Sell my business: the questions founders ask

Scott Stepanik. Scott leads every FNDRS sale, from the first read of the numbers to the close, backed by the deal team.

A sale usually takes seven to twelve months from signing to the wire: preparation, then marketing to buyers, then selecting one, then diligence and closing. Preparation can add time before that, and the preparation is where most of the value is created. Every time given here is an estimate drawn from past engagements, not a commitment.

The Go-To-Market Analysis is $10,000, flat, and it is credited in full against the fee for the sale if you go on to engage us. A sale is a retainer and a success fee, and the retainer is credited against the success fee. The figures depend on the size of the business, so we set them with you on a call. On a sale we run for you, you are the only one who pays us. A buyer pays us nothing.

Usually a buyer wants them. A buyer is paying for what continues after you leave, and your people are a large part of that. What happens to them is a term, not a hope: roles, retention, and when and how they are told are agreed before you sign, not after.

It depends on the buyer and the structure. A strategic buyer with existing management may need three to twelve months of transition. A financial buyer buying a platform may want you for longer, sometimes with a continued equity stake. Your post-close role is one of the terms we negotiate.

Only the people you agree to. Buyers first receive a blind teaser with no identifying details. Anyone who wants more signs a non-disclosure agreement before receiving the CIM. We control who is contacted, in what order, and what they receive, and competitors and customers can be excluded at your direction.

A confidentiality agreement with FNDRS. It holds the buyer to using what it learns for this sale only, to no contact with your people, to not hiring them or going around us for twenty-four months, and to no teaming up with other bidders, and your company can enforce it directly. That is a summary of our standard form; the agreement each buyer signs governs.

No. On a sale we run for you, you are the client and the only one who pays us. A buyer pays us nothing, and nothing a buyer offers us changes the advice we give you.

Yes. Our advisory model is built so that we can afford to say not yet. Many founders who complete a Go-To-Market Analysis spend the following year moving up the range before they go to market.