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Strictly confidential. Your inquiry and our discussions are handled with complete discretion. NDA available before any detailed discussion.

For M&A Intermediaries and SBA Lenders

Acquisition criteria
and buyer profile.

I am a self-funded buyer acquiring one operating business to run full time. Financing is arranged, criteria are fixed, and I respond to every teaser within 24 hours, including the passes, with a specific reason.

Add me to your buyer list →

chris@sdexit.com · Proof of funds and lender contact available on request.

$400K+

Liquid equity to close

$4.5M

SBA pre-qualified

60 day

Diligence to close

24 hr

Response to any teaser

Buy box

Acquisition criteria

Fixed criteria, clearly stated. If a business fits the profile below, you will get a fast, specific response.

Purchase price
$2M to $5M enterprise value, at 3.0x to 3.5x SDE
Earnings
$600K to $1.5M SDE, verifiable on a consistent basis
Size and tenure
5 or more employees, 10 or more years in operation, an existing management layer a plus
Geography
San Diego and Southern California first. Will travel for the right business: California, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Texas, Idaho, Oregon, Washington
Industry
Service, B2B, manufacturing and distribution. Deepest domain knowledge in property management, real estate services, insurance, credit and financial data
Structure
Asset or stock purchase. Open to seller notes, holdbacks, earnouts, and seller equity rollover up to 20%
Not a fit
Owner-dependent professional practices, single-customer concentration above 30%, businesses in structural revenue decline, franchise resales, pure e-commerce

Buyer form

The five questions your buyer form asks

The answers intermediaries need before sending a teaser.

Capital available
$400K+ in liquid funds designated solely for acquisition, with personal reserves held separately. Real estate equity available as supplemental collateral. No syndication required and no capital raise contingency.
Financing
SBA 7(a), 10% down, 10-year amortization. Pre-qualified to $4.5M through an established lender, with credit, personal financial statement and tax returns already reviewed and cleared. Lender contact provided on request.
Will you operate it?
Yes. Full time, on site, as the owner-operator. This is not a passive or portfolio acquisition.
Who else decides?
No one. Sole decision maker, no investment committee, no partner approval, no board.
How long searching?
Since 2024, full time. Hundreds of opportunities evaluated and multiple offers made. Actively in market now.

Why I am worth your time

  • Corporate M&A experience. Led diligence, structuring and negotiation on two acquisitions and one divestiture at the corporate level, from $1M to $20M enterprise value.
  • I move through financials quickly. Give me the P&Ls and tax returns and you will have a real answer in days, not weeks. My CPA and M&A counsel are retained now, so diligence starts the day the LOI is signed.
  • One decision maker. No investment committee, no partner sign-off, no board. When I commit, it holds.
  • I answer fast, including the no. Every teaser gets a response inside 24 hours with a specific reason, so you are never left guessing where a deal stands with me.
  • Price moves only on a documented finding. Walk-away criteria go in writing before diligence begins, so there are no surprises at the end.

Background

Operating background

Twenty years operating

Product and general management leadership across real estate technology, credit, insurance and financial data. Built and ran P&L-owning organizations across $10M to $100M+ businesses.

Companies

CoreLogic, Experian, Snappt, Zego, RentSpree. MBA, UCLA Anderson.

What I bring to a business

Pricing and packaging, sales process and CRM discipline, systems and reporting, and building a management layer so the business stops depending on one person.

What I am not

Not a turnaround investor, not a financial buyer, not a roll-up looking to strip a business for parts. I am buying one company to run.

Opportunities

Two situations I will take that most buyers will not

Deals that fell out of escrow

If a buyer could not close, could not fund their equity, or walked late, I want that call. The seller is already diligenced and motivated, and you have already done the work. It does not need to be re-packaged for me.

Listings that have aged out

If a business has been on the market more than six months and the ask needs to come down, I would rather re-trade on a real number than compete on a fresh one. You will get a fast, specific answer either way.

No conflict

What SD Exit Advisory is, and why it does not compete with intermediaries

I am a sole practitioner. I work with owners at the earliest stage of considering a sale, before a broker is involved, helping them decide whether selling makes sense at all. Those businesses are generally smaller than what I buy and do not overlap with my buy box.

  • When an owner is ready to go to market, I introduce them to an intermediary.
  • I do not list businesses, I do not represent sellers in a sale process.
  • I do not take a transaction fee.
  • I work with owners at the earliest stage of considering a sale, before a broker is involved.
  • In limited cases an advisory client's business may fit my acquisition criteria. Where I have an interest in acquiring a client's business myself, that is disclosed in writing before any acquisition discussion proceeds, and my role is agreed from that point forward.

Christopher Ramos · SD Exit Advisory · San Diego, California
chris@sdexit.com · linkedin.com/in/chramos

All inquiries handled confidentially. NDA available before any detailed discussion.