Hi all, I am speaking with two companies in the same space in the same geo. One is a brokered deal and the other is proprietary. They're both relatively small and simple businesses with 8 employees each, but together they would create a platform a nice platform of scale. Independently, they are valued at 3.2x and 3.4x, but together I believe they are closer to 4.5x. They make a lot of sense together. They establish a foothold as the largest player in their sector and geo, the platform would have around 40% recurring revenue, it would add more talent which is very hard to come by, and I would have a key role filled for a few years at least. I am trying to get creative on how to structure a deal like this and the SBA and most traditional investors would most likely shy away from doing two deals at once. I have already heard, "we'd like to see you do one deal successfully before going after another." This is sound advice but the brokered company will be gone by then and I need to move fast. I could create significant equity appreciation day 1 but this will be a tough sell to investors.

Has anyone tried to do this before? If so, do you think investors would go for this?