Teamshares is one of America’s largest and most reliable buyers of small- and medium-businesses.
Since our inception in 2019, our skilled team has purchased more than 90 small and medium-sized businesses across 30+ states and 40+ industries, with a 80% Letter of Intent (LOI) to close rate.
Why retiring owners? Why small businesses?
Small business succession planning is often complicated, and many business owners close their doors upon retirement, leaving employees without a job and a hole in the local community.
Teamshares’ goal is to build on the legacy of retiring owners and transfer wealth to hard working employees through being a permanent home for business. Our vision of making 10,000 small businesses employee-owned informs everything that we do.
We’re one of the largest buyers of retirement sales in America and we examine thousands of businesses each year, but we only sign an LOI for 1% of the businesses we review. That’s because we’re transitioning these companies to employee ownership, we only pursue those that never have to be sold again, as determined by our unique set of acquisition criteria.
This article provides insight into our transaction process and criteria so that we can better serve business owners, sell-side advisors, and brokers in the future.
Are you an advisor, broker, or business owner that needs an exit plan to keep your company and employees in place?
Employee ownership is the future of small business
Small business sales are hard, emotional, and personal. We’re here to help retiring small business owners transition into the next chapter with confidence.
McKinsey estimates that by 2035, about six million small and medium-size businesses will face ownership transitions. That represents more than $10 trillion in value. Of these businesses, more than 70% will fail to sell, forcing them to close.
We’re here to reverse this trend.
Since our inception in 2019, we’ve purchased more than 90 businesses across 30+ states and 40+ industries. The vast majority of these business owners say they are proud to have sold to Teamshares.
More than 2,000 employees have become owners and received equity in the businesses they worked so hard to build and grow.
Teamshares is a tech-enabled acquiror of small and medium-sized enterprises, and a permanent home for great businesses. Our vision is help a network of 10,000 small businesses become employee-owned, while supporting a generation of business owners through confident retirement.
“If I had two offers for the same amount and only one offered employee ownership, I would definitely choose employee ownership.”
What we’re doing is new and enables small businesses owners to make a profound impact on their communities.
Why our differentiated transaction process works
We have a singular mission and a unique, streamlined process to achieve it.
Teamshares isn’t a typical buyer. We aren’t an individual operator and we aren’t private equity. Because of our platform and model, when Teamshares purchases a business from a retiring owner, the business never has to be sold again.
Teamshares’ transaction team is a diverse group of professionals with decades of experience. Our in-house acquisition, real estate, legal, and financial diligence teams have developed streamlined processes that allow us move quickly and efficiently.
“I’ve never worked with a buyer that was so organized and made the process so simple.”
This team puts each aspect of the potential business through an extensive series of carefully developed quantitative and qualitative assessments. We strive to be comprehensive, prompt, and fair in our evaluations.
Our offer terms vary so we can be an active and reliable succession plan for retiring owners, regardless of the economy or market trends. We use standard, easy-to-understand documents drafted by our in-house legal team that are fair to both parties.
The typical transaction process is as follows:
- Receive Confidential Information Memorandums (CIMS)/financials to perform preliminary valuation
- Conduct owner meeting
- Validate financials with tax returns
- Submit offer or LOI
After an LOI is signed, we typically close in about 120 days. Importantly, we’ve historically closed 80% of the LOIs we’ve signed. Once we sign an LOI, we’re highly likely to close the transaction.
Brokers and sellers routinely tell us they appreciate our easy-to-understand process and quick turnaround. We’re always happy to put prospective sellers in touch with our former owners so they can hear about the experience directly.
“We enjoyed working with you and found everyone very pleasant to deal with. I don’t say that lightly. True goodwill is an all too scarce commodity.”
Given the number of businesses we look through a year, we adhere to strict evaluation criteria to ensure the future success of the company and its employee owners.
Transaction criteria
We look for small businesses that will never have to close their doors or be sold again. That’s the only way for us to honor our mission and help more Americans become employee owners.
In our experience, there are many criteria across geography, industry, sale reason, number of owners, and available real estate that companies must meet to be in this position.
| Teamshares transaction criteria | |
|---|---|
| Geography | U.S.-based businesses |
| Industry | Largely industry agnostic, except construction, healthcare, project-based, and 100% ecommerce |
| Retirement sale or industry exit | Owner is seeking to retire or exiting the industry and open to a 100% buyout |
| Steady earnings | Adjusted EBITDA between $500K - $10M in two of the last three years, tax return provable ($2M - $10M preferred) |
| Management layer | Our preference is for companies with at least two managers or supervisors in place |
| Real estate | Flexible: multi-year leases are preferred, but real estate purchases are considered. |
| Longevity | Well-established businesses with 7+ years in business |
Know of a business that may be a fit for Teamshares?
So, a business fit our criteria and we didn’t submit an LOI. What happened?
Reasons we may not submit an LOI
Due to our specific needs, we’re often forced to pass on great businesses. In order to purchase 90+ businesses, our team reviews thousands of CIMs each year.
Our structure often requires including certain expense items, such as the replacement leader, that other buyers may not have to factor in. Those requirements sometimes result in us passing on an opportunity or offering a lower price than an individual buyer who benefits from things like taking a president’s salary themselves.
Here are some common reasons a small business may not be a fit for Teamshares:
- Too owner dependent: The business owner is performing multiple functions, such as sales, bookkeeping, etc., that require multiple replacements.
- Too capital expenditure heavy: The business requires a large investment in equipment, creating underwriting difficulty.
- Multiple family members in the business: Multiple family members are working in the business, complicating the transaction.
- Special statuses (e.g., Woman Owned Business, Veteran Owned Business, etc.): As the new owner, we can’t claim special statuses.
- Location: The business location makes finding a new, high quality president difficult.
- Financials that aren’t tax return provable: We strictly underwrite to tax returns.
- High customer/vendor concentration: When a company has a high vendor or customer concentration, there is more transition risk.
Teamshares is the permanent home for businesses. If you’re a broker or a selling owner, find out if Teamshares is your buyer of choice.
Teamshares writers follow strict principles for sourcing credible information within articles. Any outside information including direct quotes, paraphrased information, and concepts that are derived from external sources adhere to our standards for accuracy and transparency.
- Walsh, P., Peck, M., & Zugasti, I. (2018, August 8). Why the U.S. Needs More Worker-Owned Companies. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2018/08/why-the-u-s-needs-more-worker-owned-companies
- Biery, M. E. (n.d.). Study Shows Why Many Business Owners Can’t Sell When They Want To. Forbes. Retrieved March 28, 2023, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/sageworks/2017/02/05/these-8-stats-show-why-many-business-owners-cant-sell-when-they-want-to/
- Yearwood, K., Stewart III, S., et al. The Great Ownership Transfer: A new era of business stewardship. McKinsey. Retrieved August 27, 2026, from https://www.mckinsey.com/institute-for-economic-mobility/our-insights/the-great-ownership-transfer-a-new-era-of-business-stewardship
- and
- Shelley Stewart III
- with Nathan Marks and Nick Noel
