The Math
From a 3× to a 5× — what actually moves the multiple.
Buyers don't pay a flat multiple. They start at the industry average and stack discounts for every operational risk they can find. The math below is the discount stack we remove — and the uplift drivers we install in its place.
Built by an operator who ships
The Math
What operational readiness is actually worth.
Buyers price businesses two ways at once: the multiple they're willing to pay, and the discounts they apply on top. We work on both — at the same time, before the sale process starts.
We expand the multiple.
Founder-led businesses typically transact at 2.5–3.5× EBITDA. Operationally mature businesses of the same size routinely transact at 4.5–6×. The gap is operational risk — not financial performance.
We remove the discounts.
Every reason a buyer chips the price is an operational gap we can close before the process starts.
- Key-person risk15–30%
- Undocumented process10–20%
- Weak reporting / data quality10–15%
- Manual / unscalable workflows5–15%
Indicative ranges drawn from published M&A practitioner guidance (IBBA, Pepperdine PCMS). Actual impact varies by sector and deal.
$1.2M EBITDA business with manual workflows
- EBITDA$1,200,000$1,200,000
- Multiple3.2×4.8×
- Indicative valuation$3,840,000$5,760,000
Owner dependency reduced
Documented systems, not founder memory.
Operations legible to a buyer
Dashboards, SOPs, and an evidence pack ready for DD.
AI-powered workflows
Proof the business scales without proportional headcount.
Illustrative only. Not a valuation. XLev does not provide M&A, legal, financial or valuation advice. Multiples shown are indicative ranges from published M&A research; outcomes depend on sector, buyer pool, and deal structure.
On a deal like this, our entire engagement is roughly 1–2% of the uplift it's designed to create.
See how we'd do it for your businessOperator-built
XLev is built by an operator who still runs the business. The same systems we install for clients are the ones running 5 campuses and 80 staff every day — built in the open, shipped every week, and battle-tested before they ever touch a client.
Tom Downie
Founder & CEO, XLev · Co-Founder & CEO, Better Tuition Academy
Investment
Priced against the transaction, not the overhead.
On a $5M sale, our full engagement is typically 1–2% of the transaction. The uplift it's designed to create is measured in multiples of that — see The Math for the worked example.
Diagnose
From $15k
A structured operational readiness assessment with a written report buyers (and you) can read. Two-week deep dive across operations, systems, team and reporting.
Two-week engagement
Designed to identify uplift worth multiples of its cost.
- Discount-stack analysis: where buyers will mark you down today
- Prioritised 90-day readiness roadmap
- Optional continuation into a Build engagement
Build
From $80k
We install the systems. AI workflows, dashboards, SOPs, team training — all the way through to live in XLevLab.
6–12 month engagement
Designed to return multiples of cost on the eventual exit.
- Operators in the work, not above it
- Custom AI workflows for the highest-leverage gaps
- XLevLab portal: live metrics, evidence, and team learning
Stay
From $6k / month
Ongoing operator support through the sale process — including DD support, buyer Q&A, and post-LOI defence of the operational story.
Rolling retainer
Designed to protect the uplift through due diligence.
- On-call through letter of intent and due diligence
- Buyer-side operational Q&A handled with you
- Continuous XLevLab evidence and metric maintenance
Ranges are starting points — final scope depends on business size, complexity, and the gap to sale-ready. All fees exclude GST. XLev does not charge success fees or take a percentage of the sale.