Exit
Sell the company. Not the discount.
An embedded engagement to engineer the equity story, financial profile, and operating maturity that earn a premium multiple, and a clean handover.
The Problem
Most exits leave money on the table, and the founder in the room for two more years.
By the time most founders engage an advisor, the value of the business is largely fixed. The narrative is improvised, the numbers tell an inconsistent story, and the operating maturity assumes the founder will stay.
Buyers price what they see. What they see is risk. They discount accordingly.
The premium multiples go to companies that look, and operate, like assets, not like jobs. That's a design choice. And it has to be made years, not months, before the deal.
What It Means
A premium exit isn't a price. It's a state the company is in.
It means revenue that's predictable, contracted, and growing, not lumpy and project-based. It means EBITDA that survives normalisation. It means a leadership team buyers want to keep.
EBITDA quality is the single biggest lever. Buyers don't pay for the number you report. They pay for the number they trust will repeat, adjusted, normalised, and stress-tested under their model. Engineering that quality before diligence is most of the work.
Done right, you don't negotiate on price. You choose between offers.
The Engagement
Four phases. Twelve to eighteen months.
Calibrated to your timeline. Each phase moves the company closer to a premium, clean exit.
- 01Weeks 1 to 6
Position
Define the equity story.
Strategic narrative, comparable analysis, buyer mapping, valuation framework. The story buyers will be told and the case for the multiple.
- Equity narrative
- Buyer landscape
- Valuation thesis
- 12 to 18 month value plan
- 02Months 2 to 8
Engineer
Build the EBITDA quality.
Revenue mix, contract structure, margin discipline, customer concentration, normalisations. The work that makes the number defensible.
- Revenue restructure
- Margin programme
- Cost normalisation
- Concentration plan
- 03Months 6 to 14
Mature
Make the company diligence-ready.
Leadership depth, governance, reporting, contracts, IP. Everything a buyer's diligence team will tear into. Done now, on your terms.
- Leadership succession
- Governance pack
- Diligence-ready data room
- Risk register cleared
- 04Months 12 to 18
Transact
Run the process.
Banker selection, process management, buyer engagement, founder transition planning. We sit alongside the bankers, on your side.
- Process plan
- Buyer engagement
- Negotiation support
- Transition roadmap
Who It's For
This is for a specific kind of founder.
You expect to sell within 12-18 months.
You're running a $5M to $100M business.
You want a premium outcome, not just any deal.
You'd rather build the value now than discount later.
You want a clean handover, not a three-year earn-out.
Proof
What Exit produces.
Average uplift in multiple vs. opening valuation across recent engagements
"We started this thinking we'd sell for X. We closed at nearly three times that, with a structure I actually wanted. Relative made the company sellable, then ran the process beside us."
"Diligence was the easiest two months of the deal. Everything was already there."
Exit Readiness
How sellable is your company today?
The Exit Assessment gives you a candid read on the eight factors buyers actually price, and what to fix, in what order.
Take the Exit AssessmentTwelve minutes. Confidential.
Engagement
Built for the founders who want the premium.
Twelve to eighteen months, calibrated to your sale timeline. A senior Relative partner embedded with you and your leadership team.
Investment is shaped by deal size and engagement length. We work with a small number of Exit clients per year and decline most enquiries.
If you intend to sell in the next twelve months, talk to us this quarter, not next.