Your Life's Work

The owner of this small, fast-growing group of restaurants hired Peter as a small business M&A advisor to negotiate directly with the CEO of a large international restaurant chain who’d expressed interest in buying her unique restaurants. Over a year, Peter advised on every aspect of selling a small business, which included: guiding the owner in prioritizing her interests in selling or not selling; negotiating with shareholders in the business being sold to ensure they would approve the transaction; suggesting prioritized improvements to operations to increase value; exploring a range of alternatives and buyers to maximize value; negotiating directly on behalf of this owner while she focused on running her business and building its value; overseeing due diligence on the restaurants and final documentation of the deal; coordinating the legal teams involved in M&A for small businesses to minimize costs and optimize outcomes.

The dynamic founder of this international fashion brand had been frustrated in his ongoing efforts to liquidate a portion of his minority stake and to earn more money from the early-stage strategic investors who now dominated his board. As a small business M&A advisor, Peter went to the board on his behalf, promoting his interests, and subsequently helped negotiate the sale of the company to an investment group. The result: Peter's client banked a considerable sum, while still maintaining a significant stake under the new owners. Peter also negotiated the founder's new role and higher compensation, hiring and overseeing lawyers to support the entire process. 

The owners of this category-killer domain came to Peter after years of trying to sell their domain without success. Peter initiated and ran a uniquely structured global auction out of the Netherlands, and heavily promoted this auction in conjunction with Escrow.com, a partner on the project, through a new website for which a strong design firm was hired. Potential buyers were vetted and dozens registered. Peter negotiated the final terms with the winner, overseeing the documentation process, the hiring of the legal team that supported our client's efforts, and the distribution of payments. While the price paid for the domain and the name of the buyer remain confidential, the result was deemed to be a historic success for both the sellers and the buyer of this domain. 

Peter was called by a young entrepreneur who had a $3 million offer to buy his digital marketing start-up and was looking for guidance. After learning more about his tech business and running quick valuation metrics, Peter suggested he consider not selling just yet. Instead, as a small business M&A advisor, Peter  helped sort out differences and undocumented deals among the company’s founders. This opened up the possibility of bringing in an angel investor, whom Peter brought in. With this new money, experienced managers were hired to help accelerate the company’s growth. As a final step, Peter negotiated a $5 million equity injection from a leading venture capital player. The company was valued at $20 million, or $17 million more than just 10 months earlier, prior to Peter's involvement. This engagement included: structuring and negotiating both debt and equity offerings; negotiating employment contracts; advising on overall strategy; sitting on the company’s board; and building internal capacity to negotiate.

Peter quietly advised a  senior management team at a highly successful niche insurance company on a merger offer from a national industry player. As a small business M&A advisor, this engagement included running valuations on the business, distinct timing strategies to maximize the value of the clients' shares, negotiating new employment contracts for all involved, and ensuring the able management of exceptional legal issues that risked undermining the merger.

Peter hired and oversaw legal and valuation teams to ensure his clients' interests were fully satisfied in a cost-effective manner. The end result: a successful merger that valued the smaller merged entity being advised by Peter at more than a 50% premium to what the clients were originally ready to accept. 

The founding partners of this company approached Peter to help them sort through internal conflicts, including whether to sell all or just part of their company and how to best manage ineffective areas within their management ranks and specific service groups. Peter interviewed the founders and their senior team, assessed the business, conducted personality type assessments, and uncovered core issues that were causing the communication, relationship, and performance issues. As a small business M&A advisor, he coached individuals and the executive team on how to manage these issues he'd identified and then mediated talks among the partners as to what they wanted for themselves and the company going forward. The result: the sale of a division instead of the company as a whole, with a clear transition plan for the founders to retire and sell their shares to the next generation of leaders.