Find Expert Advisors for Your Startup
Choosing an advisor
Finding an advisor is not primarily about choosing the person with the longest CV. It is about finding someone whose transaction experience, industry knowledge, counterparty network and working style fit the situation in front of you. A banker with fifty industrial deals is the wrong choice for a EUR 15m software round, and the reverse is equally true.
Start with the job, not the name
Write down what the mandate actually covers: the objective, the timeline, the capacity you already have internally, and the parts of the process you intend to keep in-house. Founders who skip this step end up hiring generalists for specialist problems and discover the gap when the process gets difficult.
Test relevance, not reputation
Ask every candidate for the transactions they consider closest to yours and why. Compare size band, sector, stage, geography, counterparty type and their personal role. Two or three genuinely close matches completed in the past three years say more than a long list of loosely related deals.
Compare at least three
Give three or four advisors the same written brief and ask each for a view on positioning, likely counterparties, realistic timeline and fees. Differences in the substance of those answers are the useful signal. Look at fees after you have compared the work, not before.
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andy peterson
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Ministry of Foreign Affairs
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When hiring an advisor makes sense
Not every company needs external help for every situation. An advisor earns their fee when they close a gap you cannot close internally within the time available: coverage of investors or buyers, process capacity, or experience with a type of negotiation nobody in the company has run before.
External support usually helps when
- Investor or buyer coverage is thin and the process needs a list you cannot build from your own network
- The story is complex: a pivot, lumpy revenue, regulatory dependency or unusual unit economics
- The CEO cannot step back from operations for four to six months without damaging the numbers
- You are raising or selling in a market where you have no existing relationships
- It is the first institutional process and there is no reference point for term sheet negotiation
- A sale process requires several buyers moving in parallel to maintain competitive tension
Internal capability is often enough when
- The round is effectively pre-committed by existing investors
- Small angel or pre-seed rounds where fee economics rarely work
- The founder has raised twice before in the same sector and has stronger relationships than an intermediary would bring
- A CFO or corporate development lead has run comparable processes before
- The need is narrow: a valuation view, a model review or negotiation support rather than a full mandate
More detail in when a startup should hire a fundraising advisor.
How to choose the right advisor
Ten criteria, applied to every candidate in the same order. Use them before discussing fees, since comparing prices first tends to shape the rest of the assessment.
Comparable transactions
Has the advisor worked on transactions comparable in company size, transaction value, industry, business model, growth stage, geography and transaction type? Comparability across two or three of these dimensions is a realistic target.
Relevant transaction experience
Separate general corporate finance experience from experience directly relevant to your situation. Equity rounds, debt raises, majority sales, buyouts and mergers are distinct disciplines with different counterparties and documentation.
Track record
Look at completed transactions and their dates rather than statements about years in the market. Ask about the mandates that did not complete and what caused it.
Industry expertise
Sector knowledge affects valuation framing, the buyer or investor list and the diligence questions that arrive. Ask which three metrics counterparties in your sector focus on. Specialists answer immediately and specifically.
Network
Test the network by asking who they would approach, in what order, and what they know about each party's current appetite. Recent, concrete detail indicates live relationships; firm names alone do not.
Role in previous transactions
Lead advisor, supporting team member, specialist on one workstream and internal reviewer are very different levels of involvement. Ask which parts of each cited transaction the person personally negotiated.
References
Ask for two references from completed processes and one from a process that did not close. Speak to the founder or CFO by phone. Ten minutes on a call surfaces more than a page of written quotes.
Availability
A highly experienced advisor with no capacity is the wrong advisor. Ask how many live mandates they are running, what stage each is at, and who covers your process when another deal peaks.
Fee structure
Understand the full package: retainer, fixed fees, success fee, the fee base, trigger events, minimum fee, tail period, exclusivity and termination. The definition of transaction value matters more than the headline percentage.
Independence, chemistry and communication
Ask whether the advisor has commercial relationships with any counterparty they propose to approach. Then judge how they communicate. Someone who agrees with everything in the first meeting is unlikely to defend your position in the third round of negotiation.
The full framework, including how to run the selection process, is in how to choose the right advisor for your startup.
Why comparable transactions matter
Deal count is the weakest credential
Aggregate transaction value and total deals describe activity. What predicts a useful contribution is the subset of that activity resembling your situation: transaction size, industry and business model, company stage and growth profile, geography, counterparty type and deal structure.
A worked comparison
Take a founder selling a EUR 20m enterprise software business in Germany, where the likely buyers are mid-market strategics and software-focused private equity. Advisor A shows 45 transactions and EUR 2bn of aggregate value, mostly industrial and mostly above EUR 100m. Advisor B shows nine transactions, seven in software, five between EUR 10m and EUR 40m, four sold to software-focused funds in German-speaking markets. The headline favours A. The relevant experience sits with B, who knows what those funds pay for net revenue retention and how they behave when they try to reprice after diligence. This is an illustration of the comparison method, not a claim about any firm.
How to extract the information
Ask for a short table rather than a narrative: year, sector, approximate size band, counterparty type, geography and personal role. Names are often confidential, and that is normal, but size bands and counterparty types can usually be described. Then ask which single transaction they consider the closest comparable to yours, and why. The reasoning shows whether they understand your business or are matching on labels.
Recency
Transaction experience decays. Buyer appetite, valuation ranges, debt availability and diligence standards shift within eighteen months. A cluster of relevant deals in the past two or three years is worth more than a longer list that ends five years ago.
Extended version: why comparable transactions matter when selecting an advisor.
Types of advisors and what each contributes
The categories below map to the advisor types you can filter for in the directory above.
Fundraising advisors
Positioning, financial model, target investor list, introductions, process management and term sheet negotiation support for equity and debt rounds. Relevant from the first institutional round onwards.
M&A advisors
Sale readiness review, valuation, buyer identification, information memorandum, bid management, diligence coordination and commercial negotiation through to closing.
Corporate finance and strategy advisors
Capital structure, financing options, valuation work, equity story and board-level preparation. Often engaged before a decision on whether to raise or sell has been made.
Financial due diligence advisors
Quality of earnings, revenue recognition, margin analysis, net debt and working capital normalisation. Engaged by buyers, or by sellers preparing a vendor report before going to market.
Commercial due diligence advisors
Market size and growth, competitive position, customer interviews, pricing and the credibility of the growth plan. Most common in private equity processes and larger strategic acquisitions.
Technology due diligence advisors
Architecture and scalability, technical debt, security posture, third party licences and key person risk in engineering. Findings here can affect price directly in software transactions.
Tax advisors
Historical compliance review, transfer pricing, share option treatment, incentive claims and transaction structuring. Structuring work is best started early, since it affects after-tax proceeds.
Legal advisors
Corporate records, share capital history, IP ownership, material contracts and change of control provisions, employment matters and the transaction documentation itself.
Accountants and auditors
Management reporting quality, historical accounts, audit readiness and the reconciliations buyers request during confirmatory diligence.
What an advisor does across a transaction
Responsibilities depend on the mandate and the type of advisor. A full fundraising or sale mandate usually covers most of these phases; narrower engagements cover one or two.
Preparation
Objective and strategy, valuation view, financial model, equity story, materials and a readiness review of reporting, cap table and contracts.
Market approach
Investor or buyer universe, prioritisation, positioning per counterparty, teaser and NDA handling, and the first wave of introductions.
Process management
Outreach cadence, meeting scheduling, pipeline tracking, follow-up materials and keeping parties moving at similar speed to preserve competitive tension.
Due diligence
Data room setup and access rights, question and answer flow, and coordination of financial, commercial, legal, tax and technology workstreams.
Negotiation
Comparing offers beyond headline price, structure, earn-outs, preference and governance terms, and managing the dynamics between competing parties.
Closing
Conditions precedent, coordination between legal, tax and financial workstreams, completion mechanics and funds flow.
After the transaction
Investor reporting, earn-out monitoring and transition support where the mandate covers it. Integration and internal communication usually sit with the company or separate specialists.
See what a fundraising advisor actually does and what an M&A advisor does.
How much does an advisor cost?
The structures in common use
Hourly or day rates for defined analytical work. Fixed project fees for a specific deliverable such as a model or an information memorandum. Monthly retainers for committed capacity. Success fees calculated as a percentage of transaction value. Hybrid structures combining a modest retainer with a success fee, often with the retainer credited at closing.
What drives the number
Transaction size and complexity, the scope of the mandate, the seniority of the people doing the work, expected duration, exclusivity and the perceived difficulty of the process. Percentage rates generally fall as transaction value rises while absolute fees increase.
Read the definitions, not the percentage
Check how transaction value is defined, in particular whether debt, cash, earn-out payments and rollover equity count. Then check the trigger event, the minimum fee, the tail period after termination, the expense treatment and the notice required to exit. These terms determine what you pay more than the headline rate does.
Compare mandates, not prices
Two proposals with different fees usually describe different jobs. Line up the deliverables first: who builds the model, who writes the memorandum, who runs outreach, how many counterparties are covered, who negotiates. A cheaper mandate that leaves half the work with you can cost more in management time than it saves. This is general information about fee structures, not financial or legal advice.
More on structures and mandate clauses in how much a fundraising or M&A advisor costs and success fees vs retainers.
Advisor guides
Detailed guides on selecting, evaluating and working with advisors.
How to choose the right advisor for your startup
A practical framework for selecting a startup advisor: comparable transactions, relevant experience, network, references, availability, fees and working style.
Read guideWhen should a startup hire a fundraising advisor?
When a fundraising advisor adds value, when an in-house process is enough, what to prepare before engaging one, and how timing affects the outcome of a round.
Read guideHow to choose an M&A advisor for a company sale
How founders should evaluate M&A advisors before a company sale: deal size fit, buyer coverage, sector knowledge, process discipline, references and fee terms.
Read guideWhy comparable transactions matter when selecting an advisor
Deal count alone says little. How to test whether an advisor's transactions are genuinely comparable to yours by size, sector, geography, buyer type and structure.
Read guideWhat does a fundraising advisor actually do?
The concrete work a fundraising advisor performs across preparation, targeting, outreach, process management, diligence and term sheet negotiation.
Read guideWhat does an M&A advisor do?
The role of an M&A advisor across preparation, buyer identification, marketing, bids, due diligence, negotiation and closing, and where their work ends.
Read guideHow much does a fundraising or M&A advisor cost?
Advisor fee structures explained: retainers, fixed project fees, success fees, day rates and hybrids, plus the factors that drive cost and what to check in a mandate.
Read guideWhat experience should you look for in an advisor?
Which parts of an advisor's experience predict a useful contribution: transaction type, stage, sector, counterparty coverage, functional depth and recency.
Read guideHow to evaluate an advisor's track record
How to verify what an advisor has actually done: reading a credentials list, testing role and recency, running reference calls and spotting overstated claims.
Read guideFundraising advisor vs M&A advisor: what is the difference?
How fundraising advisors and M&A advisors differ in objective, counterparties, process design, materials, diligence, negotiation and fee structure.
Read guideWhat questions should you ask an advisor before hiring them?
A structured question list for advisor selection meetings, covering experience, team, counterparty coverage, process, availability, fees and mandate terms.
Read guideSuccess fees vs retainers: how advisor fees work
How success fees and retainers differ, what each incentivises, how hybrid structures work, and the mandate clauses that determine what a founder actually pays.
Read guideFinancial, commercial and technology due diligence advisors explained
What financial, commercial, technology, tax and legal due diligence advisors examine, when each is engaged, and how vendor diligence differs from buy-side work.
Read guideQuestions founders ask before signing a mandate
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