The Importance of a Strong Second Layer
One thing we’ve been paying more attention to when looking at acquisitions is what happens one level below the owner.
A business can have great customers, strong margins, and a long operating history, but if every important decision still runs through the founder, the transition risk can be much higher than the financials suggest.
Who actually manages the team? Who owns the customer relationships? Who handles pricing, hiring, and day-to-day decisions? And perhaps most importantly, what happens when the owner stops being the person everyone calls?
We've come across businesses where the opportunity isn't necessarily fixing something that's broken, but building on a solid operation that already has capable people in place. In other cases, the lack of a second layer can fundamentally change how we think about the business.
For us, management depth is becoming one of the more important pieces of the acquisition puzzle, not because every business needs a large management team, but because the transition has to work.
Curious how other searchers underwrite management depth. Is there a point where the lack of a strong second layer becomes a deal-breaker, or is that something you would view primarily as an opportunity for value creation?