Sell as a Platform: Win Big with a Buy and Build Strategy

You built this with late nights and stubborn belief. Now you’re thinking about selling. Good. Here’s the twist nobody tells you: the biggest exits don’t go to the best products, they go to the cleanest stories about what comes next.

That story is buy and build. Sell like an investor who sees the next three deals, not like a founder who’s done. That single shift can lift your price, cut your earn-out risk, and pull better buyers to your table.

Why this matters right now

Most serious buyers run some version of buy and build. They want a strong core, then they bolt on smaller companies to outgrow the market. When they look at you, they’re not just pricing your past, they’re pricing the add-ons you make possible.

Look like a platform and you get competition, premium, options. Look like a tidy add-on and you get squeezed on terms and timing. Which side of the table do you want?

A quick story. Maya built a solid niche software firm: steady recurring revenue, clean financials. Two buyers circled, a strategic and a PE group. She won an extra two turns on valuation because she arrived with a simple map of five logical add-ons and a clear plan to fold them in. Same company. Different story. Very different outcome.

The simple truth about buy and build

Forget buzzwords. You buy a core company. You add related companies. You share customers and systems. You grow faster with less risk.

Why buyers love it: it stacks small wins, cross-sell here, shared back office there, one price rise across the group. Good turns into bigger, steadier, more valuable.

What matters to you: your price moves when buyers believe you can be that core. When they can see clear add-ons, fast integration, and numbers that hold after the ink dries.

Sell as a platform, not a project

A platform buyer wants a base they can scale. An add-on buyer wants a piece they can plug in. Both pay. Platforms pull a premium.

Prove platform readiness. Show you can absorb, not just be absorbed.

• Clear, simple systems: shared CRM, finance, and data so a new team can slot in without chaos.
• A leadership bench beyond you, named owners for sales, delivery, finance.
• Documented playbooks for onboarding, pricing, hiring, repeatable motion, not heroics.
• A one-page map of the next five targets: why they fit, who you know, what value unlocks.

Put numbers to it. How would one add-on lift revenue? How would two add-ons cut unit costs? Use small, real numbers. Avoid vague promises. One page of evidence beats a deck of dreams.

Make your pipeline visible, even if you never buy a thing

Build a simple target list. Talk to owners. Log notes. Get comfortable with their numbers and culture. You’re not making offers, you’re proving your market is full of reachable pieces and you know how to bring them in.

Create a shortlist by category:

• Same customer, adjacent product.
• Same product, new segment.
• Same region, new channel.
  The point isn’t fancy slides. It’s proof your growth won’t require miracles.

If you can do one small partnership before sale, even better. A shared campaign, a bundled offer, a referral agreement. Show customers want the combo. Buyers pay more for what they can already see working.

Terms, not just price, are shaped by this

When buyers believe you can anchor a buy and build, you get choice. Cash at close, or cash plus rollover equity to ride the next wave. Earn-out tied to simple, controllable metrics, not heroic stretch goals. Board role or clean exit, your call.

Know your buyer:

• Platform buyers build around you and pay for potential.
• Add-on buyers slot you into their machine and price cost savings.
• Strategics may value customers or tech more than cash flow.
  Tailor your story, but hold one line: you’re selling tomorrow, not just yesterday.

Use competition well. Invite at least one group clearly running buy and build in your space. Their questions sharpen your deck. Their offers set the pace.

Avoid the three traps that kill the premium

• Messy numbers. Buyers don’t fear problems; they fear surprises. Clean up revenue recognition, strip one-time items, annotate anything unusual. When in doubt, simplify.
• Dependency on you. If all roads lead to you, they see a project, not a platform. Push decisions to leaders. Let customers meet them. Make yourself smaller on purpose.
• Fairy-tale synergies. If your story hangs on perfect cross-sell or magic margins, you lose credibility. Use conservative assumptions. Tie upside to rollover equity, not inflated headlines. Serious buyers respect realism.

How to start in 30 days. Keep it small. Keep it real.

• Talk to five logical targets; note revenue, customers, culture.
• Write a two-page integration memo on how you’d plug one into your systems.
• Build a simple dashboard with three metrics buyers care about: recurring revenue, retention, gross margin.
• Run one joint campaign with a partner to test cross-sell demand.

Document, don’t decorate. Buyers buy clarity.

Key takeaway

You’re not selling your past. You’re selling the next three deals someone else will do on top of you. Package your company as the core of a buy and build, and you move from nice-to-have to must-have. The market pays for that future.

Reflective prompt

If a buyer had £100M to deploy in your market, would they choose your company with their first cheque, and why? What will you change in the next 90 days to make that answer an easy yes?