Dealmaker · Group Builder · Direct Listing Strategist
From your first acquisition to a listed group.
01: The Thesis
The conventional path: buy a business, bolt on a few more, build a group, and then, maybe, take it to market. But the most successful acquirers in history did it the other way round. Teledyne, Berkshire Hathaway, Constellation Software, and UK names like Halma and Judges Scientific, built extraordinary value as listed serial acquirers, using public status as acquisition currency. A scaled company that lists first gains a valuation platform, acquisition currency, and access to capital that organic growth can't match.
The listing isn't the exit. It's the starting gun.
The pattern
The great serial acquirers compounded value as listed platforms. For decades, not quarters.
02: The Practice
I mentor a small number of serious acquirers through their first deals: acquisition criteria, owner conversations, vendor finance structures, and the judgement to know when to walk away.
For established companies, I advise on direct listing as a growth platform rather than an exit, working alongside listing partners who have taken hundreds of companies to market.
I work with business owners and equity partners to build groups through bolt-on acquisition, using the strength of a listed platform to compound value well beyond any single company.
Author
The Acquisition Playbook Series
Advisory
Board roles across UK SMEs
Experience
In small business M&A since 2019
03: About
I've worked in small business M&A since 2019: mentoring first-time acquirers, advising established companies on listing as a growth platform, and helping owners build groups through bolt-on acquisition. I'm the author of The Acquisition Playbook Series and hold board advisory roles across UK SMEs.
Rob Richmond, Dealmaker · Group Builder
04: Work With Me
If you're serious about acquisitions and stuck between theory and a real deal, I mentor a small number of dealmakers each year, with the goal of your first completed acquisition inside twelve months.
Take the Acquisition Scorecard
If you have capital ready to deploy and no time to run a deal process, my partners and I source, negotiate, and close the acquisition on your behalf, from brief to keys.
Take the Acquisition Scorecard05: Questions
Yes. This is not a no-money-down scheme. Structures like vendor financing reduce the cash needed on day one, but serious acquisitions need real capital behind them. If you are still building that base, start with the Playbook and the email series.
The outcome is identical: you own the business at the end. The difference is your time. Mentoring means you run the deal and I guide you through it, so you become the dealmaker. Done-for-you means my partners and I run the deal on your behalf, from brief to keys. The scorecard or the first call sorts which fits.
On selected acquisitions I come in as a minority equity partner alongside you. It keeps my outcome tied to yours, and it is why I only take on a small number of mentees at a time.
Usually not with buying another one first. An established company can list as a growth platform and then acquire, using its listed status as currency. That is the Acquire, List, Group ladder in action, and it is a first-call conversation.
United Kingdom, Ireland, US, Canada and Australia, with the deepest network in the UK.
06: Get In Touch
Thirty minutes. We'll work out which route fits, or whether it doesn't.
Book a 30-minute callStart with The Acquisition Playbook Lite and the Your First 30 Days email series.
