Most conversations about business acquisition focus on preparing an owner to sell. This episode flips that lens. Brian sits down with Stephanie Quay, founder of Five Experts, whose work centers on preparing a buyer to buy, and unpacks what it actually takes to move through the five phases of acquisition: aspiration, search, deal financing, ownership and value creation, and eventual exit or succession.

Stephanie breaks down why proprietary search tends to outperform brokered deals for many searchers, how to build (and constantly adjust) a buy box without losing focus, and the discipline required to avoid falling in love with a deal before the numbers earn it.

She and Brian also dig into a newer model Five Experts has been piloting: matching searchers directly with founders who are one to three years out from exit, letting an operator  ...