No deal yet: what to build before you find one

Finding the deal

Whether to build before you find a target, and what makes a target financeable.

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Fees and price

What Raises.com costs on each track, and where every price is published.

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Finding investors

How investors are reached, when introductions start, and what your exemption allows.

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Process and next steps

What happens on the first call, and the order of work from LOI to close.

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Structure and legal

The vehicle, the exemption, the documents, and who reviews them.

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What is included

What gets built on each track, and who reviews it.

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How the fee works

A flat fee by plan, with no cut of what you raise by default.

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Proof and references

Closed deals you can read and watch before you decide.

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Contract and term

How long you commit, how the term continues, and how cancellation works.

• Is there a minimum commitment, or can I do just one month?

  Build plans have a three-month minimum, paid in full, and then continue month to month. Connect plans are month to month from the first month. After any minimum, either side can cancel, and cancellation takes effect at the end of the period already paid for, with no further charges.^{2, 4}

• What happens if I cancel?

  Cancellation takes effect at the end of the period you have already paid for. We finish delivering the services for the rest of that period, no further amounts are charged, and the agreement ends. On a Build plan, the three-month minimum runs to its end first. Connect plans are month to month from the start.^{4, 21}

• Is there an end date, or do I keep paying forever?

  You do not keep paying forever. After the minimum on a Build plan, the agreement runs month to month, and either side can end it at the end of a paid period. There are no mandatory renewals, and the goal is for you to own the system and the assets you build. Entity formation is billed at $800 per entity per year.^{2, 4, 21}

Who we are

Who Raises.com is, who does the work, and who it is built for.

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• What is Raises.com?

  Raises.com is a consultancy and advisory firm, founded in 2019, for people buying a business or a building. We build the fund or SPV structure, the offering documents, the financial model and the data room, then introduce debt and equity sources. Raises.com is not a registered broker-dealer and not a provider of legal services.^{1, 3, 4}

• Who will actually work on my deal?

  Ken, one of our advisors, runs the strategy call. Tre Brown, Head of Capital Markets, and his team run everything from structure to wire: the vehicle, the data room, the lender and investor process, the term sheet and closing coordination. Paralegals review the offering documents, and a CFA charterholder builds or reviews the financial proformas.^{27, 28}

• Who is Raises.com for, and who is it not for?

  It is for people buying a business or a building who need to raise or structure capital for the purchase: independent sponsors, acquisition entrepreneurs, syndicators, search funds, roll-ups and fund managers acquiring hard assets. It is not a fit for startup founders raising venture capital for their own product, passive investors looking for deals, or service providers.^{3, 13}

• Do you do the work, or teach me to do it?

  The firm does the work. The offering memorandum, subscription agreement, operating agreement, financial model and data room are prepared to the standard of the institutions that will read them, and introductions are written for one reader and one mandate. Two things stay with you by rule: your own signature and your own financial disclosures.^{1, 3, 27}

Debt and lenders

Where the debt comes from, how it gets sized, and what lenders ask for.

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• Where does the loan actually come from?

  From the lender that fits the deal: a bank or an institutional private credit lender for senior debt, an SBA lender for a 7(a) loan, and private credit groups for junior capital. The seller often carries part of the price through a note. Our capital markets team runs the lender process, with lenders in parallel off one data room and one structure.^{1, 23, 27, 28}

• What will a lender ask me for?

  Two years of monthly financials, six months of bank statements, two years of tax returns and personal financial statements, on both you and the target. Lenders want debt service coverage above 1.0 with a buffer around 1.15, and they look for 10 to 20% of the ask in sponsor net worth or liquidity. We stage that file before any lender asks.^{27, 28, 36}

• How much debt can my deal support?

  Lenders size debt to cash flow or collateral, never to the price. Some groups lend about 3x EBITDA on a senior term loan, and asset-based lenders advance 70 to 80% against heavy assets. Lenders want debt service coverage above 1.0, with a buffer around 1.15 on a business and around 1.2x on a building's rental income.^{27, 36, 44}

• Should I use an SBA loan?

  An SBA 7(a) loan fits a standard acquisition inside the program's cap, when you can meet the equity injection, commonly around 10%, and back the loan personally. It does not fit a deal that needs a lender to structure around its situation or move on a set timeline. That is private credit's road, which costs more and carries covenants.^{12, 27, 41}

• Can I refinance the acquisition debt later?

  Yes. Close on the debt that wins the deal, then refinance into the debt that holds it. On September 30, 2026, Cody Sechelski received a refinance offer for a 25-year fully amortizing term loan at a lower rate, sized to pay off his short-term acquisition debt. The refinance goes out once the business has a closed acquisition behind it.^{27, 28, 44}

Timeline to funding

How long setup takes, how long a raise takes, and what moves the clock.

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• How long does it take to set up my fund or SPV?

  The entity and core structure can be ready in as little as two weeks. A complete raise-ready package, meaning the PPM, the subscription and operating agreements, CFA-built proformas and the data room, typically comes together in four to six weeks. The biggest variable is how quickly you turn around your inputs.^{5, 40}

• How long until the money is actually in my bank account?

  Plan on about seven months from the day you decide to raise to the day the money is in the bank. Cody Sechelski signed his LOI on December 4, 2025, and his wire left on June 29, 2026. How long your raise takes depends on your deal, your network and the market, and a packaged deal moves faster at every step.^{5, 6, 28, 37, 38}

• If I need $3 million, how long would that take?

  It depends on three things: your deal, your network and the market. A deal with its structure, documents and data room already built moves faster at every step. Some parts run on fixed clocks no one can compress, like lender diligence and investor verification. As a planning number, expect about seven months from deciding to raise to money in the bank.^{5, 6, 27, 28, 38}

• I have a hard closing date. Can you work to it?

  Tell us the date on day one and the work is sequenced backward from it. Entities can be formed in days, documents can run on an expedited track, and the SPV can be ready to sign when your purchase agreement needs a buyer. Some parts run on fixed clocks, like lender diligence and investor verification, and no one can compress those.^{6, 15}

• How long do lenders take once they are interested?

  Timelines slip, and that is normal. On Cody Sechelski's deal, a lender that quoted three weeks to close took two months, and the seller waited because the structure held. Between a term sheet and the wire sit the lender's diligence, the quality of earnings, the working capital peg and often a site visit.^{27, 28, 37}

Risks and what ifs

What happens when an investor walks, a lender says no, or a deal falls apart.

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• Can you promise I will get funded?

  No. Nobody can legally guarantee that investors will wire money, and lenders set their own terms. What we build is the structure lenders and investors need before they can say yes: the vehicle, the offering documents, the CFA proformas and the data room. Raises.com is a consultancy and advisory firm, not a registered broker-dealer.^{1, 4, 27}

• What happens if an investor pulls out before closing?

  You go to the next capital partner, and how fast depends on the package. When two committed investors pulled out of Ade's 44-unit multifamily raise, his data room and legal package were already complete, so he went straight to new capital partners and closed on March 17. Build the full package before the raise, not during it.^{27, 31}

• What if the first lenders say no?

  Keep going, and run lenders in parallel rather than one at a time. Cody Sechelski's deal went to 25 capital providers off one data room and one structure. 24 said no and one funded. Ask every no for its underwriting reason, because the sponsor who quits after the third bank never finds out the fourth had a structure that worked.^{27, 28, 29}

• What if my deal falls apart before closing?

  Then the framework matters more than the deal. Esteve Mede prepared a $40 million acquisition that collapsed, then reused the same diligence and modeling framework and closed a $3 million AI acquisition. When a lender's compliance rule broke Cody Sechelski's structure three weeks before the wire, the legal form changed, the economics stayed, and the deal closed.^{26, 27, 28, 32}

• What if I start and it turns out not to be a fit?

  The fit check comes first. Every program starts with a strategy call where we confirm fit and scope your raise before you commit, and if the fit is not there, we tell you directly. After you start, Build plans have a three-month minimum, Connect plans are month to month, and cancellation takes effect at the end of the period already paid for.^{1, 4, 14, 21}

Deal size and check size

The deal sizes we work on, and what decides how big a loan or a check gets.

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• What deal sizes do you work on?

  Published client work includes a $500,000 shop purchase and a fund targeting $100 million. Cody Sechelski bought a Texas HVAC company at a $2,660,000 enterprise value. Esteve Mede closed a $3 million AI acquisition. Danny Frye launched a $50 million fund, and Abdiel Louis a Reg D fund targeting $100 million. Plans are sized to the raise.^{1, 26, 28, 29, 30, 32, 34, 36}

• What size checks do investors usually write?

  It depends on the investor and their mandate. Our capital raising guide gives typical ranges: $25,000 to $250,000 from high-net-worth individuals, who invest on personal trust, and $500,000 to $10 million from family offices, which often want a track record or to co-invest with you. Institutional checks of $10 million and up usually need an audited track record.^{43, 47}

• How big a business will a lender finance?

  On lower-middle-market deals of $1 million to $10 million, a bank financing a $5 million purchase wants to see roughly $5 million to $10 million of revenue, with EBITDA at 30 to 40% of it. Some groups underwrite a term loan at about 3x EBITDA, so $2.5 million of EBITDA can support roughly $7.5 million of debt, with equity still required on top.^{27, 36}

• Can you handle more than one raise at a time?

  Yes. There are packages for multiple raises, and the system is designed to handle concurrent deal flow. Build Basic covers one active raise, and Connect Pro is sized for a multi-deal or fund raise. When the strategy repeats, with several deals and one investor base, that points to a fund rather than a new SPV for every deal.^{1, 24, 30, 40}

Canada and other countries

Canadian and cross-border buyers, the structures we use, and the regions we cover.

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• Do you work with Canadian buyers and Canadian entities?

  Yes. We structure Canadian entities, including provincial and federal corporations and Alberta and Ontario stacks, as well as US LLCs and LPs. Cross-border structures, such as a Canadian holding company with a US SPV, are common. Lender-facing packages for Canadian banks and credit funds are part of the same build.^{19, 25, 40}

• Do Canadian lenders want more from a buyer than US lenders?

  On leverage, Canada has usually been the stricter of the two, and the United States is now asking the same. Many lenders in both countries ask for liquidity or net worth equal to the loan ask. Our Head of Capital Markets puts the working number at 10 to 20% of the ask in net worth or liquidity, and says both together is better.^{19, 36}

• SBA is not an option for me. What can fund the purchase instead?

  Every other layer of the capital stack still applies. Senior debt from a bank or a private credit lender, a seller note, seller rollover, an earn-out, a business you already own and investor equity through the vehicle can each carry part of the price. Size the senior debt first, then the seller layers, then your own cash. The equity gap is the last number you calculate.^{27, 36}

• Do you work with buyers outside the US and Canada?

  Raises.com is a global firm with a primary focus on the US, Canada and Western Europe. International deals are more complicated. On one Vancouver deal, banks would not finance a small international purchase, so a US investor collateralized assets and net worth for the financing, and the company was brought to the United States.^{19, 20, 36}

Little or no money down

What lenders expect from your own pocket, and how a gap gets closed without it.

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• Can I buy a business with no money down?

  Usually not anymore. Between 2010 and 2015, a buyer with net worth could close with zero cash down. Today lenders ask to see equity, proof of funds or collateral, and the working number is 10 to 20% of the ask in your net worth or liquidity. Below that, the deal is not dead: the equity gets syndicated from investors, or you bring collateral instead of cash.³⁶

• Can the seller finance part of the purchase?

  Often, yes. A seller note is the seller lending you part of the price, repaid over time behind the senior lender, and it is commonly 10 to 30% of the price in lower-middle-market deals. Rollover equity, where the seller keeps a stake, cuts the cash you need further. In one published case, the seller approved carrying 100% of a $500,000 price.^{27, 29, 36, 42}

• How little of my own cash can a deal close with?

  It depends on the stack. Cody Sechelski bought a Texas HVAC company at a $2,660,000 enterprise value, and the wire left with under $20,000 of his own cash in the deal. The stack included senior debt from a private credit lender, seller paper on standby and seller rollover. Getting there took 25 capital providers run in parallel and a restructure three weeks before the wire.^{27, 28}

• I don't have the net worth lenders want. What are my options?

  Borrow credibility before you borrow capital. A partner with net worth and liquidity can stand behind the loan in exchange for equity and a fee at closing. A co-GP investor can fund most of the equity alongside you. A business you or a partner already own can back the purchase through its cash flow or its equity.^{27, 29, 38}

• My SBA loan is approved, but I'm short on the down payment. Can you help?

  Yes, this is one of the most common situations we solve. The equity injection is commonly around 10%. We structure the raise around the approved file: investor equity through a properly built SPV, seller notes on full standby where the lender permits, and documentation that keeps the loan file compliant.^{12, 41}