M&A Advisory for
CPG Founders and
Private Equity Firms

Two decades of pattern recognition across better-for-you exits.

Clients have included founders across better-for-you food, beverage, and beauty with exits ranging from $15M to $200M.

• Schedule a 30-Minute Call

The Pre-Exit OS

There is a moment I've watched hundreds of founders live through. The business is performing. The inbound calls have started arriving — casual, flattering, framed as curiosity. And a question has begun to surface that you haven't said out loud yet.

Is this the year?

What happens next determines everything.I built Evans & Company because of what I watched happen after that moment. At Bear Stearns I structured nine-figure exits for some of the most recognized names in CPG. Then I spent two decades as a wealth advisor sitting across from founders after the wire landed — paid, but unprepared for what came next. The terms had been set by someone else. The frame had been built by the buyer. And by the time my clients arrived, the most important decisions had already been made without them.That ends here.The Pre-Exit OS is my proprietary engagement for founders twelve to thirty-six months from a potential exit. I work with you on valuation positioning, deal structure, buyer narrative, and the wealth architecture that ensures the number on the wire becomes permanent capital — not a moment that quietly erodes. This isn't transaction advisory. It's the work that makes your transaction worth having.The Pre-Exit OS runs on proprietary software built exclusively for this engagement — not the off-the-shelf planning tools every other advisor licenses.You don't react to your exit. You architect it.

"The buyer already has a story about what your company is worth. The only question is whether you've written yours first."

• Book Your Pre-Exit Readiness Assessment

For CPG Founders

You built the brand. We protect what it's worth.There's a moment every founder recognizes. You're three years past your exit and someone asks how it went. You say great — because the valuation was strong, the deal closed, the money arrived. But then they ask if you're proud of where the company went, and you hesitate.The buyer gutted the R&D team. Changed the formulation to improve margins. Laid off the people who built it with you. Your brand — fifteen years in the making — became just another SKU in someone else's portfolio.You got paid. But you lost something that mattered more than you realized.

"We curate buyers the way galleries curate collectors: researching who should want this, not just who could afford this."

Exit readiness. Buyer identification. Diligence preparation. Deal structure. We advise from first conversation through close — and into the decade that follows.

For Private Equity

Brand strength doesn't guarantee operational resilience.

We provide buy-side diligence intelligence that tells you what the numbers won't — margin durability, supply chain fragility, founder dependency, integration risk.

Why Evans & Company Exists

"Most founders get paid. Few keep it."

For almost twenty years, I worked as a wealth advisor for founders after the exit. I heard what they wished they'd negotiated differently. Which buyers kept their promises. Which deal structures created generational wealth — and which ones created tax nightmares.The earnout that never triggers. The brand gutted six months after close. The founder who chose the highest bid and spent three years watching what they built become unrecognizable.Most of it was preventable.Evans & Company exists because most M&A advisory is optimized for the deal. We optimize for the decade after the deal. Those are different mandates. Almost nobody is doing the second one.

The Stretch

CPG M&A intelligence for founders and operators.

725 subscribers. 38% are CPG founders, CEOs, and strategic buyers. Published weekly.

• Subscribe Now

Our Approach

We integrate wealth planning before the deal closes — not after. We advise on brand integrity provisions alongside price. And we track what happened to founders after comparable exits, then use it.

Deal Parameters

Contact

All engagements begin with one conversation.

Daniel Evans

• [email protected]

Based in East Hampton, advising clients nationally.

• Schedule a 30-Minute Call

M&A Advisory | Wealth ArchitectureOther Services:
Your Family CFO – Post-exit wealth management for ultra-high-net-worth entrepreneurs
The Stretch – M&A intelligence newsletter for CPG founders

© 2026 Evans & Company · East Hampton, New York