I've Handled More Than $1 Billion in M&A Deals: Here Are 5 Things Adtech Founders Should Know Before They Exit

Nii Ahene co-founded CPC Strategy, which was later acquired and rebranded as Tinuiti. He serves as a Strategic Executive Advisor at Evros Group. This article is published in partnership with Evros Group. Selling a company you built from scratch is nothing like you imagine it will be. I say this with such certainty, because I've done it. Then, spent years on the other side of the table as a buyer, negotiating with dozens of sellers along the way. Through this, I’ve come to know what founders want going into conversations with buyers, and what buyers actually scrutinize when they get there. Those two things are more misaligned than founders expect. And if you’re a founder thinking about having these conversations one day, here are the five things I’d recommend you start thinking about sooner than later to maximize your outcomes. A good exit starts earlier than you think Founders often treat M&A like a final chapter: Build the company, hit the revenue target, then go find a buyer. While this isn’t wrong, it doesn’t necessarily set founders up for their best outcome. Instead, the strongest exit stories are actually intentionally built over time. And the best time to think about selling your company is usually long before you are ready to sell. This planning starts with simple questions: What kind of outcome do you want? Do you want to fully step away? Stay and keep building? Take some money off the table while bringing on a growth partner? Join a larger platform that can help your team move faster? In thinking these questions through, founders can shape how they build the company today for the outcome they want tomorrow. If you may want to sell one day, the business needs clean financials, strong contracts, a clear leadership team, and a story that a buyer can repeat to their own board. Even if you never sell, those same things make the company stronger. Buyers are looking beyond your recent growth A strong recent track record gets you a meeting, but it’s no longer sure to get you a deal. A few years ago, an exciting category and a notable growth year could carry a lot of weight in M&A conversations. But buyers are no longer rewarding hypergrowth alone. Today, they’re more curious about what’s behind the growth: Did it come from one client? A temporary budget shift? A platform change? Is this success structural and repeatable, or founder dependent? A business can look hot one year, and be risk-exposed the next if its growth depends too heavily on a single trend, vendor, or media channel. Founders need to be ready to show not only that the company is growing, but why it can keep growing. Strong patterns beat strong peaks, every time. One mile deep is better than one mile wide Scale matters, but focus is often what gets buyers truly excited. The agencies that command the strongest valuations aren’t always the biggest ones in the room, but rather the ones that own a lane. Buyers are paying premiums for genuine depth in categories they can't easily replicate. These are areas where specialized expertise compounds, and where data, relationships, and institutional knowledge get more valuable over time. The founders who’ve built their companies with this in mind work to spot a signal, sometimes before a market has even named it. They lean into their niche and away from full-service. It’s a focus that makes them hard to replace. The question worth sitting with: What do you actually want to be known for? Not in a tagline, but in the market. Are you the team that brands call when they have a specific, high-stakes problem in a particular channel or specialty niche? None of this is to say that scale doesn’t matter (agencies at $5M or more in EBITDA see valuations step up meaningfully), but scale without specialization is a commodity. And buyers pay attention when a company owns a lane. This combination is where the premium lives. The company cannot depend on founder magic Founder energy can build a business. It can also scare a buyer. If every major client relationship, sales conversation, hiring decision and strategic move runs through the founder, the company may be successful, but it is also fragile. That fragility gets priced in. What buyers are looking for is evidence that the business runs as a system, not as a person. That means a management team with real decision-making authority; Client relationships owned across the organization, not concentrated at the top; Processes that exist in documentation and practice, not just in someone's head. In the transactions we've advised on, the agencies that held up best under scrutiny weren't necessarily the ones with the deepest client lists: they were the ones that had built a repeatable way to hire, develop, and retain people. This means structured onboarding, clear career paths, and a bench of leaders who could step into expanded roles after a deal closed. That kind of organizational depth does two things at once: it makes the business more valuable, and it makes the transition smoother. For a buyer standing in front of an investment committee, those two things are inseparable. The question worth asking honestly: if you stepped back tomorrow what would actually break? The answer tells you exactly where the work is. AI isn’t a bonus point, it’s a line item Buyers aren’t asking whether you’re using AI, anymore. There is a built in expectation that AI is already in the mix, and they’re now acutely focused on learning how your use is impacting your margins. Eighteen months ago, a confident AI narrative was enough to generate buyer excitement. But, as of late 2025, nearly nine out of ten companies had deployed AI in at least one business function, yet 94 percent reported not seeing significant value from those investments. Buyers know this. So now, when they see an agency with an AI story, their instinct isn't excitement, it's skepticism. To combat this skepticism, we’re seeing buyers bring operational experts into diligence to pressure-test how the use of AI shows up in the numbers. For the agencies that have done the work to operationalize AI, the math is hard to ignore. Agencies that have genuinely rebuilt delivery workflows are documenting up to 49% in productivity gains. If agencies are able to charge the same retainers with fewer hours, the gap flows directly to the bottom line. What buyers are really trying to determine is whether AI makes your business structurally better over time, or whether it's a layer of subscriptions sitting on top of the same labor-driven model. The first commands a premium. The second doesn't survive a serious look. Buyers are still writing checks, but they are looking for businesses that feel built to last and have operationalized AI.

Dealroom

I've Handled More Than $1 Billion in M&A Deals: Here Are 5 Things Adtech Founders Should Know Before They Exit

A founder who's been on both sides of the table — selling companies and buying them — breaks down what acquirers actually want from owners eyeing an exit.

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Nii Ahene

Dealroom

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