M&A preparation advisory · Canada
ExitCraft helps companies reduce transaction friction and increase buyer confidence before a sale process begins. A well-prepared company is more likely to close — and more likely to close well.
What we doWhen a sale process begins, the clock starts immediately. Buyers arrive with experienced diligence teams looking specifically for problems. Sellers who haven't prepared are scrambling — gathering documents, explaining discrepancies, managing surprises that erode buyer confidence and deal value.
The work done before a process begins determines both the likelihood of a successful close and the value achieved at the table. The window to fix issues narrows once the sale process commences.
A sale process also places extraordinary demands on management at precisely the moment when operational performance is under the greatest scrutiny. Buyers watch trailing results closely. Preparation done in advance means management can stay focused on running the business — not buried in data requests during the most consequential months of the transaction.
ExitCraft works exclusively on the sell side, engaged well ahead of a formal process. We identify and resolve the issues that slow diligence, surprise buyers, and compress multiples — so you enter the process in the strongest possible position.
Sean Gjos has spent the better part of three decades at the intersection of private equity and operating company leadership — first as an investor who sourced, diligenced, and managed portfolio companies through growth and exit, then as a founder and senior executive who built and ran companies himself. That dual vantage point is the foundation of ExitCraft: an investor's instinct for what buyers are actually looking for, combined with an operator's understanding of what it takes to get a company ready to withstand that scrutiny.
His transaction experience includes direct involvement in sale processes on both sides of the table — as an equity holder preparing a company for market, and as an acquirer evaluating one. He has secured equity and debt financing for companies at various maturity stages, negotiated commercial agreements domestically and internationally, and served in board and executive roles across a range of company sizes and lifecycle stages.
Sean holds an MBA from UCLA Anderson School of Management and a BA from Brown University, and holds the ICD.D designation from the Institute of Corporate Directors. He is based in Vancouver, BC.
ExitCraft was founded on a straightforward observation: the quality of a sale process can be significantly impacted before the banker is engaged. Sellers who have prepared — whose financials are clean, whose data room is organized, whose story is coherent — move through diligence faster and close at better valuations.
Sellers who haven't thoroughly prepared are perpetually reactive during an exit process. Surprises erode buyer confidence. Delays create leverage for the other side. ExitCraft brings the perspective of someone who has sat on both sides of that table — and knows where deals can go sideways.
We work with a small number of clients at any time. If you're 6–18 months from wanting to run a process, a conversation costs nothing.
If you're considering a sale in the next 12–18 months, the right time to talk is now — not when the process is already in motion.
ready@exitcraft.ca