For advisors

A buyer you can put in front of a client.

Direct, long-term, and clear about how each deal is financed before anyone spends months on it. The mandate is below, on one page; sending a deal takes an email.

Acquisition mandate

What we buy, on one page.

Print it or file it. We'll send an update when it changes.

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Acquisition mandate

Current as of September 2026

Size: Roughly $1–3M of annual EBITDA. Exceptional businesses outside the range get a look.
Geography: Pacific Northwest first. Exceptional businesses anywhere in the United States.
Industries: Industry-flexible. Trades and field services, business services, manufacturing and distribution, software and online, and most things adjacent. Not pre-revenue, not turnarounds.
What we look for: Established and profitable, with real earnings at the end of the year. Customers who come back. A team that can run the business for a month without the owner. No single customer the business can't afford to lose. Books that can be tied to bank statements and tax returns.
Transaction types: 100% acquisitions. Majority recapitalizations with the owner retaining a stake and continuing to run the business. Occasionally a division, a location, or the real estate.
Situations: Owner transition or retirement. Succession with no successor. An owner seeking liquidity while staying on. A business that went to market and didn't clear.
Owner's role: The owner’s choice: stay in a defined role, transition over an agreed period, or leave at close. Set in writing before closing.
Structure and funding: Fellwater equity, partner equity where a deal calls for it, bank debt including SBA-backed loans where they fit, and seller financing where it makes a deal work. Each component is identified in the LOI as committed or conditional.
Process: A short call after an initial email. An LOI after basic financials and a real conversation. Diligence focused on what could change the deal, with a timeline set at the LOI. One decision-maker throughout.
Intermediaries: We honor existing fee agreements and don't go around them. Financials are exchanged under NDA. The advisor stays in every conversation that touches the numbers or the documents.
Contact: Elijah Reeder, Managing Partner · inquiries@fellwater.com · (206) 895-7474

How we work with advisors

Your engagement is yours. Your client hears a number we intend to close on.

Brokers and bankersYour engagement is yours. We don't go around a fee agreement, and we don't come back after the LOI over ordinary diligence findings.
CPAs and attorneysFinancials move under NDA, never through a web form. You're in every conversation that touches the numbers or the documents, and we'd rather have you there early than late.
Wealth advisorsThe structure follows the client's outcome. Every component — cash, a note, an earn-out, a retained stake — is in writing with its reason before your client commits.
EveryoneNo contact with the client's customers, employees or competitors without permission. One decision-maker. A timeline set at the LOI.

Where deals die now

1 in 5

Numbers that didn't tie broke one in five failed deals last year — double the share of two years ago.

It's why we reconcile to bank statements before the LOI, not after. Your client hears a number we intend to close on, and you don't spend a summer on a deal that comes apart in diligence.

Axial, Dead Deal Report 2025.

If it's useful for a client

A few short things we've written for owners.

You know your clients; use whatever helps.

Worksheet

Reading an offer

What a headline number is made of, in plain English.

Open

PDF

The owner's guide

LOI, diligence, who to hire, how long.

Open

PDF

Twelve questions for any buyer

With our answers filled in.

Open

PDF

The two-year checklist

What a serious buyer asks for, and what weighs on the number.

Open

A deal, an introduction, or a question about the mandate.

What the business does, roughly what it earns, where it is, what the owner wants — or who we should know. It reaches the person who decides, and we answer either way.

Prefer to reach us directly? inquiries@fellwater.com · Call or text (206) 895-7474

What happens next

Every submission gets an answer. If it might fit:

A short call with the person who decides
An LOI after basic financials — price, structure, timing, funding
Your fee agreement honored; you stay in every conversation on the numbers