For buyers
Prepared companies, and founders who have decided
For buyers and capital partners
We work with a small number of acquirers and capital partners who want proprietary access to founder-led companies. Our mandates come from relationships, not auctions, so the first conversation happens before a process starts. Tell us what you are looking for and we will tell you honestly whether we see it.
Where we stand
We work for the seller
FNDRS is sell-side only. You will always know whose interests we carry, what the next step is, and when it happens. Buyers who move quickly and treat the team well get our attention, and that is the whole of the relationship.
One client: the seller
We are engaged by the founder and we represent the founder. We are not a buy-side advisor, and we do not shop a buyer's capital to anyone.
One process, run to a calendar
The dates for indications of interest, management meetings, and letters of intent are set before launch, and every buyer works to the same ones. Calling louder does not move them.
One answer after every round
After each round you hear where you stand: through to the next one or not, and when the next step happens. No silence and no guessing.
The odds
Most listings never reach a close
Of a hundred owners who take a business to market, only twenty to thirty sell. The ones that fall out usually fail on financials, on owner dependence, or on a price nobody ever tested. That is the diligence tax a buyer pays across a pipeline of unprepared sellers. A FNDRS mandate has already been through that work before you see it, which is why our processes run to a schedule.
Most fall out on financials, owner dependency, or price.
Before you see it
What a mandate has already been through
By the time we call you, the preparation is done. These are the four phases behind every company we take to market, and what is finished at the end of each one.
What we score
Thirty-six elements, scored twice
Every business we represent is measured across the FNDRS Elements, where it is today and where it needs to be at exit. The gaps get closed before the company goes to market, not during your diligence. Buyers weigh clean financials, owner dependence, and recurring revenue first, and so do we.
What arrives
What is in the room on day one
A FNDRS mandate beside a typical listing and an owner selling direct. Each row is a document or a fact you can check, not a claim about the market.
| A FNDRS mandate | A typical listing | An owner selling direct | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Financials restated before launch | Varies | Varies | |
| Each add-back supported | Varies | Varies | |
| Issues found and disclosed early | Varies | Varies | |
| Management prepared for meetings | Varies | Varies | |
| A populated data room | Varies | Varies | |
| One set of dates for every buyer | Varies | Varies | |
| A sell-side advisor engaged |
What you sign
What a buyer signs before it learns the name
Every buyer that receives a FNDRS CIM signs a confidentiality agreement with FNDRS first. Here is what the standard form asks of you, in plain words.
Your name is confidential too
Who you are, and the fact that the business may be for sale, are confidential information. Before you sign with us, buyers hear about the business only without a name, unless you agree in writing.
For this sale only
The buyer may use what it learns only to evaluate, negotiate, and close this transaction, and never to compete with you.
No contact with your people
No calls to your owners, employees, customers, suppliers, or lenders about the sale, and no visits to your sites, without our written consent. Everything runs through FNDRS.
No hiring your people
For twenty-four months, the buyer may not recruit the people it met or learned about through the process.
No going around us
For twenty-four months, the buyer may not pursue a deal with you outside the process.
No teaming up
No acting with other bidders or sharing what it learned with them, and no tying up a lender so other buyers cannot use it.
You can enforce it
Your company is named as able to enforce the agreement directly against the buyer, including by asking a court to stop a breach.
It lasts
The obligations run for three years, and for as long as a trade secret stays secret. The buyer returns or destroys what it received when asked.
A summary of FNDRS's standard form. The agreement each buyer signs governs, and its terms can differ.
The seller's side
A founder who went through it
George LopezLogistics and trucking · California
Questions
What buyers ask us
The seller. We are engaged by the founder we represent and paid by them. A buyer pays us nothing, and nothing a buyer offers us changes the advice our client gets.
Nothing that identifies the company reaches you before an NDA is signed, and the CIM follows the NDA. We control who is contacted, in what order, and what each party receives. Buyers we work with regularly can sign one master NDA with FNDRS that covers every opportunity we share, so there is no paperwork per deal.
Once the founder, with our exit advisors, has decided to go to market. It opens in two stages. Stage one holds the initial documents and materials. Access can then be promoted to stage two, for the more advanced and sensitive material.
On what the founder keeps and how certain it is, not on the headline. We model cash at close, notes, earn-outs, rollover, escrow, working capital, and tax for every letter of intent, so the comparison is take-home against take-home.
Yes. Indications of interest are due on one date, so offers arrive together and can be compared, and the terms that matter are negotiated while several buyers are still at the table.
Exclusivity comes after the letters of intent are in and compared, not before. It is the point of the founder's greatest leverage, and it does not come back. An early request goes to the founder with our view, and the fastest way forward is a complete letter of intent on the process dates.
The ask
Register your mandate criteria
Tell us what you buy and we will come to you when a fit appears. No newsletter, no blind teasers, no list you have to unsubscribe from.
When a mandate fits what you sent, we call you. Until then, nothing arrives in your inbox.
What to send us
- Sector and sub-sector, and any you will not look at
- Revenue and adjusted EBITDA range
- Geography
- The structures you can do: control or minority, rollover, notes, earn-outs
- How you fund it: committed capital or deal by deal
- The timeline you work to, from first look to close
Tell us what you are looking for
We work for the seller, and the buyers we call are the ones who move quickly and treat the team well. Register your criteria and we will be in touch when a mandate fits.