I have been on the other side of this table.
I started and built three small businesses, and I sold one of them. I know what it feels like to sit across from a buyer who has done a hundred deals when you have done zero, to read a term sheet you do not fully understand, and to wonder whether the person advising you is working for you or for the transaction.
That is why I started Wisable.
Before I ran my own companies I worked at McKinsey & Company and Morgan Stanley, and I hold an MBA from Harvard Business School. That background matters for one reason: I read deal structure the way a buyer's advisor reads it, and I can tell you what a term actually costs you in dollars instead of what it sounds like on paper.
The credential that matters more is the operator one. I have made payroll. I have had a bad quarter and told the team it was fine when I was not certain it was. And I have sold a business I built, including the parts of that process nobody warns you about.
WHY WISABLE EXISTS
Most owners sell once in their life. The buyer across the table does this professionally, several times a year, with advisors on retainer. That asymmetry is the single biggest reason good businesses trade for less than they are worth. Closing it is the entire job.
Wisable was spun out of the venture studio at the D. E. Shaw group, the New York investment and technology firm founded in 1988. The name is not the point. The point is that the research discipline, financial rigor, and institutional relationships that go into billion dollar transactions can be applied to a $3M body shop or an HVAC company, and almost nobody does that. Main Street businesses deserve the same firepower as any Fortune 500 deal.
WHAT AN ENGAGEMENT LOOKS LIKE
Every deal gets a team, not one generalist. An industry advisor who has run and acquired companies in your sector. A transaction advisor who is your point of contact across the whole arc of the sale. A deal manager with investment banking experience who handles the financial work.
We start with an independent valuation and an honest read on what the market will pay. Then we build the buyer list from scratch, prepare materials that survive diligence, run the outreach ourselves so you can keep running your company, screen every buyer before you meet them, and stay in the deal through closing.
We take a limited number of clients at a time. That constraint is what makes the rest of it possible.
HOW WE GET PAID
No retainers. No monthly fees. No hourly billing.
There is one upfront valuation fee, which pays for an independent, industry-specific valuation you keep regardless of what happens next. After that we earn a success fee at closing, on a sliding scale that drops as the deal gets larger. If your business does not sell, we do not get paid.
That structure is deliberate. It means my incentive is your closing number, not your calendar.
HOW I WORK
I will tell you what your business is actually worth, including when the answer is lower than you hoped. An advisor who agrees with your number to win the listing is not doing you a favor.
I will tell you when it is not the right time to sell. Some businesses need twelve months of cleanup before they go to market. That conversation costs me an engagement today and produces a materially better outcome for you later.
I will ask what needs to come out at the start. Litigation, partner disputes, customer concentration. Mid-process surprises are what kill deals.
I stay in through the hard part. The stretch from LOI to close is where diligence surfaces problems and buyers look for reasons to retrade. That is where most of my time goes.
WHO WE ARE A FIT FOR
Owners doing at least $1M in revenue and $100K in net profit, with a story we can take to buyers cleanly and price expectations grounded in the market. We make exceptions for strong businesses, and we will give you a direct answer either way.
If you are thinking about selling in the next few years, or you just want an honest read on where you stand, I am glad to have that conversation with nothing attached to it.
