~$2B
in closed M&A transactions.
Best-seller
Institutional Grade is our exit planning program: it pairs you with a senior advisor for the years before a transaction. Together we decide what matters most, hold the team to the few actions that move value, and make sure the value you build is value a buyer pays for.
It’s structured and systematic, the way investment firms (private equity) run the companies they own. The difference is that the upside is yours.
Free and confidential: about two minutes of questions, then a preliminary value range by email.
Built for owners 24 to 36 months from a transaction, and worth doing even if you never sell.
Best-seller
Most owners don’t need more paperwork. They need someone senior who knows the business, knows what buyers pay for, and helps them make the next good decision, and the one after that. That’s the job. The numbers and reports are tools we use to do it well.
The few initiatives that move value most, in what order, and what to stop doing.
Which customers, services, and lines earn their keep, and what to do about the ones that don’t.
Who on your team is ready for more, what each person owns, and how to hold them accountable to it.
Which investments pay back, and whether growing by acquisition makes sense for you.
The questions a buyer’s detailed check (diligence) will raise, answered and documented before anyone asks them.
How to answer an unsolicited offer, and when a transaction is worth considering.
You and your team own the decisions and the work; that’s what makes the value last. We bring the analysis, the priorities, and the discipline to see them through.
Good advice needs good information and a way to follow through. Institutional Grade runs on the same three disciplines a private equity owner applies to its companies: the number, the list, and the leverage.
An indicative value range every quarter, built from your own systems the way an institutional buyer would assess it, with the KPIs a buyer underwrites measured against your industry average and a target we set together. Some quarters it moves down. That’s useful: it’s a measurement, not a sales pitch.
Every initiative that could move value, ranked by impact, the odds it lands, what it costs, and what it does to cash. Then systematic tracking against the plan, so you and your team stay accountable to the few actions that move the needle most.
Each quarter we compile and document what a buyer will ask for, as you go rather than under deadline. When a conversation starts, you make assertions instead of promises to follow up, and you negotiate from strength.
McCombie Group can also provide access to the resources and expertise necessary to help you capture that value, not just identify it.
Someone senior who knows your business and the buyers likely to look at it, to help you and your team make better, more informed decisions.
Progress on the priorities, early warnings, and the decisions coming due, while there’s still time to act.
A block of senior financial work on whatever matters most that month. The FP&A capability most mid-market companies don’t have, rented rather than hired.
The scorecard the advice runs on: your indicative value range, the drivers behind it, profitability by line and by customer, and the ranked plan.
When a private equity firm buys an under-prepared company and professionalizes it, the firm captures the jump in value. Run the playbook first and you capture it. Here’s what changes.
| Private equity-owned company | Most private companies | With Institutional Grade | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Guidance | An operating partner and a board | Mostly the owner’s own judgment | A senior advisor in your corner, every month |
| Priorities | A multi-year value plan | Set by what’s urgent | A ranked plan: impact, odds, cost, and speed |
| Accountability | Management reports against the plan | Rests on the owner | Your team tracked against the plan, every month |
| Numbers | A finance team and KPIs a buyer trusts | Reports on what already happened | Senior financial work every month, on what a buyer underwrites |
| Value | Marked every quarter | Learned once, at the closing table | An indicative range every quarter |
| Readiness | Planned for the exit from day one | Assembled under deadline | Documented as you go |
We’ve run that playbook from the inside, as private equity investors with our own capital at risk, and David has written it down.
The book tells you how to run the process. Institutional Grade is the program for the 24 to 36 months before any transaction.
A well-run process takes eight to nine months and realizes a number. How large that number is was largely decided in the years before, by decisions about pricing, people, customers, systems, and reporting. Without a partner and a scorecard, most owners learn what those decisions were worth exactly once: at the closing table, from a buyer, when it’s too late to change the number. Institutional Grade is also how we stay with you between transactions, so when it’s time to fund or sell, much of the work is already done.
The initiatives raise profitability and reduce risk whether or not you ever transact.
Reporting that satisfies a buyer satisfies a lender.
A well-run, institutional-quality company draws a larger universe of buyers, and an unsolicited offer gets a well-framed answer from a position of strength.
Someone is watching the drivers with you, with the goal of surfacing surprises early.
Most owners don’t choose their timing. A health event, a partner, a bank, or one unsolicited offer often chooses it for them. Institutional Grade means you’re ready either way.
David W. McCombie IIIFounder & Chief Executive Officer
Author of Selling Your Business with Confidence (Wiley, 2024).
David also serves on the executive committee of the Miami chapter of YPO, the global community of chief executives.
Start with a confidential conversation, or a realistic view of your range. Both are free, and both are useful even if you never sell.
Free and confidential: about two minutes of questions, then a preliminary value range by email.
Institutional Grade provides an indicative value range for planning purposes. It is not an appraisal or a valuation opinion, is not prepared under AICPA, NACVA, or USPAP standards, and should not be used for estate planning, lending, buy-sell agreements, or tax reporting. No price, multiple, or outcome is promised. Not legal, tax, or investment advice. Forbes is a trademark of its owner; the citations indicate authorship, not endorsement.