so you see what they see before they do. Open any element to see what a buyer looks for.
Who you work with
The people in your corner
Everyone you work with at FNDRS is on the same team, and that team is on your side. Wherever you are on the way to a sale, there is someone here who has been there and a team behind them keeping everything on track.
Where founders meet founders
In the room and on demand
The work goes faster alongside owners on the same path. FNDRS brings founders together in person through workshops, cohorts, and a yearly summit. The FNDRS podcast brings those same conversations to you wherever you are.
The FNDRS Podcast · Episode 8
Kati Peterman, FRx
Nick Long with Kati Peterman, founder of FRx and a FNDRS partner, on getting founders out of day-to-day operational chaos with a business operating system. A clear playbook, defined roles, and tracked numbers, and the peace of mind they give an owner.
Nick LongHost, CEO and co-founder of FNDRS
Build value. Exit better.
Whether the sale is next year or next decade, the work starts with knowing where you stand today.