For independent sponsors & investors

You underwrite
the deal.
We underwrite
the execution.

Five Experts gives independent sponsors the infrastructure for CEO placement, diligence support, and post-close operator support on $1M–$5M EBITDA deals — with every expert matched to your deal and coordinated through your dashboard. No internal team needed.

Start a CEO placement Join Five Experts
CEO placement — 10% of year-1 salary. Platform membership — $295/month.
What you get — free tier
Invitations to curated group Zoom sessions
Resource library & playbooks
100-day plan template
Diligence checklist
1 free expert intake call
Join free
Upgrade at $295/mo to unlock
Built around your execution needs — the right support at the right phase for your specific deal
Coordinated expert matching — right expert, right phase, within 24 hours
Acquisition lifecycle organized in your operator's dashboard
Capital stack introductions — SBA lenders, attorneys, equity sources
LOI and deal review — written feedback within 5 business days
Curated group Zoom sessions + deal war room
100-day plan review with written feedback
Monthly P&L benchmarks by industry
Operator peer matching for portfolio
Expert office hours — all domains
Sponsor network office hours
Value creation playbooks in your dashboard
Direct chat with hired experts
Integrated Zoom for expert sessions
Exit readiness tracking — annual review with an expert
Join for platform membership — $295/mo Talk to us about CEO placement →
10%
of year-1 salary — CEO placement fee
Exec fit
behavioral and execution assessment before any candidate is surfaced
24hr
to warm introduction once mutual interest confirmed
$295
per month — platform membership
Operator at work
The execution gap
Every deal has financial risk.
We underwrite the execution risk.
Inside your dashboard

The right expert for every phase.
Matched. Booked. Done.

We match you with the right expert for your phase and situation. Browse, book, and get to work — all inside your dashboard.

FiveExperts
SP
⬛ Dashboard
📅 Booked Engagements
★ Bookmarked Experts
💡 Suggested Experts
💬 Chat
📚 Value Creation Content
👤 Profile Settings
→ Logout
Suggested Experts
✓ Matched for your portfolio stage
These experts have been selected to support you at every phase of the lower middle market acquisition lifecycle.
CFO
Fractional CFO TOP
SBA Compliance · Cash Flow · P&L
$200/session
Finance SBA Post-close
SBA compliance and cash flow normalisation across 3 LMM acquisitions. Builds the reporting structure your bank will trust.
MA
M&A Attorney
Deal Structuring · LOI · Capital Stack
$350/session
Legal LOI Deal Structure
Specialises in SBA-financed LMM deals. LOI terms, rep & warranty, and capital stack structuring that protects your downside.
Suggested experts
✓ Matched to Phase 3
Fractional CFO
SBA compliance · Cash flow
$200 / session · Available this week
Book session
M&A Attorney
Deal structuring · LOI
$350 / session
Book session
QoE Specialist
Quality of earnings · Due diligence
$300 / session
Book session
Upcoming sessions
Fractional CFO · Zoom
Today · 2:00 PM · 60 min
M&A Attorney · Zoom
Thursday · 10:00 AM
Join as a sponsor →
What makes Five Experts different

You funded the deal.
We make sure execution
delivers.

Well-capitalized acquirers build internal benches of operators and functional experts deployed after every close to protect the investment and drive value creation. Independent sponsors in the LMM rarely have that infrastructure. Most value destruction happens post-close — not in the deal. The seller leaves. The operator is running a business they have owned for three weeks with no playbook and no one to call. Five Experts is the execution infrastructure you don't have to build. We coordinate the right experts around your operator at every phase — so the multiple you underwrote actually gets built.

Without Five Experts
Your operator is flying blind post-close.

They don't know what they don't know. They're stitching together advisors on their own, starting from zero at every phase, and making expensive decisions without the pattern recognition to know what's coming. That's your capital at risk.

Five Experts
We know your operator's situation. We tell them who they need.

After an intake call, we make purposeful recommendations — the right expert or team for the phase, the deal type, and what's actually at stake. When the phase changes, we already know who comes next. Your operator is never starting over.

What that means for you
Execution infrastructure. Without building a team.

Your operator gets the same coordinated expert support that well-capitalized acquirers build internally — 100-day plan support, key-person risk management, value creation roadmap, and expert guidance through exit. That is how you protect and build the multiple.

Full lifecycle coverage — from search through exit
Phase 1
Aspiration
ETA coaches · search capital · acquisition readiness
Phase 2
Search & Diligence
QoE · commercial DD · financial analysts
Phase 3
Deal & Financing
M&A attorneys · SBA lenders · deal structuring
Phase 4 — longest
Ownership & Growth
Fractional CFO · operators · deal war room
Phase 5
Succession & Exit
Exit planners · bankers · EBITDA optimization
At every phase transition, we already know your operator's situation. We don't ask them to start over — we tell them who they need next and make the introduction. That's how the multiple gets protected.
Built around the lifecycle

Your operator needs more than an expert.
They need a system.

The Five Experts dashboard organizes the full acquisition lifecycle around your operator. Value creation content, expert recommendations, and phase-specific resources so they always know where they are, what comes next, and who to call. That is how the value you underwrote gets built.

Talk to us about your portfolio →
What Five Experts offers sponsors

Three services.
One coordinated platform.

Well-capitalized acquirers protect their investments with execution teams — functional experts deployed to drive value creation from close through exit. Independent sponsors in the LMM rarely have that infrastructure. Five Experts is built to fill that gap. CEO placement, coordinated diligence, and post-close execution support — managed through one platform, built around your deal.

Most requested
CEO Placement
10% of year-1 salary
Behaviorally matched to your deal — not sourced from a job board. Candidates are assessed for execution fit before you ever see their name. No fee until placement confirmed.
  • Execution and behavioral fit assessed before candidates are surfaced
  • Deal brief prepared by Five Experts — blind on sponsor identity
  • Candidates briefed on deal, comp, and expectations before any intro
  • Mutual interest confirmed independently before introduction is made
  • Warm introduction — calendar invite with debrief within 24 hours
Start a placement
Diligence Stack
Project rate
Full LOI package — QoE, commercial DD, legal DD, and ops assessment coordinated through one engagement.
  • Quality of earnings (QoE)
  • Commercial DD — customer validation
  • Legal DD — risk identification
  • Ops assessment — key-person risk
  • Capital stack introductions — SBA lenders, structuring attorneys, equity sources
Talk to our team
Platform Membership
$295/mo
The execution infrastructure your deal needs — coordinated expert support across the full acquisition lifecycle, organized around your operator from search through exit.
  • Built around your execution needs — the right support at the right phase for your specific deal
  • Coordinated expert matching — right expert, right phase, within 24 hours
  • Acquisition lifecycle organized in your operator's dashboard — content, resources, and expert recommendations mapped to their phase
  • Capital stack introductions — SBA lenders, structuring attorneys, and equity sources
  • LOI and deal review — written feedback within 5 business days
  • Curated group Zoom sessions — one per phase
  • Deal war room — coordinated execution support from Day 1
  • 100-day plan review with written feedback
  • Monthly P&L benchmarks by industry
  • Operator peer matching — at your deal stage
  • Expert office hours — all domains
  • Sponsor network office hours
  • Value creation playbooks — saved in your dashboard
  • Direct chat with hired experts
  • Integrated Zoom for expert sessions
  • Exit readiness tracking — annual review with an expert
Join Five Experts
How CEO placement works

Execution-matched.
Not just experienced.

Most CEO placement finds candidates with the right resume. Five Experts matches on execution fit — how the candidate operates under pressure, leads through ambiguity, and drives value creation in an LMM environment.

1
You share the deal
We prepare a blind brief — no company name, no sponsor name. Just the deal, the role, and what success looks like.
2
Behavioral assessment
We assess execution fit before any candidate is surfaced — how they operate under pressure, lead through ambiguity, and create value in an LMM context.
3
Mutual interest confirmed
Compensation, equity, and expectations confirmed with the candidate. Both sides confirm interest independently — no awkward introductions.
4
Warm introduction
Calendar invite. Phone number in the location field. Debrief within 24 hours. No fee until placement is confirmed.
Without Five Experts
  • ✕CEO placement is ad hoc — job boards, warm intros, no structured matching
  • ✕No behavioral assessment — candidates matched on experience alone
  • ✕Post-close support is fragmented — advisors operating independently
  • ✕No structured support between close and exit
With Five Experts
  • ✓Execution and behavioral fit assessed before you see a name
  • ✓Blind brief — candidate doesn't know sponsor identity until mutual interest confirmed
  • ✓Coordinated post-close execution support through Phase 5
  • ✓No fee until placement is confirmed

Every candidate placed through Five Experts is behaviorally assessed for execution fit — not just matched on experience. The right operator in the right business changes the outcome at exit.

The enterprise value of execution

How much value does the right operator actually create?

Enter your deal assumptions and see the financial impact of execution risk — and what Five Experts support is worth in enterprise value terms.

Minimum amount: $10,000 · Typical LMM range: $5M–$25M revenue
Current operating margin (%)
Enterprise value multiple based on EBITDA
Conservative growth improvement from stronger execution
4%
1%4%8%12%20%
Efficiency gains driven by better operating leadership
4%
1%4%8%
Illustrative Enterprise Value Impact
Current Enterprise Value
—
New EBITDA After Lift
—
New Enterprise Value
—
Incremental Enterprise Value Created
—
Net Value Created (After Execution Costs)
—
Illustrative Return on Execution
—
Illustrative example. Execution investment includes Five Experts fees and associated operating support. Actual results vary based on business, market, and execution conditions.
From sponsors and operators

Execution determines
what you exit at.

The blind brief process is what sold me. My previous placement process involved six months of awkward conversations. Five Experts confirmed mutual interest before we ever spoke. The CEO we placed has been in seat for two years and is the best operator I've worked with.
Michael T.
Independent sponsor · $5.2M EBITDA deal, Midwest
We were underwriting a business with a key-person risk we couldn't fully diligence. Five Experts put us in front of an operations specialist who had seen exactly this structure before. That conversation changed our offer structure and protected us post-close.
Rachel W.
Independent sponsor · LMM deal, $3.8M EBITDA
I think of the platform membership as operating partner infrastructure without the operating partner cost. For a sponsor doing two or three deals a year, the economics are obvious.
Chris L.
Independent sponsor · Serial acquirer
Common questions

What to expect.

How quickly will I be matched with an expert?
Within 24 hours of your intake call. Once you upgrade, we schedule a 30-minute call to understand your deal stage, business type, and what you are working through — then make a purposeful introduction with context on both sides. Not an algorithm. A curated match.
What if the match isn't right?
Tell us and we will rematch. Expert matching is not a one-time event — it is an ongoing relationship. If a match does not work for any reason, we make another one at no additional cost.
How is this different from hiring a standalone advisor or consultant?
A standalone advisor works for themselves. Five Experts is a coordinated system that works for your operator — matching the right expert at the right phase and ensuring continuity as the deal evolves. No single advisor covers search, diligence, close, Year 1 operations, and exit. Five Experts does. That is the difference between a consultant and a system.
How is Five Experts different from a coach or advisor?
A coach gives you frameworks. An advisor gives you opinions. Five Experts is a coordinated system — vetted operators who have done exactly what you are doing, matched to your specific phase, and coordinated so knowledge transfers between experts as your deal evolves. It is the difference between a map and a team that has walked the path together.

The transfer is coming.
Be ready for it.

Five Experts is the coordinated system built to support sponsors and operators through all five phases — CEO placement, diligence, and the full post-close lifecycle.

Start a CEO placement Join Five Experts