The 12 Days of Christmas | 2023 Axial Roundup

If you’re looking to shower your true love with the traditional presents from The Twelve Days of Christmas, you have just three days to gather those calling birds, French hens, golden rings, and the rest of the laundry list of extravagant gifts.

Rather than celebrate with pipers piping or lords a-leaping, we’re sharing the top Axial content from 2023, broken down to the tune of the classic holiday carol.

Opting to share this roundup with your true love could save you upwards of $200,000, as inflation has even had an impact on partridges and pear trees.

Wishing everyone a safe and happy holiday season!

🎶 On The 12th Day of Christmas, Axial Gave To You 🎶

12 Deal Digest Issues

11 Podcasts Streaming

Masters in Small Business M&A is a podcast hosted by Axial CEO Peter Lehrman that dives into the origin stories, key transactions, and key career moments of both seasoned and emerging dealmakers, acquisitive operators and trusted advisors exclusively within the small business M&A ecosystem. Enjoy these featured podcast episodes from 2023.

• A hero’s journey: Mike Botkin and the OneOutdoor Holdings journey from start to exit
• Due Diligence and the Art of Preventing the Broken LOI
• Family-Owned and Acquisitive: 7 Acquisitions in 7 years
• How Search Funds Win Competitive Deals – with Max Artz of Peterson Search Partners
• Rolling up Veterinary Clinics with Purpose, Partnership and Profits
• Nick Leopard – Learn How the Very Best PE Firms Transform the Finance Function
• Brad Smith’s journey from employee to CEO to top healthcare banker
• Walker Deibel – 5x Owner, “Buy Then Build” Author & Creator of the Acquisition Lab
• From banker to searcher to CEO to founder of Panther Equity: David Eshaghian’s journey through the lower middle market
• Leaving mid-market PE to become an independent PE sponsor
• The $1B Lower Middle Market Holdco Built Around Customer Concentration, Diversity, and a Life of Purpose

10 Industry Insights

The following 10 industry reports are from three of Axial’s Investment Banking Partners – Bridgepoint Investment Banking, FOCUS Investment Banking, and Peakstone Group.

9 Winning LOIs

The Winning LOI is the twice-monthly Axial newsletter that anonymously reveals small business M&A valuation data and certain key deal terms associated with winning LOIs. You can check out each featured issue below.

8 Avoidable Mistakes That Derail Deals

In November, Axial CEO Peter Lehrman presented at Main Street Summit, a two-day event for SMB owners, operators, and investors. Peter presented on failed exits – when business owners that engage in a process to sell their business aren’t successful – and what business owners can do to prevent them.

The BIG 8 Avoidable Mistakes That Derail Deals

Read Full Article

7 M&A Documents Demystified

6 Tips for Writing Great Teasers

In sales, it’s the pitch over Zoom or in person. In venture capital, there’s the product demo and 10-slide pitch deck. In the world of M&A, it’s the “investment teaser”.  If you’re exploring an exit for your business, this must-have document will be an essential driver of the top of your M&A conversation funnel. It must be accurate, interesting, and error-free. Read Now

5 Military Veterans Investing in SMBs

On July 4th, in celebration and acknowledgment of America’s birthday, we highlighted U.S. service members turned lower middle market investors. We are honored to count these American veterans as members of Axial and are eager to witness and support their endeavors in the private sector. Read Now

4 Industry Top 50s

To see what firms were featured in each industry report, click on the badges below.

3 Investment Banking League Tables

These league tables reveal the top 25 investment banks that were active on the Axial platform in the first three quarters of 2023. Axial’s league table ranking methodology is driven largely by four factors:

• Client quality (based on pursuits per deal and total recommended buyers)
• Buyside targeting (pursuit rate per deal)
• Process effectiveness (ability to progress buyers from initial pursuit to NDA to CIM)
• Deal outcome (IOI, LOI, and closure rates)

Congratulations to all the featured members!

Q1 League Tables

Q2 League Tables

Q3 League Tables

2 Buyside Firm Rankings

This year, Axial introduced a new series, ranking the most active buyside firms on the Axial platform. The first two releases featured Independent Sponsors and Family Offices.

These rankings were assembled based on deal making activity and were driven by three factors:

• Total Closures: Total deals closed by the firm since inception
• Axial Closures: Total closed deals sourced via Axial
• Process Effectiveness: Ability to progress to the IOI or LOI stage on deals sourced via Axial

Read Now

Read Now

And The Axial Advisor 100

This past September, Axial released the 2023 Axial Advisor 100. This report reflects a quest we took on in order to identify, verify, and publicly acknowledge the most highly regarded lower middle market sell-side M&A advisors.

Congratulations to these 100 firms!

Download the ebook below.