How it works
How selling to Tiny works.
The pace is yours. We can move quickly when that helps, or slow down when you want more time with your team, advisors, or options. Here's what happens at each step, from the first intro call to the day the wire lands.
The big picture
From the first call to a signed letter of intent can be about a week. From a signed LOI to wired cash is another three weeks or so — call it thirty days end to end when a founder wants to move fast. We can go that quickly, but we never make anyone follow our clock. Plenty of founders take months to get comfortable, and that is fine by us.
We can move that quickly because we are not running a competitive bidding process, we do not have an investment committee that needs months of memos, and we are not building a synergy model to justify our offer to anyone else. We are buying the business to hold it. If we like it, we say yes. If we don't, we say no quickly.
What we do not do — and what most other buyers do — is layer integration teams, restructuring consultants, and post-close operating plans over the diligence process. Your business is the asset. We are not interested in remaking it.
Day-by-day breakdown
This is the shape of a fast Tiny acquisition, not a deadline. Some founders want a clean answer and a close inside a month. Others want to move slowly, compare paths, or bring people in over time. We can match either pace.
Days 1–2Intro call
A 30-minute call with Andrew, Chris, or one of the partners. We talk about the business at a high level — what you built, who your customers are, roughly how the financials look (revenue, gross margin, customer count, retention), and why you're thinking about selling now. We also ask what you want the post-sale story to look like: are you ready to step back, or do you want to keep running it with new resources behind you?
No NDA is required for the first call. We hear pitches every week and we are not interested in lifting anyone's playbook. After the call, we typically tell you yes or no within 24 hours.
In plain English:
One short conversation is enough for both sides to decide whether to keep going. If the answer is no, you have lost half an hour. If the answer is yes, you know within a day.
Days 3–5Initial diligence
We ask for the basics: last three fiscal years P&L, balance sheet, and cash flow plus current year-to-date. A customer concentration breakdown (top customers as a percentage of revenue). The tech stack and team list. A quick view of IP ownership, founder agreements, and any meaningful contracts (key customers, key suppliers, debt).
This stage is intentionally lightweight. We are not trying to find reasons not to do the deal. We are confirming that what you told us on the call matches the documents, and we are sizing the offer.
In plain English:
A few days of focused work with your bookkeeper or finance lead is enough to get through this phase. We do not need data-room theatrics or pre-built management presentations.
Days 6–7Letter of intent
A written term sheet with the purchase price, the deal structure (usually simple and cash-heavy), and the key conditions to close. You typically have 48 to 72 hours to review it with your advisors and decide. If both sides agree, we sign the LOI and move into full diligence.
In plain English:
The number on the LOI is the number we expect to wire at close. We do not anchor high to retrade later. If we have an honest concern about the price, we raise it before sending the LOI, not after.
Weeks 2–3Full diligence
The longest phase, and the most parallelizable. We run a comprehensive financial review (often with a third-party accounting firm for larger deals), a legal review covering contracts, employment, and IP, a tech and architecture review, and customer reference calls with permission. For team-heavy businesses we also look at compensation, key-person risk, and equity arrangements.
The point of full diligence is to confirm what we already believe and to surface anything material that changes the deal. If something material does come up, we tell you immediately rather than saving it for a last-mile renegotiation.
In plain English:
Most of this work happens in parallel between our team, your team, and outside counsel on both sides. You can keep running the business through diligence — this isn't the part where the founder has to disappear for a month.
Week 4Documents and signing
The purchase agreement, founder and employee agreements where applicable, escrow mechanics, and the standard reps and warranties and indemnification structure. None of this is exotic — it is the paperwork any acquisition requires. Your counsel and ours work through it in parallel with the rest of diligence so it is ready when diligence wraps.
In plain English:
A good M&A lawyer on your side is worth the cost. We are not trying to bury anything in the docs, but you should have somebody reading them who has read fifty of them before.
Day 30Close
Signature pages get exchanged, the wire moves, and the deal is done. From this day forward, your transition plan kicks in — whether that's staying on as CEO, handing off over the next six to twelve months, or stepping back at close.
In plain English:
Absent something material we both surface in diligence, our goal is that the price we offer is the price you receive at close. No working-capital surprises, no escrow tricks, no last-mile renegotiation.
What happens after close
The day after close looks a lot like the day before close. The team is the same. The brand is the same. The product roadmap is owned by the people who were already owning it. Customers typically don't notice anything has changed unless the founder chooses to tell them.
What changes is the founder's situation. Most stay on for some period — six to twenty-four months is typical, often as CEO or as Chairman of the company they just sold. Some step back at close because they are ready to move on. We are flexible about which path you pick, and we won't pressure you to stay longer than makes sense.
We don't parachute in an integration team. We don't rebrand the business. We don't consolidate engineering, HR, support, or finance into a shared service. Your stack stays your stack. Your P&L stays your P&L. Day-to-day decisions get made by the operating leader the company already has.
What you do get from Tiny — when you want it — is capital allocation help, strategic input, recruiting reach across the portfolio, and a network of other founder-operators who have been through the same transition. When you don't want it, we stay out of the way.
Frequently confused: what Tiny does not do
A lot of acquirers say similar things. Here is what genuinely sets our process apart from most of the alternatives, in plain language.
- No roll-ups. We don't combine portfolio companies into bigger entities or consolidate brands.
- No earn-outs as the majority of consideration. We occasionally use a small earn-out for genuine tail risk, but not designed as the primary payment mechanism.
- No layoffs as part of integration. The team stays. Headcount decisions belong to the operating leader of the company, not to us.
- No brand changes. The product customers love keeps the name customers know.
- No forced tech consolidation. Operating teams choose their own stack, vendors, and tooling.
- No forced sale in five years. We hold for the long term. The first business we ever bought — Metalab, in 2006 — is still in the portfolio.
- No operational gutting. We are not bringing in a McKinsey team to find synergies in your org chart.
If you want the side-by-side comparison with private equity, we wrote that up at tiny.com/vs/private-equity. If you want the underlying math on why PE deals look bigger on paper than they pay out, read tiny.com/blog/pe-math.
Frequently asked questions
What earnings range do you buy?
Most of our acquisitions fall between $3M and $50M in annual profit. We have bought both smaller niche companies and larger platforms. What matters more than size is durable profitability, a wonderful product, and a business that can keep running after the founder transitions.
Do you use simple cash-heavy deal structures?
Usually the structure is simple and cash-heavy. Because Tiny is publicly traded, founders occasionally ask to take part of the consideration in Tiny shares, and we can accommodate that. We do not require rollover equity. Earn-outs are uncommon — when we use one, it's a small slice of the total, short, and tied to milestones the team controls. Never a tool to defer the headline price.
How is the price determined?
We anchor on a multiple of trailing free cash flow or EBITDA, adjusted for the quality of the revenue (recurring vs. one-time), customer concentration, churn, and the cost of running the business without the founder. We do not use venture-style ARR multiples or projected growth-curve fantasies. When diligence matches the story, our goal is for the offer we make to be the offer that closes.
What if my numbers aren't perfect?
That's normal. Most founder-owned businesses don't have GAAP-clean financials, and we don't expect them to. We work with what you have — QuickBooks, Xero, spreadsheets, whatever — and reconstruct the numbers we need during diligence. If something material surfaces that changes our view, we tell you immediately rather than waiting until close.
Can I introduce a competing bidder?
Yes, before we send a written offer. Once we send an offer at a real number and you sign an LOI, there's typically a short exclusivity period (two to four weeks) so we can close. We do not run high-pressure processes or ask for exclusivity on day one based on a verbal range.
What's the founder's role after sale?
Whatever works for you. Founders typically pick one of three paths: stay on as CEO with new resources behind them, transition out over six to twelve months while we install or promote a successor, or step back at close. We do not force founders into multi-year earn-outs designed to clawback the purchase price.
What happens to my team?
The team stays. We do not do layoffs, headcount synergies, or forced relocations as part of an acquisition. We operate a portfolio of 21 companies and the model only works if the people who built each business stick around. New hires, raises, and org changes are made by the operating team after close, not by us.
Can we revisit if circumstances change?
Yes. Many of our acquisitions started as casual conversations 12 to 36 months before the founder was actually ready. If now isn't the right time, we keep in touch. If something changes during diligence that affects the deal, we surface it immediately so we can talk through it rather than retrade at the last mile.
Do you ever pass after LOI?
Rarely, and only if diligence surfaces something material that wasn't visible up front — typically customer concentration or a legal issue that materially changes the business. We do not use diligence as a tool to retrade price. If we send an offer, we are serious about closing at that number.
What if I don't have audited financials?
Most of our acquisitions come in without audited financials, and that is fine. We work from your accounting system, bank statements, and tax returns to verify the picture. We may engage a third-party financial review during diligence depending on deal size, but a clean audit is not a precondition for an offer.
If you want to talk
Email hello@tiny.com with a paragraph about your business and approximate revenue and net profit. A real human reads every email — usually one of the founders. We reply within a few business days, and if there is a fit, we set up the 30-minute call described above.
If you are still thinking it through, the rest of the founder material lives at tiny.com/founders. If you sell mostly recurring software, the SaaS-specific take is at tiny.com/sell-your-saas. If you are weighing PE or a strategic against us, /vs/private-equity and /vs/venture-capital are the right reads. You can also browse the portfolio or the investor page.