Grow your company 5–7x — through acquisition, on purpose.
Buying a well-run company adds its revenue, its earnings, and its customers on day one — and the market pays a higher multiple for the larger company you become. XP M&A finds the targets, prices them on real transaction data, and quarterbacks the deal from first call through the first hundred days.
30 minutes with Adam McMurtrey, founder of XP. Clarity before commitment.
Organic growth is honest work. Acquisition is faster arithmetic.
Three numbers explain why the fastest-growing private companies in almost every industry are acquirers.
The organic timeline
Growing 5x at a strong 15% annual organic rate takes more than eleven years — of hiring, marketing, and grinding out share one customer at a time.
What small companies cost
Well-run businesses under $1M of EBITDA typically trade at 2.5–3.5x earnings. Each dollar of profit you acquire costs a fraction of what your combined company will be valued at.
The acquirer's path
A disciplined acquirer compounding organic growth, acquired EBITDA, and the size premium can model 5–7x enterprise-value growth in five years. Run your own numbers below.
1 · Earnings you buy
Every acquisition adds EBITDA the day it closes. With SBA financing and seller notes, a modest equity check controls meaningful earnings.
2 · Multiple expansion
Markets pay more per dollar of earnings as companies grow. The same EBITDA valued at 3x inside a small business can be valued at 5–6x inside the larger platform you build.
3 · Synergy and scale
Shared overhead, cross-selling, and purchasing power lift the margins of what you acquire — earnings improvement you engineered rather than paid for.
A listing broker works for the seller. Your mandate deserves a buy side.
Call a brokerage about buying and you will be shown their inventory. A buy-side engagement starts from your criteria and your returns.
| Where it shows | Typical broker | XP M&A |
|---|---|---|
| Who they work for | The seller. The fee comes from the listing, so the job is the seller's price. | You. A buy-side mandate built around your criteria, your capital, and your post-close returns. |
| Where deals come from | Whatever happens to be listed the week you call. | Proprietary off-market outreach to owners who fit your thesis — most good targets never reach a listing site. |
| The number that matters | The asking price. | Your post-close return. Every deal is modeled through your EBITDA, your multiple, and your debt service before an offer goes out. |
| How targets are priced | Rules of thumb and the seller's story. | Comparable completed transactions — percentile data by industry, the same discipline XP uses on the sell side. |
| Financing | Left to you and your banker to figure out. | Structured from the start — SBA 7(a), seller notes, and earnouts engineered so the deal cash-flows from day one. |
| Diligence | A data room and a deadline. | Engineer-grade diligence: quality of earnings, customer concentration, key-person risk, and operational reality checks. |
| After closing | A handshake and an invoice. | A 100-day integration plan, so the synergies you underwrote actually land. |
| When the numbers don't work | Push to close anyway — no close, no commission. | Walk away. A bad acquisition costs more than a missed one, and XP will say so out loud. |
| Who you work with | A junior associate, once the engagement letter is signed. | Adam McMurtrey — chemical engineer, MBA, CEPA, fifteen years running capital projects at Fortune 50 scale. |
| The relationship | One transaction. | A growth partner across acquisitions two, three, and four — programmatic M&A, run like a program. |
Plenty of good brokers close good deals. Buying well is a different job, and it starts with your mandate rather than a listing.
Model your 5-year acquisition path
Eight inputs. The model compounds organic growth, acquired EBITDA, synergies, and the size premium buyers pay larger companies — then shows the enterprise and equity value five years out.
Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation & amortization — roughly, owner profit with a market-rate manager in place.
What you pay per dollar of target EBITDA. Small, well-run companies typically trade at 2.5–4x.
The rest is financed — SBA 7(a), bank debt, and seller notes (modeled at 10-year amortization).
Margin improvement on acquired EBITDA from shared overhead and cross-selling. Keep it modest.
How the value builds
Want this as a real plan? Get your scenario as a one-page acquisition brief, and Adam will pressure-test it against actual transaction data for your industry.
Illustrative model, before taxes and transaction costs. Valuation multiples follow the size tiers observed across completed small-company transactions and step up as combined EBITDA grows; actual multiples vary by industry, quality, and market. This is planning math — every real XP engagement prices real targets on comparable completed transactions.
Programmatic acquisition, run like a program
Adam ran capital projects for Fortune 50 companies for fifteen years. Acquisitions get the same treatment: scoped, scheduled, and measured.
Acquisition strategy & criteria
Define the thesis: industries, geography, size band, integration capacity, and the return hurdle every deal must clear. This is the mandate everything else serves.
Weeks 1–2Sourcing
Direct, confidential outreach to owners who fit the thesis, alongside broker networks and screened listings. The best targets are usually the ones no one else is calling.
OngoingValuation & letter of intent
Price on comparable completed transactions, model the deal through your returns, and structure an offer with terms that protect you — price, seller note, transition, and earnout.
Per dealDiligence & financing
Quality of earnings, customer concentration, key-person and operational risk — while the capital stack (SBA 7(a), bank debt, seller financing) closes in parallel with your lender, CPA, and attorney.
60–90 daysClose & the first 100 days
An integration plan with owners and dates: people and retention first, then systems, then the synergies you underwrote. The return on an acquisition is earned here.
Day 1–100Repeat
The playbook compounds. Criteria sharpen, diligence gets faster, integration gets cleaner — and acquisition two closes sooner than acquisition one did.
The programSelling rather than buying? sellwithXP is XP's sell-side practice — exit planning, valuation on real transaction data, and a process built around what you keep.
Visit sellwithXP →Asked on almost every first call
Is 5–7x growth through acquisition realistic?
It is a modeled outcome, and the mechanics behind it are real: small companies trade at low multiples of earnings, larger companies are valued at higher ones, and a disciplined acquirer compounds organic growth, acquired EBITDA, and that size premium at the same time.
Whether a specific company gets there depends on buying at fair prices, financing sensibly, and integrating well — plenty of acquirers underperform by overpaying for the wrong deal. The modeler above shows the math honestly. A real engagement grounds every number in comparable completed transactions.
How much capital do I need to start acquiring?
Less than most owners assume. SBA 7(a) financing funds acquisitions up to $5M with roughly 10–15% down, and seller notes often carry part of the price. A $1.5M acquisition can require $150K–$300K of equity depending on structure.
Every capital stack is deal-specific, and XP builds it alongside your lender, CPA, and attorney.
What size businesses should I target?
For most acquirers in the $1M–$20M revenue range, the sweet spot is targets with $150K–$1.5M of EBITDA — large enough to move your numbers, small enough to integrate and finance cleanly. Your criteria get defined precisely in the first two weeks of an engagement.
I've never bought a business. Can I still do this?
Yes. The process exists so a first-time acquirer can move like an experienced one. XP quarterbacks the deal — sourcing, valuation, offer structure, diligence, and financing — and coordinates your CPA and attorney so nothing falls between specialists. You stay in control of every decision; you just never face one unprepared.
What does XP M&A charge?
Buy-side engagements combine a modest monthly retainer with a success fee at closing. The structure is designed so XP is paid to find the right deal, and it is covered in plain terms on the first call — before you commit to anything.
How long does a first acquisition take?
Plan on 6–12 months from mandate to close. Sourcing the right target is the long pole; diligence and financing typically run 60–90 days once a letter of intent is signed. Acquirers running a programmatic playbook close their second deal faster than their first.
Do you only work with Utah companies?
XP is based on the Wasatch Front and works most actively in Utah and the Mountain West. Sourcing, valuation, and deal management run well remotely, so mandates outside the region are considered case by case.
Will you tell me if I shouldn't do a deal?
Yes — that is a core part of the service. A bad acquisition costs more than a missed one. When diligence turns up problems the price can't fix, XP recommends walking away, and has.
Thirty minutes. Your numbers. A straight answer.
The first call is a working session with Adam, and it costs nothing. You leave knowing whether growth by acquisition fits your company — and what the first deal would look like if it does.
- Pressure-test the 5–7x math on your actual revenue and margins
- Sketch target criteria: industry, size band, and geography
- Map the capital stack — equity, SBA, and seller financing
- Leave with a clear go / not-yet / no, and the reasons why
Prefer email? adam@xpbrokerage.com
Request your strategy call
Tell us where you are and where you want to be. Adam responds personally, usually within one business day.