Due Diligence and the Art of Preventing the Broken LOI

Today Peter Lehrman speaks with Emily Holdman, the Managing Director at Permanent Equity, about the intricacies of due diligence. The conversation delves into the importance of creating a powerful diligence team when preparing to sell a business, highlighting the roles of an M&A attorney and an M&A advisor. Emily also discusses the concept of internal diligence and the importance of forging strong relationships in buyer-seller dynamics. She emphasizes the significance of trust-building and ethical behavior for successful deals. The discussion also touches upon the importance of understanding the source of funding and anticipating changes in financial projections during the diligence period.

Permanent Equity invests in private companies deliberately built for long-term success. The company commits for the long haul with 30-year funds, no intention of selling, and rarely uses debt.

Discussion points:

• The recent exhaustive document on due diligence by Permanent Equity
• Roles and strategies for creating a powerful diligence team
• Importance of an M&A attorney and advisor in the process
• Internal diligence in business selling
• Trust-building and ethical behavior in deal success
• Understanding funding sources and anticipating financial changes
• Assembling a business selling team
• Advantages of hiring a professional M&A advisor and attorney
• The process of assembling a diligence team for business selling
• Building trust in buyer-seller relationships and understanding the source of funding
• Ethical behavior during the diligence process
• Strategic art of business sale preparation
• Contact us with your podcast topic ideas!

We hope you enjoy the episode, which is produced by the team at Axial (www.axial.com). Axial is an online deal sourcing platform that makes it easy for business owners to confidentially research and connect with top-ranked M&A advisors and capital partners. I am your host, Peter Lehrman, founder and CEO of Axial. In every episode, we aim to explore the vast world of small business M&A, interviewing both the proven and the emerging owners, operators, investors, and advisors whose strategies and methods for building successful private companies are being put to the test.

If you enjoy the podcast, give us a review on Apple or Spotify. If you’d like to go deeper, head to Axial.com, where there are dozens of recorded Axial member roundtables, downloadable tools for dealmakers, M&A advisor rankings, and lots of other useful information for owners exploring exits and acquisitions. If you’re a business owner, professional acquirer, or M&A advisor, you can start using Axial for free at Axial.com.

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Resources: 

Emily Holdman LinkedIn 

Permanent Equity 

Peter Lehrman LinkedIn 

Axial Website