The FNDRS Playbook · PB27 · The frame
The advisor alignment matrix
Ask any advisor two questions: how are you paid, and what happens if I do not sell?
The idea
Ask any advisor two questions: how are you paid, and what happens if I do not sell?
Advisors are paid in ways that shape their advice. A pure success fee rewards closing, not the best outcome. A pure retainer rewards time, not results. Somebody paid by the buyer is not your advisor.
We publish our model because we think founders should be able to check it.
Timing
The time to start the conversation is now
How far out you feel is not the signal. Buyers read the trailing numbers, so time before a sale is room to move them, not a waiting room. A founder with a number in mind may reach it in one sale or in two: a majority stake now, with equity rolled into the buyer’s company for a second sale later. The sale itself, once you sign, runs in four phases.
Read the exit timing windowFour phases, for a company that is ready. The conversation can start any time before.
The figure
Who pays against how
Conflicted
Even a good fee structure cannot fix a paycheck from the buyer’s side.
What to do Ask: who else is paying you?
Aligned
TargetThe retainer covers the preparation work; the success fee rewards the outcome; the retainer is credited against the success fee.
What to do An advisor paid this way can afford to say not yet.
Broker
Paid only if a deal closes, by whoever closes it.
What to do Ask: whose deal is this?
Motivated to close
Paid by the founder, but only on close: pressure to accept the first workable offer.
What to do Ask: what happens if the best answer is to wait?
How to read it
Advisors are placed by who pays them (horizontal) and how (vertical). An advisor paid only by the founder, with a structure that rewards both preparation and outcome, is the one whose incentives match the founder’s.
You sell once. They buy for a living.
Every sale of a founder-led business is a negotiation between a first-timer and a professional. Each chapter of the playbook closes part of that gap.
Read the asymmetrySee where your business sits
The Go-To-Market Analysis (GTMA) places your business on these frameworks with your own numbers, before a buyer does.