Field notes from the middle market.
Periodic write-ups on methodology, deal dynamics, and the working mechanics of middle-market M&A. Written for practitioners and the people who read their reports.
- August 2026Observations
The forty-three-year-old company: what a seller's age tells you about the process it needs.
The median business in our universe sells at 19 years old. In construction and aggregates it is 43, and half of those sellers were founded before 1980. Age sets nothing about the price — and almost everything about what the process has to survive. Two charts.
- July 2026Observations
The best price and the best buyer are usually different companies.
The highest headline bid routinely comes from the buyer with the worst fit — and the fit differences are priceable. How to put numbers on structure, certainty, and continuity before choosing between offers. One worked comparison.
- April 2026Observations
The 77% you never see: why headline comps lie by omission.
Only 23% of the 1,544 transactions in our universe disclose an EBITDA multiple — and the deals that disclose are the deals that trade richer. The 'market multiple' a seller is shown is drawn from the visible minority. We quantify the disclosure gap and the direction of its bias.
- February 2026Observations
What 'institutional' looks like for family sellers.
Family and founder-led sellers aren't underserved because banks won't take their calls. They're underserved because the deliverables are built for a different reader.