We have bought, sold, raised, and invested. The negotiating leverage shifts when your advisor has sat in every seat.
Aggregate deal value across both sides of the table.
Closed across the senior team’s careers.
Sell-side only. We never represent buyers.
Independent and founder-aligned. Portland, OR.
We founded Alkali for the founders, boards, and shareholders facing the most consequential transaction of their lives, often without a banker, a process, or the leverage to negotiate what their company is actually worth.
An inbound offer is one buyer’s number at one moment. A 27-year study of 3,000+ acquisitions found owners who sell without an advisor running a real process leave 6 to 25% of the price behind.
A mid-market fund holds thousands of conversations a year to close a handful of deals. Of 100 opportunities it sees, 7 get a bid and one closes. The call you got is about their fund, not your business.
Software trades anywhere from 1x to 30x revenue, and no model finds the number. True value is the price the highest credible bidder will pay, and only a competitive process discovers it.
Most founders treat the LOI as the finish line. For the buyer it is the starting gun. The 60 days after signing are where diligence quietly becomes the retrade window.
Between enterprise value and the wire, working-capital pegs and net-debt math redistribute 15 to 25% of the deal, inside a schedule most founders never fully read.
We built Alkali to be the firm we wished we had when we were on the other side of the table. Senior-led. Selective. Aligned.
The team is purposely small. We turn down more mandates than we accept so each engagement gets the bandwidth and conviction it deserves.
Every workstream is led by a senior banker. You work with the names on the door, prep to close.
We say no to most opportunities. The pipeline is curated so quality stays high.
We negotiate for the headline number and for what happens the day after close.
Account-based outreach, controlled tension, deal mechanics. Discipline is the brand.
Five questions that decide your outcome, and the honest answers most advisors would rather you never think to ask.
| The Question | Most Banks | Alkali |
|---|---|---|
| Who pays you? | Most banks collect fees from buyers, too, today or on the next mandate. | The seller, full stop. No buy-side mandates, no dual representation. |
| Who actually runs my deal? | 20+ live mandates for the partner who pitched you. A junior associate runs the process and the calls. | Five to ten deals a year, total. The partner who pitched you runs it through close. No junior hand-offs. |
| What actually moves my price? | The spreadsheet and last quarter’s comparable deals. | The story around the numbers. We justify why a $100M buyer can defensibly resell at $300M. |
| Where do you find buyers? | Inbound from the three or four PE firms already calling the seller. | Tier-01 strategics. Tier-02 adjacents. A 300+ sponsor universe, mapped. |
| What happens after the LOI? | The bank declares victory. Diligence becomes the buyer’s retrade window. | We work harder after the LOI than before. Proceeds are won in the closing mechanics. |
A working session with the senior team. No commitment. We will pressure-test the story and share a grounded view on timing and value.
Schedule a Working SessionThe deal terms that quietly move value, monthly, from Shane. No spam, no marketing, no padding. Just the writing that founders actually keep.