Innovative mergers and acquisitions (M&A) company Merge is changing the game for middle-market and lower-middle market business owners. This founder-first M&A advisory firm enables entrepreneurs to exit on their own terms.
“We’ve not only got the experience and know-how, but also an extensive network of qualified buyers,” says Amanda Cybul, founder of Merge. “Our primary emphasis is to develop an exit strategy that’s in alignment with the founder’s goals — all of those goals. Then we work to make the sale as smooth as possible.”
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Merge: A full-service founder-first M&A advisory
Successfully building, scaling, and exiting from her own creative agency taught Cybul that there was a lack of support for entrepreneurs in this space. She founded Merge to fill this gap, focusing on M&As for marketing agencies.
“From what I saw, the traditional models were just outdated,” Cybul explains. “To be honest, they also didn’t really offer much in terms of strategy. The focus was almost entirely on valuation, which should only be one piece of a successful exit.”
Merge is an explicitly sell-side advisory that centers founders’ unique goals during every step of the process. This focus involves understanding the full range of their expectations and motivations.
“Selling a business isn’t just about money,” Cybul says. “Especially for creative agencies. Relationships, reputation, and culture are fundamental to the nature of the business.”
Beyond valuation: Understanding the full range of goals for business owners
According to Cybul, business owners who are interested in selling want to achieve a good current market valuation and sell their companies for maximum value. However, many also want other things, such as de-risking, preserving their legacy, or protecting the teams that their mission has attracted.
“The right exit will be different for each specific founder,” Cybul says, “but one thing is the same in nearly all cases: the idea of letting go of a company they’ve built from nothing usually brings up difficult emotions.”
For this reason, the Merge team of professionals spends a significant amount of time with clients at the outset of each partnership, listening and learning what matters most to them as individuals.
“It’s also normal for business owners not to know what they want to get out of the sale,” Cybul says. “We know what questions to ask and how to hear what they are saying to get beneath the surface and understand the deeper motivations they might not even have realized they had. Defining the criteria for a successful exit and helping owners get clear is a whole step in our process. This approach is unlike other M&A teams, which can assume they already know what the most advantageous deal should look like, but all they’ve considered is financial success.”
Merge also enjoys connections with a wide range of prospective buyers, making it easier to locate the right one. “Finding the right buyer, in some ways, can be a lot like matchmaking — you need to find acquirers who share the same ethos as the company,” Cybul says. “They need to get it.”
Exit planning 101
According to Cybul, founders should begin their exit preparations a year or two before actually hanging a “for sale” sign on their company.
“It takes time to get clear, first of all,” Cybul says. “Once you understand what your goals are, you’ll need time to do a financial analysis on your company and its profitability.”
This analysis often turns up areas for improvement.
“It’s like selling a house,” Cybul says. “You’ll need time to boost your curb appeal, declutter, and polish things up to as high a shine as possible. Maybe change the front door or hang a chandelier in the dining room. That’s just a metaphor — in the realm of M&A transactions, owners may maximize value by undergoing recapitalization, optimizing their revenue stream, or strengthening their leadership team.”
Cybul points out that all entrepreneurs should have an exit strategy, since this process often makes an organization more streamlined and profitable in the immediate future, which also benefits them.
“Just thinking about selling and taking steps toward sustainable growth can result in a better business,” she says. “Plus, there’s the added advantage that, if a great potential buyer comes along and offers advantageous terms to buy, the founder will be ready to seize the opportunity.”
Get the best M&A advisor
A full-service M&A advisory acts as a trusted partner, helping business owners transition to the next stage of their lives with confidence that their business is in good hands. However, achieving this outcome requires the right process. For this reason, a hands-on advisory like Merge is the best choice for many founder-led businesses, especially those in the creative industries.
Owners nurture their companies for years, if not decades, before selling. Understanding that, Cybul and her team at Merge ensure clients harvest the full range of fruits their labors deserve.
