Business Exit Engineering · ASIA · EU · US
See your business the way a serious buyer will.
Most founders sell their businesses as they are. Every issue uncovered in due diligence becomes a discount at closing. Unglin engineers exits around PE deal logic—removing discount triggers and increasing what buyers are willing to pay.
NDA before we start · Globally
proper advisor*
sizes
PE firms*
fixed fee
Where Unglin fits.
Why it matters for your deal.
The advisory market is segmented by deal size and who actually runs your process. One option is structured for the $1M–$50M founder-led exit. Understanding which tells you where to spend 30 minutes.
Swipe to compare all options
| Business Broker | Investment Bank | Generic Boutique | UNGLIN | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Deal Size Fit | ||||
| Enterprise Value | Sub-$2M | $100M+ | Best above $20M | $1M–$50M |
| Senior Involvement | ||||
| Who Runs Your Deal | Volume agent — 10–20 listings simultaneously | Analyst team; partner at pitch and key meetings only | Partner wins mandate; associates execute | Den on every call, every document, every negotiation. No associates, no handoffs. |
| Pre-Sale Preparation | ||||
| Buyer-Side Assessment | Informal or none | Depends on scope | Varies — often limited | Structured Exit Readiness Diagnostic required before mandate is agreed |
| CIM Format | ||||
| Document Type | Listing summary | Full institutional, sector-specific | Institutional template, execution varies | PE underwriting format — built on verified Diagnostic outputs, not projections |
| Fee Structure | ||||
| How You Pay | 10% success only — no retainer | Large upfront retainer + 1–2% success fee | Monthly retainer + 3–5% success fee | Diagnostic ($15K) → monthly retainer (credited at close) + tiered success fee. No fee if deal does not close. |
| Buyer Access | ||||
| Buyer Types | Local, regional; limited PE access | Global — major PE, strategics, public companies | PE and strategic, relationship-dependent | PE, family offices, strategic acquirers — Asia, Europe, US |
Den is not the right advisor for every business. Below $500K EBITDA, a local broker is the right instrument. Above $50M, an institutional mid-market firm with a full analyst team will serve you better. Den will tell you which applies on the discovery call.
Four failure patterns.
One outcome.
Every founder who underperforms at exit shows at least one of these. Most show three. The Diagnostic finds which ones apply before a buyer does.
The advisory gap between broker and investment bank is exactly your deal size
Business brokers handle volume at sub-$2M. Investment banks work above $100M. The $1M–$50M founder-led exit sits in a gap where most advisors are either under-resourced for the complexity or uninterested in the economics. The institutional-grade process your deal deserves is not expensive. It is simply rare.
Key-man risk — buyers price it in before the first meeting
When your revenue depends on your personal relationships, buyers build that risk into the deal structure before you know they've quantified it. They call it key-man risk. They structure it as an earn-out. The result: you stay on for two years post-close working for contingent money, instead of cashing out clean.
Going to market with the business exactly as it is
The business you take to market on day one is the business that gets valued. Every undocumented process, every customer concentration, every founder dependency — buyers find all of it in due diligence. By then, each finding is negotiating leverage used against you, not information you can act on.
Your CIM is not written for who your buyers actually are
59% of buyers in the $5M–$50M enterprise value range are PE firms. They evaluate businesses against their underwriting criteria and hold-period return requirements — not against what a competitor would pay. A CIM written for the wrong buyer produces the wrong buyers, a longer process, and a weaker final number.
Most sellers go to market
having never seen their business
the way a buyer sees it.
The Diagnostic answers that question before a single buyer signs an NDA. The Mandate closes the deal built on that foundation. One advisor. Maximum four mandates per year.
Diagnostic
A paid, fixed-scope engagement producing four written deliverables before any mandate is signed: a quality of earnings pre-assessment, a management independence assessment, a documentation gap report, and an indicative valuation range. All deliverables are yours regardless of whether a mandate follows.
Mandate
Full sell-side transaction advisory built on the Diagnostic outputs. Institutional-grade CIM targeted to the buyer categories most likely to pay the highest multiple for your specific business. Competitive process. LOI to close. Not a listing. A mandate.
Mandate scope and fee are agreed after the Diagnostic — when the buyer pool is identified and the deal narrative is verified. Not before you know what the business looks like to a buyer.
See your business the way
a buyer sees it.
Most sellers discover problems when a buyer's due diligence team surfaces them — at which point those problems become negotiating leverage against the seller, not information the seller can act on. The Exit Readiness Diagnostic inverts that dynamic.
Den examines your business through the lens of a PE buyer's underwriting criteria and produces four written deliverables that tell you exactly what you're working with before any buyer signs an NDA. The deliverables are yours. If you proceed to a mandate, they become the foundation of the CIM. If you choose to wait and fix what the Diagnostic surfaces first, the documents retain commercial value as a preparation roadmap.
Exact fee confirmed on the 30-minute discovery call after Den understands your business complexity, geography, and deal timeline. Fixed amount before Day 1 — no scope creep, no surprises.
What You Receive
Four written documents delivered in person or via encrypted transfer at the end of Week Three. Yours permanently — not contingent on mandate engagement.
The Four Deliverables
- Quality of Earnings Pre-Assessment. The add-backs, normalisation adjustments, and EBITDA recasts a buyer's accountant will apply — identified and documented before they find them. Removes the most common source of post-LOI price reductions.
- Management Independence Assessment. A documented analysis of what happens to revenue, margin, and operations if you step back — in writing, with evidence, in the format a PE buyer's IC memo requires.
- Documentation Gap Report. The list of items a buyer's due diligence team will request that you currently do not have. Prioritised by deal impact. Gives you 90–180 days to close the gaps before a buyer's clock starts running.
- Indicative Valuation Range. A documented range with the specific assumptions driving each end — not a headline number, but the model behind it. The first honest answer to what your business is actually worth to a buyer right now.
How the Three Weeks Run
- Week 1: In-person or video deep-dive. One full day. NDA signed before we start. Financial review, operational walkthrough, customer and staff dependency mapping.
- Week 2: Den builds the four documents. One clarification call if needed. No continuous input required from you.
- Week 3: In-person debrief or encrypted document transfer. Full written deliverables plus Den's recommendation on mandate timing and preparation priorities.
Two failed attempts. One structured preparation. A 4.2x exit multiple on the third.
The situation: A professional services founder operating across Southeast Asia. Recurring revenue, profitable, but no documented delivery methodology. Two prior sale attempts — both buyers walked away at due diligence citing the same issue: the business could not operate without the founder.
The Diagnostic finding: The founder's client relationships, methodology, and quality oversight were entirely undocumented. There was no operational system a buyer could acquire independently of the founder. The business was unsaleable in its current form — not because buyers didn't want it, but because there was nothing transferable to price.
The preparation: Over two quarters, the founder's methodology was extracted and systematised into documented delivery frameworks. An operations manager was developed into a role with independent client management authority. A reporting structure was established that functioned without the founder's daily input.
The mandate: Three targeted acquirers. Competitive process. The CIM arrived with documented management independence, two quarters of operational history, and a post-acquisition transition roadmap. Buyers had evidence, not assertion. That difference closes deals at a higher multiple and without earn-outs.
One mandate.
One maximum price.
The Mandate runs the full sell-side process, built on the Diagnostic outputs. Buyer pool identified. Deal narrative verified. What follows is execution.
The complete sell-side process. Nothing outsourced. Nothing delegated.
CIM preparation and institutional positioning targeted to the buyer categories most likely to pay the highest multiple for your specific business. NDA management, buyer qualification, LOI negotiation, due diligence support, and close. The CIM is an underwriting document — written to answer the questions a PE buyer's investment committee will ask, in the order they ask them, with the evidence they require to approve a deal.
Den leads every stage personally. No associates. No handoffs. Typically 4–9 months from mandate signing to close. Scope and fee are agreed after the Diagnostic, when the buyer pool is identified.
Monthly retainer + tiered success fee. The market standard — for good reason.
81% of mid-market M&A advisors charge a monthly retainer in addition to a success fee (Axial/Divestopedia Fee Guide). The retainer aligns incentives: Den is economically committed to managing your process at the pace your deal requires, not the pace that closes his most active mandate first. The retainer is credited against the success fee at close.
Full fee structure — retainer amount, success fee tiers, and minimum floor — disclosed on the discovery call. An advisor working on success-fee only has five mandates running simultaneously and is commercially incentivised to close whichever deal is nearest, not to maximise value on yours. That signal costs sellers months and price.
Den accepts a maximum of four sell-side mandates per year. That constraint is not positioning language — it is the reason the process delivers outcomes a volume brokerage cannot. Every engagement receives his personal attention from the first Diagnostic session to the final wire transfer. If you are the fifth business in a given year, he will tell you that on the discovery call.
Buyers are active. Capital is deployed.
The premium goes to prepared sellers.
72% of M&A intermediaries expect 2026 deal conditions to match or exceed the 2021 peak. Buyers sidelined in 2023–2024 are returning with active mandates and defined acquisition criteria. Prepared sellers entering this window receive competitive processes. Source: IBBA & M&A Source Market Pulse Q4 2025
Private sellers receive 6–25% higher acquisition premiums when represented by full-service advisors versus unrepresented sellers. On a $5M deal that differential is $300,000–$1,250,000. The advisory fee is a fraction of that in every scenario. Source: Firmex/Divestopedia, mid-market data
$3.9 trillion in PE dry powder at record levels — including significant APAC and European allocation. Capital is not the constraint. IBBA Q2 2025 confirms buyers are frustrated with a low level of listed sellers. Prepared sellers with institutional-grade documentation receive competitive offers. Source: Preqin Global PE Report 2025
The pattern is consistent: buyers have capital and are actively seeking quality assets. The ceiling is not buyer appetite — it is seller preparation. Founders who go to market with documented management independence, clean quality of earnings, and a PE-readable CIM close with competitive tension, full cash, and no earn-out. Founders who go without face price reductions applied after months of process.
The founder this engagement
is built for.
Download the Exit Readiness
Self-Assessment.
Eight questions that map your business against the four most common deal-killers PE buyers apply in due diligence. The same diagnostic framework Den uses before an engagement. Free. Yours to keep. Message Den on WhatsApp with the word "Checklist" — he will send it within one business day.
Get the Checklist →No call required. No follow-up pressure. Den sends the checklist directly.
Every mandate.
Led by Den.
Den spent 18 years building and exiting businesses across 12 markets — not at a bank, not at a consulting firm, but inside the operations. He has been the founder whose business depended on a single key person, the CEO who could not step away, and the seller who went to market without knowing what a PE buyer's investment committee actually evaluates. He knows each of those failure modes from the inside.
He moved into sell-side advisory because he had sat on both sides of enough due diligence processes to understand a specific gap in the $1M–$50M market: the sellers who need institutional-quality process cannot access it, and the advisors who offer it are either too large, too expensive, or uninterested in deals below their fee threshold.
He takes a maximum of four sell-side mandates per year. Every engagement begins with a direct conversation with Den — not a qualifying call with a sales team. NDA signed before any work begins.
Den is currently advising on active sell-side mandates in Southeast Asia and the EU.
P&L responsibility
operated
markets
enterprise value
UNGLIN Co. Ltd. · Nr. 0505566006201 · Bangkok, Thailand · Sell-Side M&A Advisory for founder-led businesses globally.
From first call
to closed deal.
Discovery Call
30 minutes. Den covers your exit timeline, where the biggest preparation gaps likely are, and whether the Diagnostic makes commercial sense for your situation. If it doesn't, he tells you on the call.
Exit Readiness Diagnostic
Three weeks. Four written deliverables. NDA before work begins. See your business the way a buyer sees it — and know exactly what to fix before they arrive. Fixed fee $15K.
Sell-Side Mandate
Institutional CIM, targeted buyer outreach, competitive process, LOI to close. Den leads every stage. Monthly retainer plus tiered success fee. Typically 4–9 months from mandate signing.
Closed & Clear
Maximum achievable price. Clean deal terms. Cash at close — because the preparation removed every discount a buyer could have applied before they found the problems themselves.
Find out in 30 minutes what your business is actually worth to a buyer.
Questions that
matter.
Start with
30 minutes.
Den takes every first call personally. In 30 minutes: what your exit horizon looks like, where the biggest preparation gaps likely are, and whether the Diagnostic makes commercial sense for your situation right now.
If the economics don't work — because the business is too small, the timeline is too short, or the fit is simply not right — Den tells you that on the call, without pressure and without a follow-up sequence.
If there is a fit, you discuss next steps. NDA before any work begins. No commitment on the call itself.
Three things in 30 minutes: what your business looks like and where it is heading, where the most likely preparation gaps are based on what Den hears, and whether the Diagnostic produces a commercial return that justifies the fee for your specific situation. If it does, you discuss a start date. If it does not, Den tells you what would need to change — and means it.
Book Your Discovery Call →Typical response within one business day. Den answers directly — no account management layer, no qualifying team, no follow-up sequence.
* 6–25% premium: Firmex / Divestopedia North American M&A Fee Guide 2024–25, represented vs. unrepresented sellers. | 59% PE buyer figure: IBBA & M&A Source Market Pulse Q2 2025 — PE buyers as % of all transactions in the $5M–$50M enterprise value segment (North American dataset). PE underwriting criteria and institutional CIM requirements are consistent globally among institutional buyers. | Diagnostic fee range $15,000 USD. Exact fee confirmed on discovery call based on business complexity and geography.