Before lender credibility gets spent
Pressure-test debt support, DSCR, equity need, and lender-readiness gaps before asking a lender to underwrite a weak structure.
Berkshire-style acquisition discipline, adapted for the stage before LOI.
How the decision model works →Pre-LOI SMB acquisition deal screening
Bad deals start before diligence. They start when buyers trust the listing.
Paste the listing or upload the deal documents. ADE pressure-tests the financing, owner dependence, revenue durability, lender risk, and missing proof before you start paying other people to find the same problems later.
The goal is simple: decide whether the acquisition deserves another dollar or another hour.
No credit card required. Start with 3 free deal screens. Built for pre-LOI screening, SBA financeability, and buyer discipline.
Why run ADE first?
The cheap screen should happen before the expensive conviction.
A weak acquisition can start consuming lender goodwill, professional fees, travel, and weeks of attention long before formal diligence proves the problem. ADE is built to challenge the deal while walking away is still cheap.
Before diligence gets expensive
Use a cheap first screen before legal fees, CPA work, QoE spend, travel, and weeks of buyer attention pile up around the wrong deal.
Before the advisor conversation starts from zero
A surviving deal can be turned into an ADE Advisor Brief that carries the facts, assumptions, risks, open questions, and buyer profile into the next conversation.
ADE Acquisition Profile Score
How ADE Scores a Deal Without Letting the Score Make the Decision
ADE builds a 100-point Acquisition Profile Score across five public categories. The score describes the deal as presented; it does not get the final vote.
Score is not the final recommendation. Financeability, buyer/operator readiness, Post-Close Execution Risk, earnings durability, evidence quality, completeness, and hard risks can cap or change the final outcome.
That separation is intentional. A deal can look decent on a 100-point profile and still deserve caution or rejection when the facts underneath it are fragile.
See how ADE scores acquisitionsValuation & Structure
Price, seller financing, earnout support, transaction structure, and downside protection are read together instead of as isolated inputs.
Cash Flow Quality
Earnings quality, margin profile, operating-expense burden, CapEx needs, and the support behind adjustments.
Business Quality
Recurring revenue, cyclicality, revenue trend, and durability shape how much confidence the buyer should put in the case.
Concentration & Transition
Customer concentration, owner dependence, transition readiness, and handoff risk.
Asymmetry
ADE weighs downside exposure against structural protection so a superficially attractive deal does not hide fragile risk-reward.
Sample output
The score profiles the deal. The recommendation tells you what to do next.
A sample screen shows the ADE Acquisition Profile Score beside the recommendation, then explains the financing ceiling, DSCR, buyer risk warnings, proof gaps, watch items, strengths, weaknesses, and decision reasoning.
No credit card required. Start with 3 free deal screens. Built for pre-LOI screening, SBA financeability, and buyer discipline.
Demonstration only
Great Lakes HVAC Services
HVAC / home services sample analysis
Proceed with caution
Recommendation
Proceed with caution
Acquisition Profile Score
81 / 100
SBA Financing Ceiling
$1,633,757
Estimated DSCR
1.24x
Equity Required
$182,400
Hard Risk Flags
3
An Acquisition Profile Score of 81 / 100 does not mean “Proceed.” The profile is only one input. Financing pressure, hard risks, weak evidence, or post-close execution risk can still keep the recommendation at caution or reject.
ADE's financing ceiling is not a valuation target. It is a lender-style supportability check that helps buyers avoid anchoring on a price the cash flow may not support.
Hard flags
- Asking price above estimated financing support
- High owner dependence after close
- Broker financing claim needs lender-reviewed support
Watch items
- Revenue durability needs proof
- Add-backs need lender review
- Transition plan depends on seller handoff
ADE Advisor Brief
If the deal survives the screen, do not make your advisors start from scratch.
A saved ADE analysis can be turned into a printable Advisor Brief that carries the buyer's current case into lender, CPA, attorney, and deal-team conversations.
The screen helps decide whether the deal deserves another step. The Advisor Brief helps make that next step more organized.
Run a Deal and Build the BriefAdvisor-ready handoff
- ✓Recommendation and ADE Acquisition Profile Score
- ✓Financing support, DSCR, equity need, and structure assumptions
- ✓Buyer liquidity, acquisition history, and post-close operator plan
- ✓Hard risks, watch items, evidence gaps, and open diligence questions
- ✓A printable handoff for lenders, CPAs, attorneys, and the broader deal team
The Proof Gap
Find the proof gaps in your dealMost CIMs and listings do not give buyers enough information to make a serious decision.
ADE highlights what is missing, what needs to be verified, and what should be asked before a buyer trusts the deal.
Add-back support not shown
Customer concentration unclear
Seller role not explained
Expiring revenue not disclosed
Lender DSCR assumptions missing
Working capital needs unclear
Deal intake
How deal information gets into ADE
Start with whatever deal information you have. ADE is built to make intake easier, but it still treats extracted data as reviewable evidence - not blind truth.
Paste deal text
Paste listing, teaser, CIM summary, or broker notes directly into ADE.
Import public URL text
Try importing readable public page text from a listing URL when the site allows it.
Import visible page text
For gated or blocked sites, copy the visible listing text from your browser and paste it into ADE. ADE does not store third-party usernames, passwords, cookies, or private site sessions.
Review before parsing
ADE shows extracted text before parsing so the buyer can catch missing, noisy, or wrong information.
ADE does not use stored third-party logins, cookies, private site sessions, or credential scraping to access deal pages. If a site blocks public URL import, paste the listing text directly or use visible page text import.
Reality check
What ADE is checking
ADE looks for the places where a deal can appear attractive but still fail basic buyer, lender, or diligence reality.
SBA financing ceiling, not a target price
DSCR and estimated debt support
Buyer equity and seller note assumptions
Revenue durability and recurring revenue quality
Owner dependence and buyer fit
Customer concentration
CapEx and working capital pressure
LOI readiness and lender-support gaps
Hard risk flags and watch items
PLATFORM ACTIVITY
Saved deal screens. Structured decision outcomes.
ADE publishes aggregate counts of saved deal screens and structured decision outcomes recorded by the platform. These totals show the system being used for its core job: screening acquisitions and producing structured decision outputs before buyers commit deeper time and money.
No deal names, user information, financial details, or confidential data are shown.
Deals Screened
—
Site-wide count of saved Acquisition Decision Engine screens.
Decision Outcomes Issued
—
Proceed, caution, and reject calls generated by a structured acquisition screen.
Aggregate platform activity only. No deal details or user information are shown.
ADE vs open-ended tools
Why not just use ChatGPT or a spreadsheet?
Chatbots answer the prompt. Spreadsheets calculate what you already decided to model. ADE forces a structured pre-LOI review so obvious deal risks are harder to ignore.
Built around SBA-style financeability checks
Designed for self-funded searchers and SMB acquisition buyers
Uses structured deal inputs instead of open-ended chatbot prompting
Produces a documented analysis buyers can revisit
Helps organize lender, LOI, and diligence questions
Review need
AI chatbot
Spreadsheet
ADE
Structured acquisition framework
Depends on how well the prompt is written.
Depends on the template the buyer already built.
Built into the screen from intake through recommendation.
SBA financeability logic
Can discuss concepts, but may not force consistent assumptions.
Calculates only the model the buyer chooses to build.
Shows DSCR, equity, debt support, and financing ceiling together.
Deal risk warnings
May miss risks if the prompt omits them.
Usually separates numbers from qualitative risk.
Surfaces owner dependence, durability, lender, and proof gaps.
Missing proof questions
Answers what was asked.
Rarely challenges source quality on its own.
Documents what should be verified before the buyer trusts the deal.
Repeatable analysis record
Conversation history can be inconsistent.
Files drift as assumptions change.
Keeps a structured output buyers can revisit and hand to advisors.
Buyer discipline before LOI
Can help rationalize a deal if prompted that way.
Can reinforce the buyer's chosen case.
Forces a pre-LOI review so obvious deal risks are harder to ignore.
Buyer guides
Useful guides for screening deals before LOI
Plain-English resources for SMB buyers and searchers who want to pressure-test deal quality, financing support, and risk before the process gets expensive.
Pre-LOI Deal Screening
Screen an SMB acquisition before LOI with structured checks for financing, earnings quality, owner dependence, lender risk, and missing proof.
SBA Financing Supportability
Review SBA acquisition cash flow supportability, DSCR, management compensation, reserves, and conservative earnings basis before lender review.
SDE and Add-Back Sanity Checks
Review seller discretionary earnings, test common add-backs, and see how unsupported adjustments can distort debt support and buyer cash flow.
CIM and Teaser Review Checklist
Use a practical CIM and teaser checklist to identify missing financial evidence, owner dependence, customer concentration, and lender-readiness gaps.
ADE vs AI Chatbots
See why acquisition buyers need structured underwriting discipline, evidence states, DSCR consistency, and advisor judgment beyond generic AI summaries.
ChatGPT Acquisition Analysis
Compare generic AI deal summaries with a structured acquisition decision framework for extraction, underwriting, debt support, and advisor handoff.
Advisor-Ready Acquisition Screening
Prepare acquisition assumptions, supported facts, open questions, and advisor handoff materials before LOI discussions.
Lower Middle Market Deal Screening
Screen lower middle market acquisitions for adjusted EBITDA quality, capital stack pressure, DSCR, sponsor equity, QoE readiness, and management depth.
Boundaries
ADE is a pre-LOI discipline layer, not a permission slip.
The point is not to make every deal feel more scientific. The point is to slow the buyer down before effort, lender credibility, and emotional energy start doing the underwriting.
ADE is not a chatbot, scraper, broker, lender, valuation firm, CPA, or attorney.
ADE does not guarantee financing, valuation, buyer returns, or deal quality.
ADE is not investment, lending, legal, tax, valuation, or diligence advice.
ADE is strongest before LOI, when the buyer still has room to stop and think.
Common questions
Questions worth asking before you trust the output
ADE should make the buyer more skeptical, not less. These answers keep the tool in the right lane.
Can ADE tell me what to pay?+
No. ADE estimates financing capacity and risk. The SBA financing ceiling is not a target purchase price.
A financeable deal can still be overpriced, fragile, or wrong for the buyer.
Can ADE guarantee SBA financing?+
No. ADE does not approve loans, issue commitments, or replace an SBA lender.
It estimates whether the deal appears to support debt under selected assumptions and highlights lender-readiness gaps.
What is the ADE Advisor Brief?+
The ADE Advisor Brief turns a saved deal screen into a structured handoff for the people helping evaluate the acquisition.
It organizes the recommendation, financing view, buyer profile, assumptions, risks, evidence gaps, and open questions so lender, CPA, attorney, and deal-team conversations do not have to start from scratch.
What information do I need?+
Start with whatever deal information you have: listing text, teaser notes, CIM excerpts, broker notes, revenue, SDE or EBITDA, asking price, seller financing, customer concentration, owner dependence, revenue quality, and transition risk.
Incomplete inputs can still be screened, but weak inputs should lower confidence.
Does ADE replace diligence?+
No. ADE belongs before the expensive part of diligence begins.
It helps buyers decide whether a deal deserves CPA, attorney, lender, quality-of-earnings, or operator time in the first place.
Who is ADE for?+
ADE is built for SMB buyers, independent searchers, acquisition entrepreneurs, and small holdcos that need a disciplined pre-LOI screen.
It is not built to justify every deal. It is built to make weak deals harder to ignore.
Pre-LOI screening
Make the deal earn the expensive work.
Test the profile. Pressure-test the financing. Document the risk. Build the Advisor Brief. Move forward only when the deal earns it.
No credit card required. Start with 3 free deal screens. Built for pre-LOI screening, SBA financeability, and buyer discipline.