Life After the LOI: What Comes Next in the M&A Journey
What comes after the LOI in M&A
Why “Knowing a Guy” Isn’t Enough in Modern M&A
In the old days, software M&A often hinged on who you knew. A banker who “knows a guy” at a strategic buyer might have once secured you a handshake deal over a round of golf. But those days are gone.
Weekends, Holidays, and the True Role of Your M&A Advisor
Does your advisor work like a founder?
You’re Only as Good as Your Weakest Link: Why M&A Success Depends on Your Advisors
In software M&A, the biggest risks often aren’t in your numbers—they’re in your team. While founders rightly obsess over ARR, EBITDA, and churn, deals frequently fall apart because of one overlooked factor: poor advisor performance. We’ve seen it too many times. Accountants deliver inaccurate P&Ls or balance sheets that don’t reconcile. Financial mistakes like these […]
How Hemisphere Uses AI to Run Like a 20-Person Firm
At Hemisphere Partners, we’ve built a two-person M&A firm that moves with the speed and capacity of a 20-person team—and our responsible, intentional use of AI is a major reason why. We use AI across nearly every phase of the sell-side process. For example, when building buyer lists, we deploy AI-powered web crawling tools to […]
Someday My Prince Will Come: The Pitfall of Relying on a Single Buyer
Someday my prince will come
Between Two Worlds: Founding a Company While Raising a Family
Being a founder with kids is living in two worlds at once.
The Chief M&A Officer – The Team Member You Didn’t Know You Needed
When you decide to sell your software company, you’re not just hiring an M&A advisor. You’re choosing your Chief M&A Officer—the person who will sit beside you during the most important transaction of your life.
The Replacement Value Trap – And How to Avoid It
In the world of software M&A, there’s a valuation trap that too many founders fall into — and too many buyers lean on: replacement value. It’s a seductive line of thinking for acquirers. They’ll look at your company — your years of engineering effort, your product-market fit, your know-how — and ask a deceptively simple question: “Could we just build this ourselves?” From there, they spin up a spreadsheet estimating how many developers they’d need, for how long, and presto — they present you with a valuation based not on what you’ve created, but on what it would cost them to recreate it.
The Future is Local: How Decentralization is Rewiring Software M&A
The future is local
