Independent corporate advisory
Acquire. Strengthen. Grow.
Bespoke, principal-led M&A, finance, and corporate strategy support for lower-middle-market businesses, acquirers, and investors ready to make a consequential move.
Large-firm rigor without layers of staffing or the large-firm cost structure.
Los Angeles ·
Serving U.S. businesses
Who we help
You will probably recognize yourself quickly
Situations we are built for
Start from the decision, not the service list
Every engagement begins with a situation. Pick the one closest to yours and see the decision at its center, the questions to answer early, and what working through it looks like.
We want to acquire, without an internal M&A team
The decision discipline, modeling, diligence coordination, and negotiation support an in-house corp-dev team would provide, built around your deal.
Open this situationWe may sell, and want to know if we are ready
What buyers will test, what your numbers will say under scrutiny, and what to fix before a process starts rather than during it.
Open this situationOur reporting does not tell us how we are doing
A finance engine rebuilt around the decisions management actually makes: forecast, KPIs, monthly rhythm, and a model leadership trusts.
Open this situationInteractive tools
Useful analysis before a single conversation
Preliminary, educational tools that run entirely in your browser. Nothing you enter is transmitted or stored, and no results sit behind a contact form.
Business Value Range Estimator
An illustrative enterprise-value range with the method, sources, assumptions, and the bridge to equity value shown in full.
Open the estimatorSale Readiness Diagnostic
Fifteen questions buyers effectively ask in diligence, scored honestly, with preparation priorities.
Check readinessAcquisition Financing Scenarios
Sources and uses, leverage, and illustrative debt-service coverage for a deal structure you define.
Model a structureFirst-Conversation Brief Builder
Organize your situation into a one-page brief worth bringing to any adviser, including this one.
Build a brief
Analysis that travels all the way to action.
The work is designed to create alignment, equip decision-makers, and leave behind practical tools the organization can use.
How Michael works
Custom-built work. Senior attention. Leaner economics.
Every engagement is designed around the decision, not a standard package. Clients work directly with Michael, without layers of staffing, internal handoffs, or large-firm overhead.
Scope built around the business
Deliverables, cadence, and depth are set by the situation at hand, never adapted from a standard template.
Principal-led from start to finish
The person you meet on day one does the analysis, drives the work, and stands behind the recommendation.
Specialists added only when useful
Legal, tax, diligence, and technical specialists are brought in deliberately, matched to the work, not to a staffing model.
More of the budget goes to the work
Fees support analysis and execution rather than pyramid overhead, so spend stays aligned with senior-level output.
The Principal
Michael J. Cohen
Michael J. Cohen brings a cross-functional perspective shaped by transactions, investing, consulting, and operating advisory.
The work should leave something real behind: a decision made with confidence, tools the team keeps using, and an experience worth repeating.Meet the Principal
Next step
Considering a consequential move?
A first conversation is exploratory: clarifying the decision, the constraints, and whether this model fits the work.