Pre-LOI desk for field & home services platforms
We help lean M&A teams at field and home services platforms win more deals by running the entire pre-LOI phase. Every target is sourced, normalized and IC-ready, so your pipeline keeps moving while you're in diligence. No new hire required.
Built for 0–2 person M&A teams at field & home services platforms.
30 minutes. No obligation. Start with a 30-day paid pilot, not a long contract.
The problem
When one or two people own M&A, every live deal pulls them out of everything else. The cost shows up months later, in the deals you never saw.
QoE calls, legal markups and lender requests take over the week. Owner conversations go quiet, and when the deal closes you restart outreach from cold.
CostA lumpy pipeline and quarters with nothing to bring to IC.
Cash-basis books, owner comp run through the P&L, personal add-backs, maintenance agreements booked three different ways. Every target has to be rebuilt before you know if it's any good.
CostHours per target before a first view, so most never get one.
Banker-run processes arrive with tight first-round dates. Without bandwidth to triage, good books get passed on or read in a rush at 11pm.
CostMissed deadlines and shallow screens on the deals that matter.
Recurring versus one-time revenue, technician retention, customer concentration, a defensible range. Pulling it together ad hoc delays every decision.
CostSlower LOIs, and proprietary deals lost to buyers who move first.
What changes
The desk gives a one- or two-person team the coverage of a full pre-LOI function, without the seat.
Your target universe is built, refreshed and worked every week, not just between deals.
Financials normalized to one standard, so a $3M and a $15M business sit side by side and compare cleanly.
CIMs and teasers triaged against your buy box, with a clear pursue-or-pass view and the questions to ask next.
A consistent screening memo for every target worth pursuing: fit, quality of revenue, risks and an indicative range.
Your hours go to owner conversations, negotiations and live deals, not spreadsheets and data pulls.
Dedicated pre-LOI capacity without recruiting, training or adding a seat to the org chart.
How it works
Not software, not a list vendor and not a banker. We work as an extension of your deal team, on your weekly deal call and in your data rooms, and take the pre-LOI work off your plate. You don't hire, train or manage anyone.
We pressure-test your thesis and lock the buy box: service lines, geographies, size bands and deal-breakers.
We build and keep refreshing the universe of businesses that fit, and keep every target moving toward a first conversation.
Financials spread to one standard, add-backs tested, revenue quality flagged, and inbound CIMs triaged against your criteria.
Targets worth pursuing arrive with a screening memo, an indicative range and an LOI-readiness checklist.
Services & deliverables
Finished work, in your templates, sent to you by email. Every piece answers one question: should this deal go to IC?
A living universe of businesses that fit your buy box by service line, geography and size. Refreshed, deduplicated and ready for outreach, so you're never starting from a blank sheet.
Every inbound book triaged inside the process timeline, with a clear pursue-or-pass view and the diligence questions that actually matter.
Add-backs, owner comp, revenue recognition and one-time items adjusted to a consistent basis, so every target compares like-for-like.
A standard memo for each target worth pursuing: thesis fit, quality of revenue, key risks and an indicative valuation range. Your committee sees the same format every time.
Target research, tailored outreach drafts and follow-up tracking, so first conversations keep happening while you're focused on a close.
Sharpen your thesis, size bands and geographic priorities, so the pipeline points at deals your IC will actually approve.
Before & after
Without the desk
With the desk
See what your pipeline would look like with the desk running.
Track record
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Why Corp-Dev
| Factor | Corp-Dev desk | Hire an associate | Sell-side banker | Generalist freelancer |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Whose side | Yours: buy-side only | Yours | The seller's | Varies |
| Time to first deliverable | Within the pilot | Months to recruit and ramp | Only when they have a book | Depends on brief |
| Cost structure | Monthly, scoped to volume | Salary, bonus, benefits | Paid on the seller's success | Hourly, variable |
| Field & home services context | Core focus | Depends on the hire | Varies by bank | Rarely |
| Output standard | Same memo format, every target | Builds over time | Marketing documents | Ad hoc |
We don't represent sellers, so our only job is helping you buy well.
Recurring maintenance revenue, technician capacity, route density. We screen for what drives value in field and home services.
Consistent normalization and memo formats make targets comparable and decisions faster.
A 30-day paid pilot with defined deliverables, then month-to-month.
Getting started
30 minutes on your thesis, your current pipeline and where deals are slipping.
We show you where coverage is thin and propose a 30-day paid pilot with defined deliverables.
A weekly pipeline call with you, memos as targets qualify, and a monthly look at what's working. Continue month-to-month once the pilot proves out.
FAQ
No. There's no platform to log into and nothing to learn. People do the work, by hand, on your deals, and send you finished target lists, normalized financials and memos in the formats you already use.
People with hands-on buy-side M&A experience at service roll-ups. You have one consistent point of contact who knows your thesis and your pipeline, not a rotating pool.
No. We're buy-side only. We don't represent sellers or take fees from the other side of your deals.
We sign your NDA before we see anything, and we work inside your own files and data rooms rather than copying your deal information elsewhere. We'll walk through how your information is handled on the call.
Like an extra member of your deal team. We join a weekly deal call, work from your files and data rooms, and send finished work by email. You keep the owner relationships and make every decision.
That's who it's built for: teams of zero to two people carrying an active acquisition strategy at a field or home services platform.
A working session up front to agree the buy box, then a 30-minute weekly call. Between calls, we just send you the work.
A monthly retainer, scoped to how many targets, CIMs and memos you need covered. Every engagement starts with a 30-day paid pilot with an agreed scope and dates, so you can judge the work before committing further.
If the work is useful, we continue month-to-month. If not, you keep everything we produced and there's nothing further to sign.
No. We cover the work before the LOI. Once you're under LOI, your QoE, legal and lender teams take over, and we keep the rest of your pipeline moving in the meantime.
We review your thesis, current pipeline and bottlenecks. You leave with a clear view of where deals are slipping, whether or not we work together.
Free strategy call
In 30 minutes, you'll get:
For 0–2 person M&A teams at field & home services platforms.
30 minutes · No obligation · Pilots run 30 days, not 12 months
Free strategy call · 30 min
A short call on your thesis, pipeline and where deals are slipping. No obligation.
Send us a quick note and we'll reply with times. Include your company, website and what's slowing your pipeline down.
Email to book a call