How much does an M&A advisor cost?

Most advisors work on commission only (5-10% of deal value) or a retainer credited toward commission at close. I require a retainer upfront, credited dollar-for-dollar toward my commission. This aligns our incentives — I don't get paid unless you do.

What's the difference between a broker and an advisor?

A broker lists your business and waits for inbound inquiries. An advisor builds a custom buyer list, runs an active outreach campaign, and manages the entire process. A broker is passive; an advisor is active. You want an advisor.

How long does a typical SaaS exit take?

90 to 180 days from first buyer contact to close, assuming no major red flags. The first 60 days are the heaviest — that's when buyers dig into financials and operations. After LOI, expect another 60-90 days of due diligence and legal work.

Can I go to market without an advisor?

Technically yes. Practically, no. You'll underprice your business, miss buyer networks, and negotiate against professionals without leverage. An advisor with 75+ transactions knows the buyer playbook because he's sat across from hundreds of them.

What makes a SaaS business unsellable?

Owner dependency (revenue only holds if you're involved). Customer concentration (one customer is 50%+ of revenue). Flat or declining ARR. Negative unit economics. No documented processes. Fix these before you go to market.

How to Find the Best M&A Advisor for Your SaaS Company

I sold my first company blind.

No valuation. No competing offers. No advisor. I named a number completely out of thin air, a buyer said yes, and I thought I'd crushed it. It wasn't until years later, after I'd done this 75+ more times for other founders, that I understood how much I'd left on the table.

That company was OfferProphet. A SaaS startup, 16 months old, sold to what became Sticky.io. Mid six figures. The buyer showed up, I was relieved someone wanted it at all, and relief replaced leverage without me even realizing it.

The best M&A advisor for your SaaS company is not the biggest firm. It's not the one with the most partners or the fanciest pitch deck. It's the one who's sat on your side of the table and understands exactly how much a SaaS founder can lose when they negotiate blind.

Why SaaS Exits Are Different

SaaS businesses trade on a different set of rules than ecommerce or agencies. Buyers underwriting a SaaS deal are looking at:

ARR and net revenue retention. A business with $2M ARR and 110% net revenue retention is worth dramatically more than $2M ARR at 85%. Buyers model churn before they model growth.

Customer concentration. If your top three customers are 40% of ARR, that's a risk premium the buyer will price in. Every advisor worth working with will flag this before you go to market, not after a buyer discovers it during diligence.

Owner dependency. The real question isn't whether you have employees. It's whether the business has recurring revenue, documented SOPs, and a sales process that doesn't live in your head. Buyers will ask: if the founder disappears on day 31, does the revenue hold?

Expansion story. SaaS buyers (especially PE-backed strategics) want to know what they can do with the business that you couldn't. International expansion. Pricing tiers. New integrations. The growth levers you haven't pulled are part of the valuation.

I've handled over 75 transactions and closed over $123 million. The SaaS deals that underperform are almost always ones where the seller went to market without understanding which of these factors was working for them — and which ones were quietly capping their multiple.

What to Look for in a SaaS M&A Advisor

Most founders start by Googling "M&A broker SaaS" and booking calls with whoever has the best-looking website. That's fine for getting oriented. It's not fine for choosing who negotiates the most important financial event of your life.

Here's what separates advisors in this space:

Buyer network depth, not width. Anyone can list your business on BizBuySell. See how to evaluate brokers in detail at how to find a business broker. Use the free SaaS valuation estimate to know your number before the first call. The question is: how many qualified SaaS buyers does your advisor already have a relationship with? I have 8,000+ personal buyer contacts and an email list of 150,000+. When I take a SaaS company to market, I'm not starting from scratch. I'm calling people who have told me what they want to buy.

SaaS-specific comp data. SaaS multiples move. What an ARR multiple looked like in 2021 is not what it looks like in 2026. Your advisor should be able to tell you, with specificity, what comparable SaaS businesses in your revenue tier sold for in the last 12 months. If they're citing general ranges without deal-level context, they're guessing.

Competitive tension as a system, not a hope. The single biggest driver of exit price is not valuation methodology. It's multiple offers. Every dollar of multiple expansion happens when a buyer knows there are other buyers. An advisor's job is to engineer that tension deliberately, not wait for it to emerge. My guarantee: 40 serious buyers and an LOI in under 4 months for qualifying businesses. The full deal timeline shows exactly what happens between engagement and wire.

Willingness to tell you hard truths before the market does. Customer concentration risk. Owner dependency. A retention number that won't survive diligence. The best advisor finds these before a buyer does and either fixes them or prices them in correctly.

The Questions Founders Don't Ask (But Should)

Before you sign with any M&A advisor for your SaaS company, ask these:

"What SaaS businesses have you sold in the last 18 months, and at what multiples?" Not ranges. Specifics. If they can't give you deal-level context, they don't have it.

"How many buyers will you actively contact when my business goes to market?" Not how many are "in your database." How many will you personally reach out to. There's a difference between a marketplace listing and an active outreach campaign.

"What does your guarantee look like?" A serious advisor backs their process with something on the line. I guarantee 40 serious buyers and an LOI in four months for qualifying SaaS businesses: 3+ years old, $1M+ revenue, growing year over year, remote-operable, with positive cash flow.

"What's your recent close rate?" The industry average is under 8%. Less than one in twelve businesses that go to market ever sells. My recent close rate is over 75%. A failed deal process doesn't just waste time — it damages your ability to go back to market credibly.

The Advisor Market (And Where I Fit)

If you've searched "best M&A advisor for SaaS company," you've probably seen dozens of firms claiming the same thing. The market breaks into a few tiers:

Process-driven marketplaces work well for businesses under $1M ARR. They distribute well, move volume, and handle the admin. If you're pre-revenue or early-stage, that's a reasonable path.

Mid-market SaaS specialists focus on the $5M–$50M+ range with strong technical buyer networks. Higher minimums, more selective with deal sourcing.

Where I fit: I work with remotely-operated SaaS, ecommerce, and digital businesses in the $3M–$150M revenue range. I'm not the right fit for pre-revenue startups or businesses under $1M ARR. I am the right fit for a founder who wants a personal advisor (not a firm) with 75+ transactions of track record, a guaranteed buyer delivery system, and someone who sold his own SaaS company and knows what it feels like to be on your side of the table.

What "Maximum Exit" Actually Means for a SaaS Founder

Every deal breaks eight or nine times before it closes. The advisor who's been through 75+ of those — not 5, not 15, not 50 — has a different level of pattern recognition when things go sideways.

I've seen SaaS deals fall apart over revenue recognition disputes at close. I've seen them nearly collapse because a key engineer got poached mid-diligence and the buyer panicked. I've seen a deal almost die because the seller sent one poorly-worded email to a buyer directly, without running it through me first.

Momentum protects deals. Whoever understands the structure best and is willing to walk controls the outcome. That is not a slogan. That is what 75+ transactions taught me.

If you're a SaaS founder thinking about an exit in the next 12 to 24 months, the best time to have this conversation is before you need to. When your numbers are clean, your growth is intact, and you're negotiating from strength, not relief.

That's the exit I didn't have when I sold OfferProphet. It's the one I've spent the last decade making sure my clients do.

SaaS M&A Advisor Selection Checklist

Before you commit to an advisor, use this to evaluate them against your deal needs.

| Criterion | What to Look For | Red Flag | |---|---|---| | Buyer Network | 100+ qualified SaaS buyers in your revenue tier | "We have a database of investors" | | Recent Comp Data | Specific multiples from deals closed in last 12 months | Only industry ranges; no deal-level context | | Guarantee | Written commitment to buyer outreach volume or close rate | No skin in the game | | SaaS Expertise | Handles ARR, NRR, churn, expansion as standard diligence | Lumps SaaS in with general ecommerce | | Close Rate | 50%+; industry average is under 8% | Under 25% | | Hard Truths | Flags customer concentration BEFORE market | Only surfaces issues after a buyer finds them |

Ready to find out what your SaaS company is worth? Use the SaaS Valuation Calculator or book a call to talk through your numbers.