Stop competing for listings. Reach owners before their business is listed, then let the Five Experts network connect you to the specialists who get you to the finish line, M&A attorneys, quality-of-earnings providers, SBA lenders, and fractional CFOs, matched and coordinated at every step.
The traditional path asks you to bid against everyone for listed deals, then learn the business only after the seller is gone. There is a better way in.
You bid against ten other buyers for a listed business, pay a premium, and the seller leaves on day 30, taking the relationships and the knowledge with them. Year one is a scramble, and value is destroyed instead of built.
You reach an owner before the business is listed, step in and operate while they're still there, and build value on a price agreed up front. When you buy, you already know the company, and the value you created is yours.
Proprietary search surfaces profitable, founder-led companies that never hit the market, so you're not bidding against ten other buyers.
Join as an operator, often on a market salary paid by the business, and run it day to day, on a purchase price agreed up front.
Grow the business and fix what made it hard to sell, all before you own it. The price is locked, so the value you build is yours.
Acquire at the pre-agreed price, often with SBA financing and a seller note, and step from operator to owner of a business you know.
This is the heart of Five Experts. At each phase we match you to the specialist you need, vetted and coordinated, so you never face a deal, a diligence process, or a first 100 days alone.
You join as CEO or a senior leader on a market salary paid by the business, so you're not betting your income to search.
Before you create a dollar of new value, both sides sign an option agreement with a purchase price and a defined path to close.
Often with SBA 7(a) plus a seller note, backed by your personal guarantee. Many deals need no outside equity, and the structure is built to maximize what you own.
A seller earnout can give the founder a share of the value created above baseline, so a hard-to-sell business becomes a fair, guaranteed exit.
Every play does two things at once: it grows the business, and it makes it worth more. Here is what that looks like over a typical two-year operate period.
Win new customers so no single account is critical. A broad base is both safer and worth more.
Build a team that owns the relationships, so the business belongs to the company and not the founder.
Improve retention and cross-sell, so more of the revenue repeats every year.
Put process and tools in place so it runs like a business, not a job.
Operate-to-own isn't a different kind of buyer. It's a searcher who steps in earlier, and alongside the seller, instead of buying cold and learning after.
You're an experienced operator ready to run and own a business, and you want a path that ends in ownership, not just a job.
You want a market salary while you operate, time to know the business before you buy, and a price locked before you start.
The market is crowded and the good deals have bidders. You want businesses no one else can see, through proprietary search.
The five-phase system, the expert bench, and a cohort of operators running the same play, all the way to close.
Membership carries the search and the journey. Not everything applies to where you are today, and that's the point: what matters most changes as you move from search to seat to owner.
Which is why we don't rush the match. We place searchers the same careful way we always have, now on a path that ends in ownership.
We establish what you can run and want to own before any match, so the search is built around you.
We source the business through proprietary search and match you to it, behaviorally assessed for execution fit, not a resume screen.
Membership carries the search. Our placement fee is due only once you're in the seat, never a retainer up front.
Carries the search. Cancel any time.
Of first-year salary, due only on placement.
No fee until you're placed. The fee waits for the seat.
Know who's taking over before you sell, and keep the business whole while you do.
A committed successor who learns your business while you're still there, not a stranger who arrives at closing.
Years inside the company, the customers, and the team before a dollar changes hands.
Customer relationships stay intact, founder knowledge transfers, and growth continues through the transition.
Find the business before it's for sale, and build it into the one you own. Join free and start the Operator-to-Owner path.