QoE is important. However, paying $25k for a QoE for a business doing $250k-$750k EBITDA or SDE is not always warranted or needed or your only option. Other options or protection methods

1. Hire an accountant to do a high-level overview of financials at a 3rd of the cost, combined with you or a partner doing a thorough financial deep dive.

  1. Bring on an accountant as an investor or advisor, and allocate a portion of equity to them, in return, they do a QoE for "free".

  2. In your LOI, put in a clause where seller has to split costs if they walk.

  3. Get good at financial DD yourself, most of the work is doable, just time-consuming.

  4. Go halfway and do 50% of the work then bring a QoE expert or DD expert to do the rest at half the cost.

  5. Negotiate with your DD QoE expert, tell them you will pay 1/3 up front, and the remainder if the deal closes.

Conclusion: Not saying QoE should be avoided but should be cautiously analyzed from a cost, risk/reward perspective. Think about it, if you do 2 QoE for 2 separate dead deals, you just lost $50k.