Your Exit.
Your Terms.
Most trade business owners leave millions on the table — or never sell at all. We take your business to our network of investment banks and dealer-brokers to find out what real buyers will actually pay — before you commit to anything. Real feedback and real numbers, at no cost to you.
Find Out What Buyers
Would Actually Pay.
Most trade business owners have no idea what their business is actually worth to a real buyer. Not what their accountant thinks, not what a broker promised them over the phone. What a serious buyer with capital would actually put on the table. That's what the Market Analysis tells you — and we get that answer before you've committed to selling a single thing.
Market Analysis
We review every submission personally. If your business qualifies, Finn will reach out within 48 hours.
We've received your submission and will review it within 48 hours. If your business qualifies, someone from our team will call you directly to get the full picture before we go to market.
This Isn't for Everyone.
Here's Who It's For.
You've built something real. But if you stopped showing up tomorrow, the whole thing slows down — or stops. You know it. Your team knows it. And any serious buyer will figure it out inside of 30 days of due diligence. That's the founder trap. And it's fixable — but only if you start before you need to sell. The Market Analysis shows you exactly where you stand — before you commit to anything.
You're running a trade business doing $5M–$15M in annual revenue — HVAC, electrical, plumbing, roofing, landscaping, or any skilled trade. You've got real employees, real customers, and real revenue. What you don't have is a business that looks sellable on paper to the people who write the checks.
You're thinking about selling or raising capital in the next 1–10 years. Not someday vaguely. Actually. And you want the number you walk away with to reflect what you've spent the last decade building — not what a buyer thinks they can get away with paying because you showed up unprepared.
After the Market Analysis,
You Decide.
The Market Analysis doesn't commit you to anything. You get the data. You make the call. Here's what happens depending on what you decide.
per month. No exceptions.
The free Market Analysis tells us if your business is the right fit. The sooner we know, the sooner we can move. Spots go fast.
Who You're Working With
Doug is an attorney, serial entrepreneur, and business exit strategist with over two decades of experience helping founder-led businesses scale, systematize, and sell at maximum value. He started his entrepreneurial journey at age ten and has since founded and sold multiple businesses of his own — giving him firsthand experience on both sides of the deal table that most advisors simply don't have. Over a 23-year legal career he has served as counsel to thousands of organizations across for-profit, nonprofit, educational, and governmental sectors, and lectures frequently on personal wealth transfer and business succession planning. In 2024 he co-founded Hedgehog Solutions and later co-founded Punchlist Advisors, developing The Punchlist — a framework built specifically to prepare founder-built trade businesses for premium exits. He leads every client engagement personally.
Finn co-founded Hedgehog Solutions in 2024 and built it into one of the fastest-growing CFO advisory firms in the region, learning exactly how money moves through a business — where it leaks, where it stalls, and where owners leave value on the table without knowing it. The turning point came when a trade business client went looking for capital and the number that came back was over 8 figures. Nobody in that room had seen it coming. Finn started digging into why, found the same pattern in trade business after trade business, and co-founded Punchlist Advisors to do something about it. He makes the first call after every Market Analysis request. His job is to understand what you've built, what you want from a sale, and whether Punchlist Advisors is the right fit — before anyone's time gets wasted.
Josh has led operations since 2005 — Chief Trading Officer, running trading and operations, at a registered investment advisor, then director of operations at a college, COO of a for-profit international academy, and executive vice president at a law firm. Across four industries his instinct never changed: find where a business works harder than it should, and redesign it to run leaner, with less dependence on any one person. At exit, that's the whole game. In 2024 he co-founded Hedgehog Solutions, and brings that same operational instinct to every Punchlist Advisors engagement. His job is to find what's holding your multiple down — owner dependency, customer concentration, a thin management bench — and fix it while there's still time.
The Founder Trap
Most trade business owners don't realize they've built a job, not a company — until it's too late to fix before the sale. Doug McCarthy's guide to getting exit-ready: what buyers actually look for, what drives your multiple up or down, and how to show up to the deal table with leverage.