The first 100 days of a founder‑led business
Before signing, I measure what still rests on the founder. After completion, I run the handover with your management team.
Gökhan Üç · Business Architect · Founder, Freedom Architects · London · Istanbul
Fifteen years in corporate and structured finance at BNP Paribas Group
Financial due diligence checks the numbers. The Survey checks who holds them up.
Customers who deal only with the founder.
Decisions that still end on one desk.
Know-how that lives in one head.
of UK deals in 2025 had an earn-out, so part of the price waits on how the business runs after completion.
CMS European M&A Study 2026
What rests on the founder, with evidence
Where the founder and the managers give different answers, the colour follows the weaker one.
Every colour has its evidence
Illustrative example. Example Services Ltd is not a real company; names and figures are invented to show the format. 46 staff, B2B services, founder-led.
The scorecard. 20 indicators, each with a measured value and the evidence behind its colour.
The five riskiest dependencies. How to close each one, and what it bears on in the deal.
A 100-day transfer calendar. Who takes over what, and the founder’s time each step needs.
Every report says who commissioned it.
An area counts as covered only with a document and confirmation from someone other than the founder.
The handover, run with your team
Two days a week alongside the management team, readying the people who take over, with a monthly board report.
A three-way kick-off. The founder drafts the transition calendar; you approve it.
Introductions, joint meetings and four-week tests, area by area. A monthly board page.
The founder absence test: one to two weeks fully offline, one emergency contact.
A final scorecard on the same 20 indicators. Anything left gets an owner and a date.
Where there is no second line yet, the plan names who steps in: an internal promotion, a hire or a time-limited interim. The founder sees the same monthly scorecard as the board.
Mike’s property business, scored twice
A real client, not an illustration. Turnover around £40M a year, now in seven countries. The same 20 indicators a Pre-deal Survey uses, at the start of our work and today. Approximate figures. Reference call available
One side of the deal, yours
We find what still rests on one person, build the system that carries it, and prove the handover.
One side per deal
Never the buyer and the seller of the same business.
No price or deal advice
That stays with your corporate finance adviser and lawyer.
One client
The client is whoever commissions the work. Every report says who that is.
Interim managers and new hires
Where a second line is missing, I work alongside the interim manager or the new hire.
I take on a handful of firms a year
Fifteen years in corporate and structured finance at BNP Paribas Group, assessing businesses the way lenders and investors do. One pattern repeats: lenders and buyers discount how much of the company lives in the founder’s head.
20 minutes, no pitch. Buyers usually start with the Pre-deal Survey.