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AtlasExit Advisory

Atlas · Sell-side M&A · BostonEstd. MMIX

The one transactionyou cannot redo —run properly.

Sell-side counsel for founders selling the company they built. Readiness, valuation, buyers and terms, handled with care.

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Exhibit AEntered into evidence, MMXXVI

The gap between a sale and a good sale.

Preparation changes what a buyer sees. Make the important decisions before the first offer arrives.

A spacious precision machining floor with navy-clad technicians, white steelwork and tall daylight windows
  1. 00170%of owner-led businesses that go to market never actually close the sale.
  2. 002≈2×the spread between an unprepared sale and a well-run, competitive process.
  3. 0031the number of times you will ever sell the company you built.

Figures drawn from published research on lower-middle-market sales — not Atlas's own claims.

The Practice

Five disciplines. One considered sale.

A controlled process, prepared before the market sees your company.

  1. We prepare the company and the founder, so the business meets the market at its strongest — surprises found and settled before a buyer asks.

    Reading glasses, a navy binder and financial papers arranged on a pale daylight desk

  2. We establish what the company is worth to the right buyer, and build the evidence that lets you defend the number without flinching.

    A brass jeweller's loupe resting on an open ledger of printed figures

  3. We identify and quietly court the acquirers who should compete for your business, and run them as a field — not a favour.

    Six navy chairs around a pale oak conference table in an open, bright room

  4. Price, terms, and structure, with your interests at the centre: what you keep, what you carry, what protects you after signing.

    Advisors exchanging a document across a pale oak table beside a bright window

  5. We steward the handover of the company, the people, and the name, so what you built continues the way you intended.

    A ring of keys on a workshop door sill, figures at work in the daylight beyond
Selected engagements
Reading glasses, a navy binder and financial papers arranged on a pale daylight desk
Plate I · The readiness review

The moment

A sale, told in three acts.

  1. Year 1

    You started it in a spare room, on nerve and a line of credit.

    A founder working at a modest laptop in a bright spare-bedroom office with white shelves
  2. Year 22

    It became the thing your name is attached to, and your family's security.

    A founder and employee examining a metal component on a sunlit workshop floor, seen through office glass
  3. One morning

    An offer arrives. It sounds final, and you have no one impartial to ask.

    A founder reading an offer from a cream envelope at a bright oak table beside a navy folio

You will sell it exactly once.

Prepare before the offer arrives.

Meet the partner
Three people reviewing papers together at an oak table in a daylight office

Exhibit BThe partner, not an associate

Senior counsel, one client at a time.

James Calderwood brings twenty-five years on the sell side of the middle market. He has also built and sold a company of his own. You work with the partner throughout.

  1. §1Sellers only — never both sides of your table.
  2. §2One client per sector at a time.
  3. §3Nothing leaves the room without your word.

You built it from something small. Then an offer arrives, and you cannot tell whether it is generous or an insult. You will sell this company once. Prepare as if that were true.

— J.C.

Selected Engagements

Four considered exits.

Four mandates, showing the preparation, competition and continuity behind a considered sale.

Two technicians inspecting a motor in a bright industrial service bay

Industrial services

≈ 140 employees

At the top of its range.

Sold to a strategic acquirer at the top of its range after a two-year readiness effort resolved concentration risk.

7.4×EBITDA at close

An operator inspecting a precision aluminum component beside a CNC machine in a daylight workshop

Specialty manufacturing

≈ $38M revenue

Six buyers, run as a field.

Six cultivated buyers run as a field, not a sequence. The winning bid arrived well above the first unsolicited indication.

+41%over first indication

A small software team collaborating in a bright, open product studio

Founder-led software

≈ $12M ARR

A structured, staged exit.

An earn-out and rollover kept the team in place and rewarded the next chapter, with a clean full exit inside eighteen months.

18 moto full exit

Tall warehouse aisles stacked with wooden pallets in cool daylight

Family-owned distribution

Second generation

A succession that kept the name.

A succession sale that prioritised continuity: the brand, the leadership, and the town it was built in were retained.

100%staff retained

Discuss a mandate in confidence

The Articles of Practice · No fine print

Five commitments.
No fine print.

  1. Discretion is the standard

    Your intentions, figures and identity stay in confidence.

  2. The seller, and only the seller

    We represent the seller, and only the seller.

  3. One client per sector

    One client per sector at a time. No competing mandate.

  4. Preparation over urgency

    Value is made before the market sees you. We will say ‘not yet’ when it is true.

  5. Aligned by outcome

    A modest retainer and a fee tied to your result.

Atlas / Articles of practice

Held to
all five.

— J.C.
01Discretion is the standard
02The seller, and only the seller
03One client per sector
04Preparation over urgency
05Aligned by outcome
Sell-side counsel / In confidence

Click to open the report

Exhibit CThe Exit Readiness Index

Know how sale-ready you are.

A structured look at the six dimensions that move a valuation, the risks behind your number, and what to prepare next.

  1. 01Your index, and the band a buyer would place you in
  2. 02Six value dimensions, scored
  3. 03The concentration and dependency risks that discount offers
  4. 04What to fix in the twelve months before a process

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Correspondence

Asked often. Answered plainly.

Advisors reviewing a document at a daylight oak table

  1. One to three years before you intend to sell. Nearly all the value in a good outcome is created in preparation, and preparation cannot be rushed once a buyer is at the door.

  2. Entirely. Your intentions, your figures, and the fact you are thinking about a sale stay in the room until you decide otherwise.

  3. A modest retainer to fund the work, and a success fee tied to the outcome. We are paid to close well, not to stay busy. Terms are agreed in writing first.

  4. No. Sell-side only. We will never sit on the other side of your table.

  5. That is the ideal time to talk. The best sales begin years before the decision is final.

  6. Founder-led companies of roughly $5M to $150M in revenue. Near an edge? Ask — we would rather tell you honestly.

Ask something else

Begin a private conversation

Judge us by the counsel.

One conversation, in confidence. If it is not the right moment, we will say so.

  1. 01A private conversation — what you built, what you are weighing
  2. 02A readiness review — where value sits, whether now is the moment
  3. 03A written assessment — yours to keep, act on, or not
Three people reviewing papers together at an oak table in a daylight office

Held in strict confidence. Atlas represents sellers only.