Book a Consultation

03 / 03 Success

Secure the future

An exit isn’t another transaction. It’s the one that puts a number on everything you’ve built, and the one you can’t rehearse. Selling to a competitor, taking private equity, or going public, we structure, negotiate, and execute the deal to protect your interests and capture every dollar of the value you created.

  • Sell-Side M&A
  • Due Diligence
  • Exit & Transition
What we handle Book a Consultation

An exit is the one transaction you can’t rehearse. The gap between good and great is decided long before the term sheet.

01 Deal Negotiation StrategyClose the gap between a buyer who does this daily and a founder who does it once.

Buyers negotiate deals for a living; most founders do it once. We close that gap with a negotiation strategy built around your leverage and your walk-away points, so the final number reflects what the business is worth, not what the other side can talk you down to.

  • Leverage analysis and positioning
  • Deal-term prioritization and walk-away points
  • Competitive-tension and process management
  • Letter of intent and term-sheet negotiation
  • Negotiation of price, structure, and risk allocation
02 Confidentiality & Risk ManagementProtect exactly what an exit most exposes.

An exit exposes the very things you most need to protect: trade secrets, employee trust, customer relationships. We put the safeguards in place to keep them intact while the deal moves through diligence and beyond.

  • NDAs and staged information disclosure
  • Clean-team and data-room access controls
  • Employee and customer communication strategy
  • Trade-secret protection through the process
  • Pre-signing confidentiality risk management
03 Stakeholder AlignmentKeep everyone with a stake pulling the same direction.

Shareholders, management, employees, and family all want something slightly different from the outcome, and misalignment is what derails deals. We structure the transaction to balance competing interests and head off the conflict that surfaces before, during, and after the close.

  • Shareholder and board approval strategy
  • Management retention and incentive alignment
  • Founder and family interest balancing
  • Employee communication and transition terms
  • Conflict resolution among stakeholders
04 Continuity & Transition PlanningProtect the business that made the deal worth doing.

An exit is a milestone, not an ending. We protect the continuity that makes the company worth buying, your customers, your people, your reputation, so the value survives the transaction instead of leaking out during it.

  • Transition services and handover agreements
  • Key-employee retention and incentive structures
  • Customer and supplier continuity planning
  • Knowledge transfer and operational handoff
  • Brand and reputation protection terms
05 Future-ProofingBuild protections that hold long after closing.

The deal structure outlives the deal. We build in the protections that hold long after the sale closes, reducing the risk of post-closing disputes quietly eating into what you walked away with.

  • Reps, warranties, and survival periods
  • Indemnification caps, baskets, and escrow terms
  • Representation and warranty insurance
  • Post-closing dispute and earn-out mechanics
  • Tail liability and ongoing obligation management

The Obsidian standard

You sell once. Leave nothing on the table.

The difference between a good outcome and a great one is decided long before the term sheet, in how the company is prepared and how the deal is built. We treat your one exit like the only one it is.

How we work

At the closing table

Capture maximum value

Value isn’t only found at the closing table. It’s protected on the way there, in the work you do before a buyer arrives and the way the deal itself is built.

Sell-Side Representation

Present the company at its strongest and lock the terms in.

Selling through M&A is high-stakes and unforgiving. We represent you from first conversation to final signature, presenting the company in its best light, running a disciplined process, and locking in terms that protect and maximize what you take home.

  • Sale-process design and buyer outreach strategy
  • Marketing materials and information memoranda
  • Letter of intent and definitive agreement negotiation
  • Diligence management and issue resolution
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Vendor Due Diligence Preparation

Clean house before a buyer starts digging.

Every deal begins with scrutiny. We help you clean house before a buyer starts digging, finding and fixing the red flags first, so diligence strengthens your position at the table instead of handing the other side leverage.

  • Pre-sale legal audit and red-flag remediation
  • Corporate records and minute-book cleanup
  • Contract, IP, and employment review
  • Data-room organization and preparation

Transaction Structures

Build the deal so the value actually lands with you.

How a deal is built decides what you keep. We structure asset and share sales, earn-outs, and rollovers to balance tax efficiency, risk, and the cash that actually reaches your hands at and after closing.

  • Asset vs. share sale analysis
  • Tax-efficient structuring with your advisors
  • Earn-outs, rollovers, and vendor take-backs
  • Escrow, holdback, and deferred-consideration terms
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After the deal

Secure the right transition

The signature isn’t the finish line. What you owe, what you’re owed, and what you’re bound to after closing can shape your life for years. We make sure the terms are terms you can live with.

  1. Management Buyouts & Succession

    Sometimes the right buyer is already in the building. We structure buyouts and succession plans that reward loyal leadership and keep the business running through the handover.

  2. Tax Structuring with Advisors

    A sale is as much about what you keep as what you sell. With your tax advisors, we structure to minimize liability and maximize after-tax value.

  3. Regulatory Approvals & Compliance

    One missed approval can sink an exit. We manage securities obligations and regulatory sign-offs so the process runs clean from handshake to close.

  4. Post-Closing Obligations

    The deal doesn’t end at closing. We make sure you understand earn-outs, non-competes, and indemnities before you sign, not after.

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Start here

Start with the exit in mind

Selling your business is one of the largest decisions you’ll make. In one session we’ll assess your readiness, surface the risks that quietly cost value, and map the steps to maximize it at exit, so you’re ready when it counts most.

Contact us Book a consultation

One partner, every stage

Success is the payoff for the structure and strategy that came before it. We work the full arc, from formation to exit.

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