Recent Posts
Social•Jan 16, 2026
2026 Vertical SaaS Outlook: Buyers Return, AI Valuation Shifts
How do we see vertical Software M&A and fund raising shaping up for 2026? A lot of founders we speak with are trying to figure out what 2026 might actually look like if they're thinking about raising capital or selling. In this episode of Vista Point Advisors Path to Exit podcast, Jeffrey Koons and I break down what we saw play out in 2025 and what we're watching closely heading into 2026. We talk about the return of strategic buyers, how private equity underwriting is shifting, what's changed in the debt markets, and how AI is really impacting vertical SaaS valuations (and how it isn't). If you're a software founder trying to get a clearer read on timing, deal structure, or negotiating leverage, I think you'll find this one useful: Our website: https://lnkd.in/guRiTcC7 Spotify: https://lnkd.in/gTc-FyG7 Apple Podcasts: https://lnkd.in/gPckCRaY
By Michael Lyon
Social•Jan 14, 2026
Choose Unconflicted Banks that Prioritize Founder Interests
What does it mean to be a founder-focused investment bank? Founder-focused means that a bank is fully unconflicted and focused on the interests of founders. In other words, the bank doesn't accept revenue from anyone that could be a buyer...
By Michael Lyon
Social•Jan 12, 2026
Six Key Steps to Close an M&A Deal
What are the basic milestones of a process (M&A or capital raise)? 1. Pre-marketing Complete the marketing materials (information packet and buyer list) and get your house in order. 2. Marketing Reach out to buyers, execute NDAs, and share marketing...
By Michael Lyon
Social•Jan 9, 2026
Management Pitches Are Friendly, Not Tense, Focus on Fit
When you're going to sell your business or raise capital, what should you expect from management presentations? Generally, you should expect those meetings to be friendly. Buyers will be asking questions, but they're also trying to sell themselves. The main...
By Michael Lyon
Social•Jan 8, 2026
Founder‑Led SaaS Thrives Amid Market Headwinds, 2025 Success
Thank you to all of the founders, partners, and colleagues we worked with in 2025. Despite headwinds in the broader market, founder-led SaaS companies continued to outperform, drawing meaningful buyer interest and achieving strong valuations. Last year, Vista Point Advisors...
By Michael Lyon
Social•Jan 8, 2026
Beware Buyer Tactics—Lean on Your Banker
What are some ways buyers try to get an unfair advantage in a process? 1. Create artificial deadlines for the founder to give them exclusivity. 2. Encourage founders to sign an LOI early, without providing much detail on what the...
By Michael Lyon
Social•Jan 7, 2026
Five Years of Growth Leads to Strategic Exit
After Sarah Rowell and Scott Mackenzie spent five years increasing Kantola Training Solutions' revenue, client retention, and learner engagement, they saw the market starting to consolidate and decided to make a strategic move to maximize value; either through acquisition or...
By Michael Lyon
Social•Jan 6, 2026
Roofle Acquired by SalesRabbit: A New Growth Chapter
Congrats to Travis Harvego , Joe Hoffman , and the ROOFLE team for their recent acquisition by SalesRabbit . Best of luck as you kick off the next stage in your journey. Glad we could help. Check out the press...
By Michael Lyon
Social•Jan 6, 2026
Predictable Revenue Drives Higher SaaS Valuations
Valuations of software companies are highly dependent on the predictability of revenue. In other words, different classes of revenue are valued differently depending on their predictability. The more predictable, the better. To help founders distinguish between the different classes of...
By Michael Lyon
Social•Jan 5, 2026
Engage Multiple Buyers to Maximize Synergies and Outcomes
Different buyers value companies differently. Only by talking to a broad spectrum of buyers will you ensure that you: * Uncover all potential synergies * Make the process hyper-competitive * Unlock the best outcome #founders #pathtoexit
By Michael Lyon
Social•Dec 23, 2025
Parallel Due Diligence Compresses Timeline and Boosts Competition
How long should due diligence take? Ad hoc diligence begins Day One of a process, but the detailed, confirmatory diligence right before closing the deal should last roughly 3-4 weeks (assuming you run a tightly controlled process). If it were...
By Michael Lyon
Social•Dec 19, 2025
Organize Diligence and Keep Competition to Prevent Retrades
One of the most frustrating things for a founder selling their business: A retrade. Retrading is when a buyer tries to renegotiate the terms of a transaction late in a process due to "new" information that arose during final diligence....
By Michael Lyon
Social•Dec 17, 2025
Highlight Unique B2C Strengths to Secure Better Sale
A key aspect of marketing a B2C software company is helping prospective buyers/investors evaluate the asset on its own merits instead of against the backdrop of B2B software. Unfortunately, B2C software businesses usually don't receive the same caliber of treatment...
By Michael Lyon
Social•Dec 16, 2025
Avoid These Founder Exit Pitfalls with Goldman Sachs
In our latest episode of Vista Point Advisors ' podcast, The Path to Exit, I sat down with Sarah Letourneau from Goldman Sachs to talk about the most common pitfalls we see founders encounter when preparing for an exit. Listen...
By Michael Lyon
Video•Dec 16, 2025
Ep 35 | Pitfalls to Avoid on the Path to an Exit (with Goldman Sachs)
The episode of "The Path to Exit" tackles the most common pitfalls software and internet founders face when preparing for a liquidity event, featuring Sarah Letourneau of Goldman Sachs. Letourneau frames the discussion around three core themes—timing, valuation anchoring,...
By Michael Lyon
Social•Dec 13, 2025
Investment Bank Boosts Sale Price 40% with Broader Marketing
What's the value an investment bank can provide? As an example, we had one founder who was on the verge of signing an LOI with a buyer, but then decided to engage us first. In a 3-week turnaround, we marketed...
By Michael Lyon
Social•Dec 11, 2025
Key Triggers That Signal It's Time to Raise or Exit
We frequently get asked how a founder can tell when it's the best time to think about raising capital or making an exit. The truth is, it depends on a handful of factors. In this video, I walk through some...
By Michael Lyon
Social•Dec 10, 2025
SMB SaaS Can Command Enterprise‑Level ARR Multiples
SaaS companies serving the SMB space are often overlooked as potential investment opportunities because, when compared to enterprise SaaS providers, these companies tend to have higher churn and less well-known (or even unknown) customers. Despite these relative weaknesses, if positioned...
By Michael Lyon
Social•Dec 8, 2025
VCs Pose Greater Risk to Tech Than Private Equity
In some sectors, private equity has a reputation for loading companies with debt, and those companies eventually implode under the weight. But we haven't seen this so much with tech-oriented private equity firms. Rather, venture capital money can be more...
By Michael Lyon
Social•Dec 5, 2025
Recapitalize to Replace Early Investors with Growth Capital
Oftentimes as your company grows, you either outgrow your investor or they've passed their investment horizon and are looking to exit. For example, you may have a smaller fund invest early on, but then your company does well and you...
By Michael Lyon
Social•Dec 3, 2025
Founder Shares Bank Selection Insight for Leap Recap
We're grateful for founders like Patrick Fingles who rival us in the amount of energy they bring to a transaction. Special thanks, Patrick, for sharing your firsthand account of selecting a bank to represent you and the executive team at...
By Michael Lyon
Social•Dec 2, 2025
Vista Point Advisors Launches New NYC Office
I’m excited to share that Vista Point Advisors is opening a new office right in the heart of New York City! This is a big step for us as we keep growing and getting closer to the amazing founders, investors,...
By Michael Lyon
Social•Dec 1, 2025
PE Fuels Growth for Companies at Scalability Inflection Point
What a private equity firm is particularly good at is identifying companies that have reached an inflection point in terms of scalability. If a firm can spot a company with a proven thesis, they can invest behind that knowing it's...
By Michael Lyon
Social•Nov 28, 2025
US Buyers Pay Premium for Software Thanks to Bigger TAM
In the international M&A/private equity markets, US buyers/investors tend to be the most aggressive in terms of valuation (specifically for software & internet companies). The primary reason is that TAM in the US represents a much larger opportunity compared to...
By Michael Lyon
Social•Nov 26, 2025
Secure Reliable Term Sheets by Leveraging Early Negotiation
Many first-time founders consider the signing of a term sheet as the signal that the deal is nearing its close and the majority of the terms are set in stone. These founders are then surprised when, during exclusivity, the buyer...
By Michael Lyon
Social•Nov 25, 2025
Build a Dream Team Before Hiring an Investment Bank
What key things should founders look for when hiring an investment bank to help sell their business or raise capital? Most software founders don't know exactly who needs to be involved in order to pull off a successful sale or...
By Michael Lyon
Social•Nov 24, 2025
Investment Banks Connect Non‑hub Founders to Buyers
Who you know matters. If you own a software company that isn't headquartered in a city known for being a tech hub, one of the greatest benefits of hiring an investment bank is access to buyers. #founders #pathtoexit
By Michael Lyon
Social•Nov 21, 2025
Choose a Sell‑side only Bank to Avoid Conflicts
What does it mean to be an unconflicted investment bank? Unconflicted means that a bank doesn't take revenue from anyone who could be a potential buyer, or who doesn't trade favors with someone who could be a potential buyer. Conflicts of...
By Michael Lyon
Social•Nov 19, 2025
How Founders Should Navigate Private Equity Inquiries
When we bring on a new client, we often find they've been receiving calls/emails from private equity firms for some time. As part of those calls, PE firms tend to ask a lot of questions and founders aren't always sure how...
By Michael Lyon
Video•Nov 18, 2025
34 | Assembling Your Software M&A Dream Team
Welcome to "The Path to Exit" podcast, where host Mike Lyon and guest Mike Greco break down the essential members of a software‑M&A deal team. The episode focuses on the step‑by‑step process of assembling a "dream team"—private‑wealth advisors, investment bankers,...
By Michael Lyon
Social•Nov 17, 2025
Investors Chase Metrics; Strategics Chase Product Fit
Is the process the same for M&A vs. a capital raise? While the process is largely the same, there are some differences. The biggest difference: investors tend to be hyper focused on metrics, while strategics tend to be more focused on...
By Michael Lyon
Social•Nov 15, 2025
Minority Recap Keeps Control, Majority Sells Liquidity
The fundamental difference between a minority and majority recap: Control. If you sell a majority of your business, you'll receive a high level of liquidity, but all the key decisions will now be out of your control. With a minority recap, you'll retain...
By Michael Lyon
Social•Nov 12, 2025
Avoid Common SaaS Gross Margin Miscalculations Before Funding
A SaaS company's gross margin is a key point of discussion in any M&A or capital raise transaction. As such, any SaaS founder looking to engage with potential buyers should ensure that they've properly classified costs related to the calculation of...
By Michael Lyon
Social•Nov 10, 2025
Listen to Buyers: Align Messaging with Their True Priorities
Sometimes the most impactful synergies are not that obvious. We once kicked off a process selling a company to a major strategic buyer, with the initial thesis that the company's product represented a potential upsell opportunity. Further into the process,...
By Michael Lyon
Social•Oct 31, 2025
Question Investor's “Market” Terms; Verify Real Range
The terms of an investment will range on a scale of founder-friendly to investor-friendly. Investors won't always give you the full sense of that range. When presenting a given term (like % of a transaction placed in escrow), investors will...
By Michael Lyon
Social•Oct 24, 2025
Exercise.com Joins Daxko in Strategic Acquisition
Congrats to Joel Ohman, Alicia Howson, John Gadbois, Joel VanderPol, and the team at Exercise.com for their recent acquisition by Daxko. Best of luck as you kick off the next stage in your journey. Glad we could help. Check out the press...
By Michael Lyon
Social•Oct 24, 2025
Prioritize Strategic Fit Over Valuation in Exits
Selling your business or closing a capital raise transaction isn't just about valuation, it's also about overall fit. When talking with buyers, make sure you understand what their strategic objectives will be moving forward. Verify that they share your values and...
By Michael Lyon
Social•Oct 22, 2025
Accrual Accounting Essential for SaaS Founder Valuations
Many of the private SaaS founders we work with don't realize that recognizing revenue in accordance with principles of GAAP and accrual accounting is not just a practice for publicly traded companies. We've found that SaaS founders, for convenience and in...
By Michael Lyon
Social•Oct 20, 2025
Aim for a 3‑6 Month Transaction Timeline
How long should a transaction process last? Though there can be significant variance, a well-structured transaction process typically takes 3-6 months. From when you officially start marketing the business to when you close the deal, 3-6 months should give you enough time...
By Michael Lyon
Social•Oct 15, 2025
Minority Funding Still Means Investor Decision Power
Founders are often interested in minority transactions for one reason: Control. In a founder's mind, if they retain majority ownership in the company, then they'll fully control the strategic direction of the company, even if they give up a seat on the...
By Michael Lyon
Social•Oct 14, 2025
Know Buyers' Past Valuations to Set Realistic Expectations
In terms of valuation, it's important to consider a buyer's historical track record. Understanding how buyers have valued businesses in the past will give you clues to whether they're a value buyer or premium buyer. Also, in the event that a...
By Michael Lyon