Guides,
for the questions deal teams ask.
Each guide answers one question in plain words, by the partner who has done it, and ends on the instrument that does it.
Thirteen guides · October 2026
01 · The thirteen
Guide 01 · Cristian PaunHow to price a value creation plan before the deal closesA plan of sensible moves with no euro beside them is a wish list. Here is how to turn it into a priced plan in the weeks before close.Guide 02 · Cristian PaunPredicted beside landed: the record a buyer pays forEvery quarter a company makes promises and every quarter some of them land. Writing both down, side by side, is the cheapest premium an owner can buy.Guide 03 · Cristian PaunThe pocket-price waterfall: finding the margin in your own invoicesMost companies know their list prices to the cent and their realised prices to the nearest guess. The difference is usually the cheapest margin in the business.Guide 04 · John LazarEngine two: how a company gets re-rated as well as improvedRunning a company better earns more each year. Changing what a buyer is paying for changes the multiple on all of it.Guide 05 · Cristian PaunWhat a buyer's diligence will ask for, and how to have it ready a year earlyEvery sale process asks the same questions in roughly the same order. The companies that sell well answered them before anybody asked.Guide 06 · Cristian PaunReading a portfolio the same way without centralising its systemsAn owner wants every company read on one page. Each company wants to keep its own data. Both can be true.Guide 07 · Cristian PaunEvidence grades: how sure is the number in your board packEvery figure in a board pack looks equally certain on the page. Four words fix that.Guide 08 · Cristian PaunThe 100-day plan that exists on day oneMost hundred-day plans are written in the first thirty days after close. The best ones are finished before it.Guide 09 · Cristian PaunThe cost of doing nothing, in eurosEvery plan is compared with the risk of acting. Almost none is compared with the cost of waiting.Guide 10 · Cristian PaunCustomer-based valuation for services companiesA services company is worth what its customers are worth. Counting it that way shows where the value really sits.Guide 11 · Ted TanaseDORA and value creation for fund administratorsFor a fund administrator, resilience is now a regulatory duty. Done well, it is also part of what a buyer pays for.Guide 12 · Cristian PaunFive questions to ask any value creation partnerProposals all promise growth. These five questions show which one will be able to prove it.Guide 13 · Ted TanaseFive questions a family office should be able to answer before anyone asksA family office is three things at once: an office, a family and a set of holdings. Each can be reached by a stranger with a telephone.
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