Apps & Tools · Live returns model
Entry, leverage, growth, exit: the four levers of the deal, live
Entry, leverage, growth, exit: the four levers of a 7.2x HVAC acquisition, with IRR and MOIC moving as you drag.
The brief, verbatim
Private equity, lower middle market. We're evaluating the acquisition of Trident Mechanical Services (fictional target, real discipline): commercial HVAC service and installation, Southeast US, $118M revenue, $16.8M adjusted EBITDA, founder retiring, asking 7.2x. Roughly 60 percent of EBITDA is recurring service contracts; the rest is project work. We'd put 45 percent equity against debt at today's rates.
Build me the deal book: quality-of-earnings red flags to chase in their adjustments — what does "adjusted" hide in a business like this; the value-creation plan — pricing, route density, tuck-ins, back-office — with what each lever is realistically worth; the 100-day plan from close; and a returns model I can actually play with — entry multiple, leverage, growth, exit multiple as levers, showing IRR and MOIC as they move, because my partners argue about assumptions and I want to settle it live in the room. Then the IC memo: do we bid 7.2, bid lower, or walk.
What the room did
The returns model from the Trident deal book, made to settle assumption arguments live in the room: drag the levers, open the year-by-year debt and free-cash-flow schedule, watch IRR and MOIC move. The deal book stands on the Venture & Private Equity shelf.
The deliverable
Build your own
You have a deal to argue over. Brief the studio in plain English and watch a room of specialists model it live.
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