Boris Katsnelson

Buyers and SBA lenders want to see three years of financials, and your tax returns have to match your books. So if you’re selling a business in three years, the clock started this year. Here’s how to use the time. Year one, which is now: clean up your books, stop running personal expenses through the business, and get on the same page with your CPA. Year two: fix what scares buyers most, like a business that can’t run without you or one customer who’s too big. Final year: don’t coast. Those last 12 months get looked at harder than anything else. And here’s the part nobody talks about. Your CPA’s job is to lower your taxes. A buyer pays you based on your profit. Showing less profit to save on taxes today can mean getting paid less when you sell. Talk to your CPA about that trade-off now, not the year you list. One more thing: start this exit planning before you’re burnt out, not after. Save this and share it with someone who’s planning to sell their business in the next few years. If you’re thinking about selling, now or in the next few years, let’s connect. Link in bio. #exitplanning #sellabusiness #businessowner #exitstrategy #smallbusiness

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Who you finance with is important...rate is important but will they sell it, how do they run their process? Who will you talk with during underwriting? Are they preferred? How many defaults? 💰 5 Questions to Ask Before Applying for an SBA Loan Before you sign on the dotted line, make sure you understand the full picture: ✅ Is your cash flow strong enough to support repayments? ✅ Do you have updated financials ready for review? ✅ What collateral will the lender require? ✅ How will the loan impact your valuation or future sale? ✅ Is this the right loan product for your growth plan? Smart financing starts with asking the right questions. Know the details. Protect your future. #BusinessFinance #SBALoan #Entrepreneurship #TransworldBusinessAdvisors

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Here's what nobody tells you about low-cost franchises: the barrier to entry is low because the barrier to *success* is sky-high. Cheap startup fees mean cheap margins, cheap support, and a market flooded with competitors running the exact same playbook. I've always believed in doing business the hard way—investing real money, building real solutions, earning real loyalty. That's harder than buying into a franchise system, but it's worth it. If you're considering franchise life in 2026, make sure you're actually building a business, not just buying a job. https://lnkd.in/eeRp9rP4

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Selling your business? The headline price is not the amount you will receive at closing.   A headline purchase price can look straightforward. The cash that actually lands in your account at closing is a different number. The headline price is usually reduced - but sometimes increased! - by several items, all of which should be detailed in the purchase agreement. 📉 Debt — Most transactions are priced on a “debt-free, cash-free” basis. Term loans, lines of credit, vehicle loans, capital leases, credit card balances, and other debt must be paid off before closing or deducted from the seller’s proceeds. 📉 Working capital adjustment — If estimated Net Working Capital is below the agreed target, closing proceeds are reduced. If it is above the target, the seller may receive additional proceeds, although that payment usually comes after the post-closing true-up months later. 📉 Escrows/Holdbacks – Often forgotten by sellers in their calculations. A portion of the payment is often held back to cover any Net Working Capital adjustment and to cover indemnifications.  Holdbacks for Net Working Capital usually last a few months – holdbacks for indemnifications can last years. 📉 Rollover equity — Any portion of the purchase price reinvested in the new business reduces cash at closing. It may provide future upside, but the seller may wait several years for a payout. 📈 Excess cash — Unless it is offset by a Net Working Capital deficit, excess cash may be distributed to the seller before or at closing, increasing total proceeds.   The takeaway: make sure to build a funds flow table so that everyone understands how the proceeds are distributed and when. Which adjustment do business owners most often underestimate?   #MergersAndAcquisitions #MEP #HVAC #Contractor

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**Exit Alert** I cannot confirm any of the details mentioned in the WSJ article, but I can confirm that Ground Up was the first investor in Glass Imaging. The journey with Glass reconfirms the only hard and fast rule in venture: if you have the opportunity to back a repeat founder assembling a world-class tech team to tackle a big challenge then commit on the spot. In our case that meant committing before the company had even been incorporated and leading their pre-seed. All the way back in 2019 we believed that the next leap in photography would not come from adding more glass, more bulk or another camera bump. It would come from treating optics and software as one system and using artificial intelligence to rethink the camera from first principles. Few founders are better suited to rebuild the camera than Ziv Attar and Tom Bishop who possess a deep understanding of both sides of the problem: the physical constraints of camera hardware and the rapidly expanding ability of neural networks to recover real image detail. Just as importantly, they had the patience to tackle a technically difficult problem that required years of research, testing and work with some of the world's largest device makers. We are proud to have backed them from the beginning and excited to see how much more they will accomplish inside of OpenAI.

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Feeling overwhelmed by the VC landscape? You're not alone. Many founders struggle with not fitting the typical Silicon Valley mold. Check out these insights from Stacy Brown-Philpot's throwback venture approach. 1. Prioritize underinvested founders. Spot opportunities others miss. 2. Focus on Series A and B stages. Smaller checks can lead to big impacts. 3. Take your time. Avoid the race to deploy capital; find value in patience. 4. Measure what matters. Clear goals lead to real achievements. 5. Stay true to your mission. Your unique story is your strength. Ready to take the next step? Rebuild your website in just 3 minutes with our free, easy tool that's helped millions. Instant access: https://lnkd.in/gAjdhYtJ You're not just a number in the Silicon Valley race. Let's start building your success, today!

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PE exits are surging. Everyone's celebrating the recovery. Except mid-market firms. You're still stuck. While mega-funds clear inventory at record pace, mid-market exits remain at decade lows. Small deal buyers cut exits 38% in H1 2025. Your $30M company is watching $200M peers sail through exits while you can't get a bid. The exit window opened. Just not for you. 52% of PE firms report that portfolio valuations tanked due to data problems discovered during diligence. Another 49% watched deals collapse over undisclosed data issues. Yahoo lost $350M in purchase price when Verizon found data chaos during diligence. Here's what kills mid-market deals: - Revenue that doesn't reconcile Finance says $47M. CRM says $51M. Marketing says $49M. Mega-deals can absorb this friction. You can't. Buyer cuts your multiple by 0.5x-1x or walks. - Customer data that can't integrate. Duplicate records. Fragmented purchase history. No single customer view. Buyer adds $2M in integration costs. That's 10% of your purchase price gone. - Dashboard theater. Pretty dashboards on garbage data. Buyer asks to see the underlying model. Finds Excel formulas and manual processes. Deal dead. Buyers are pickier than ever about which mid-market companies get through the door. The first filter? Data quality. Mega-deals are closing. But if you're a $2-50M company with messy data, you're watching from the sidelines.

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