A27M
Apply

Publications

The thesis, in long form.

White papers and articles from inside the collective. The deepest version of the A27M argument lives here. New writing lands periodically.

Article8 min read

How We Value a Real Estate Media Agency

The actual math, in the open, because every buyer you will meet keeps theirs in a drawer

A million-dollar agency can hear three honest numbers in one week: 0.4x revenue from the shop across town, 1.7x on owner earnings from our model, 2.83x on EBITDA from a consolidator. All three can describe roughly the same wire transfer. Here is the math we use and where every number in it comes from.

  • valuation
  • selling
  • sde
August 5, 2026
Read
Article9 min read

The Consolidation Wave Is Already Here

The call you got in January was not random

There is a buyer working through our industry right now paying about 2.83x earnings, and he runs twelve cold callers at four dollars an hour to find owners having a bad quarter. The agencies selling to him are not run by worse operators than you. They just took the call in the wrong month.

  • trends
  • consolidation
  • selling
July 27, 2026
Read
Article8 min read

The Price Is Not the Payout

The headline number and the wire transfer are two different numbers

A $6 million offer can wire you $4.2 million on closing day, or it can wire you $2.4 million. Same business, same handshake, and $1.8 million of difference sitting in terms most sellers only read carefully after they have already accepted the price.

  • selling
  • deal-structure
  • exit
July 13, 2026
Read
Article10 min read

Clean Books Are Quiet Leverage

The most valuable work you will ever do on your agency is invisible until the day someone makes you an offer.

Due diligence runs $15,000 to $25,000 per brand and it is billed by the hour, so every month where the bank activity and the reported revenue do not line up is somebody's billable time. You pay for messy books twice. Once in the fees, and again in the discount a buyer puts on whatever nobody could verify.

  • selling
  • finance
  • exit
July 6, 2026
Read
Article8 min read

The First Offer Is Not a Valuation

What a buyer is actually pricing when the call comes out of nowhere

A buyer offered me one million dollars for Aerial Canvas the year we did $4.3 million in revenue. That number said more about my situation than about the agency. An unprepared seller lands near fifty cents on the dollar, and the work that closes the gap happens years before the call ever comes.

  • selling
  • negotiation
  • exit
June 15, 2026
Read
Learn · A27M