Boutique Sell-Side M&A Advisory
Founders Get One Exit.
We Advise Like It.
Sell-side only. Seller's-chair experience. Senior-led.
M&A advisory for great American companies — founder-, family-, and veteran-owned.
We advise companies generating $1 million to $5 million in EBITDA — usually $5 million to $50 million in revenue. Large enough that the sale deserves a real process, and too important to hand to a volume broker.
You only sell your company once. We've done it — with our own.
Most advisors have worked hundreds of deals — none of them their own. Our founder built a home services company, ran his own sale process, negotiated with institutional buyers, and closed with a private equity acquirer — staying on through integration with equity still in the deal today. When we tell you what a buyer will do next, it's because we've been in that room — first as the seller at the table, then inside the buyer's world after closing.
Founder Perspective
We didn't study exits in business school — we executed one. That's how we know exactly where founders leave money on the table — and how to make sure you don't.
Buyer Fluency
The party across the table will be a sophisticated investor who buys companies for a living — and you'll be selling for the first time. We know how these buyers underwrite, negotiate, and integrate, because our founder closed with one and then worked inside their world.
Senior-Led. Start to Finish.
No hand-offs to junior staff. The person you meet on day one is the person negotiating your deal at the closing table. Accountability doesn't get delegated here.
East Water Street's Competitive Advantage
An Edge No One Else Can Field
Plenty of firms can run a sale process. Our advantage is a combination none of them can copy. We take sell-side engagements only — in your deal, we sit on one side of the table, so our incentives are never split. Our founder has personally built, sold, and integrated his own company, so our advice comes from the seller's chair, not a textbook. And every engagement runs on operational discipline shaped by three careers: military operations, academic medicine, and a founder's own exit. Any firm can claim one of those. We haven't found one that can claim all three.
Who We Serve
Built for the Owners Who Built It
FOUNDERS
From One Founder to Another
We understand founder psychology because we were one. That experience shapes how we prepare you, how we position your company, and the tenacity we bring when a buyer tests your resolve late in diligence.
FAMILIES
Protecting More Than a Price
A family business carries names, relationships, and obligations that never show up on a balance sheet. When our founder sold his company, his family worked there — he negotiated those terms for his own people first.
VETERANS
Advised by One of Your Own
Our founder served in Iraq, at sea, in Guantanamo Bay, and in Katrina relief — then came home and built a company. If you built yours on the discipline you learned in uniform, you deserve an advisor who doesn't need that explained.
The Exit Azimuth™
Value Is Built Before You Go to Market
Most owners assume valuation happens when the business goes to market. It doesn't — the number is largely set in the one to three years before a process begins, and owners who start early sell for more, close faster, and survive diligence with fewer surprises.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does East Water Street do?
We are a sell-side M&A advisory firm. We help founder-, family-, and veteran-owned businesses prepare for, position, and execute a sale or ownership transition — managing the entire process from readiness assessment through closing.
What size companies do you work with?
We focus on the lower middle market — companies generating $1 million to $5 million in EBITDA, usually $5 million to $50 million in annual revenue. If you're below that range but planning ahead, we're glad to talk about what exit readiness looks like for you.
How is East Water Street different from a business broker or investment bank?
Brokers run volume. Large investment banks reserve their senior bankers for their largest clients — engage one at this end of the market and your deal gets the junior team. We run a small number of senior-led engagements, and every one is led by a founder who has personally built, sold, and integrated his own company. You work directly with that person from the first meeting to the wire transfer.
Who will I actually work with?
Ryan DeCoster — founder and managing partner — leads every engagement personally. There is no junior team your deal gets handed to.
How do you charge?
Our fees have two parts: a modest engagement fee that covers the preparation work, and a success fee earned only when your deal closes — with the engagement fee credited against it. The structure is deliberate. The engagement fee means we both have skin in the game from day one; the success fee means the overwhelming majority of what we earn depends entirely on your outcome. We walk through exact terms transparently in the first conversation.
How long does a sale process take?
Most well-prepared processes run six to twelve months from engagement to closing. Companies that engage us earlier — before they're ready to go to market — consistently achieve better outcomes, because preparation is where value is won or lost.
Is a conversation with you confidential?
Completely. Confidentiality is the foundation of every sell-side process, starting with the first phone call. Nothing about your business or your intentions is shared with anyone without your written direction.
Take a Bearing
Start With a Confidential Conversation
No fee, no commitment, no pressure — and complete confidentiality from the first word.
Schedule a Confidential Conversation