Tool

Completion waterfall model for a business sale, headline to cash

Walk a waterfall from headline down to money that actually moves, at a date, on a worked example.

The methodThe three reads: the ladder

Ships with How to read an acquisition offer for your services business, and is available on its own.

The waterfall reader is an interactive model that walks an acquisition offer from the headline figure down to the money that actually moves, at a date. You enter the structure of an offer in general terms and it shows what each layer takes out before anything reaches the ordinary shareholders, and when. It is built so a founder reading a first offer can see the difference between the number in the letter and the number that arrives, before anyone else explains it to them. What you realise (realize) at that point tends to change the conversation.

The inputs are the headline, the completion date, the layers between headline and shareholders in the order they are paid, and any component that is deferred or conditional, with the measure it depends on and the date it would be paid. The reader does not hold any real transaction. Everything in it is what you enter and an invented worked example.

The outputs are the money that moves at each date, the share of the headline that is certain against the share that is conditional, and the playbook's control test applied to each deferred component: how much of its measure you generate, rather than how large it is. The worked example throughout is invented and labelled as invented on the page.

The business Steve and I started in 2013 was sold in 2021, and I read a waterfall for the first time with the company on the table. That deal is not in this tool and will not be. The method is. The reader is in development and comes with its playbook, How to read an acquisition offer for your services business. The waitlist is open.

What you will get

Who it is for