What the multiple actually measures, and how to move it. The IT services founder's 24-month exit playbook, written from the buyer's side of the table.
The founder's view of the two years before a transaction, set against the market data we underwrite as buyers: what the multiple actually measures, and how to move it.
Small companies and platforms are priced in different worlds. The DACH bands, the distribution behind them, and why private equity pays a median 13.7x while strategics pay 6.3x. Scale is the visible variable; predictability is what buyers pay for.
The four levers buyers have priced for twenty years, recurring revenue, concentration, key-person independence, diligence-ready operations, and the fifth that 2026 added: AI proof, not AI claims.
An illustrative value bridge: EUR 10.8m today, EUR 12.6m after two years of business as usual, above EUR 17m prepared. The multiple you earn is worth as much as the EBITDA you add.
Four phases, in sequence: baseline and decide, structural work, evidence, readiness and choice. Buyers do not pay for plans; they pay for two closed financial years that prove the plan worked.
Four preparation failures behind most repriced and broken deals: the missed budget, numbers that shift in diligence, the terminable key contract, the undecided founder. All of them optional.
Two legitimate routes to a transaction, what each optimises for, and the second exit: sell part now, build the platform together, and sell again at the platform's grade. As its base, or alongside it.
Twenty statements, five dimensions, forty points. Score yourself before a buyer does, and read which conversation you are actually ready for: process, partner, or build first.
What buyers actually price, and the bar to clear on each. Every lever is a work programme, not a diligence answer.
Levers 1 to 4 are the four levers from Buy and Build, seen from the seller's chair. Lever 5 is what 2026 added, and right now it moves valuations faster than any of the others.
The founder who will, sooner or later, sit across from a buyer. The adviser who prepares that meeting. And the investor on the other side of the table. One idea runs through every chapter: the multiple is not a market price you receive, it is a scorecard of the risks a buyer has to underwrite, and it is under your control if you start early enough.
Get the founder's 24-month exit playbook: the market data we underwrite as buyers, the five levers, the math of preparation, and the scorecard to run with your leadership team.
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This paper completes a set of three. Companion papers: Buy and Build in IT Services, the same market from the buyer's chair, and The AI-Native IT Services Company, the maturity ladder behind Lever 5.
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