How to Hire an M&A Advisor for Your Startup Most startup acquisitions fail to deliver. A great M&A advisor is your single best lever to beat the odds, but hiring one is a minefield of bad actors and misaligned incentives. Here’s how to run a process to find the right one. TL;DR: Hiring an M&A advisor is one of the most critical decisions a founder can make. To get it right, you must run a structured process to vet multiple candidates, dig into their specific deal experience, and understand every detail of their fee structure. The right advisor runs a tight, competitive sale process that maximizes your outcome; the wrong one can destroy value and crater your deal. Key takeawaysRun a competitive process to hire your advisor—don’t just go with the first inbound.Ask candidates to walk you through 2-3 specific, relevant deals they personally closed.Clarify who will actually be working on your deal: the senior partner or a junior associate?Model the fee structure (typically a "Double Lehman") so you know exactly what you’ll pay.Check references with founders and VCs who have worked with the advisor on both won and lost deals.Never hire an advisor who guarantees a specific outcome or valuation. Is It Actually Time to Sell? Before you even think about hiring an advisor, you need to get brutally honest about whether selling is the right move. An advisor’s job is to get a deal done, not to be your business therapist. Don’t start the process to “see what’s out there.” That’s a recipe for wasting six months and a pile of cash on retainers. Clear signals it might be time: You have a strong inbound offer: A serious, strategic buyer has approached you. An advisor can validate the offer and run a process to see if it’s the best you can do. Your market is consolidating: Your larger competitors are getting acquired, and the window to be a standalone platform is closing. You see a capital wall: A competitor just raised a 00M round you can’t hope to match, and you risk getting squeezed out of the market. You’ve hit a personal wall: You’ve been at it for 7-10 years, the fire isn’t there, and you aren’t the right founder to take the company to the next stage. A sale can provide a better home for your team and product. If you’re just having a tough quarter or feeling burned out, a process won’t solve that. Fix the business first. Buyers don’t want to catch a falling knife. What a Great M&A Advisor Actually Does A top-tier advisor for a venture-backed startup does much more than make introductions. They are your process manager, strategist, and negotiator. Continue reading the full guide Related guidesReady For An Incredible Startup Acquisition1?Ready For An Incredible Startup Acquisition?This Entrepreneur Has Raised $60 Million To Listen To Machines And Tell You What‘s WrongThis Entrepreneur Raised $55 Million To Set The New Standard In Data StorageRené Rechtman's Playbook: From A 00M AOL Exit To A 45M Series AHe Became A Stanford Professor At 25 And Just Raised $66 Million To Help You Understand Your Data Read on Startup Fundraising · More articles · Browse the Library Library homeFull library indexArticlesHomeInvestor directoryFounder directoryCompany funding databaseResearch hubPricing
