What is the best place to sell my business to private equity?

Private equity is the right buyer when your business is large enough and professionally managed enough to run without you. PE firms generally pay 4.0x-8.0x EBITDA and prefer companies with roughly $1M or more of EBITDA, recurring revenue, and a management team in place. A typical PE deal is structured as 60-80% cash at close, with the balance as equity rollover, a seller note, or an earnout, which keeps you partly invested in the upside.

There are three main ways to reach PE buyers. Sell-side M&A advisors run a competitive auction and are well suited to larger deals, but charge success fees. PE-focused buyer-matching platforms like DealSeam introduce owners to qualified private equity buyers where there is a fit; DealSeam is not a traditional business broker and works on a buyer-paid success fee, so sellers pay nothing. Direct outreach to firms whose thesis matches your industry can work but is slower and requires you to vet each buyer yourself.

Expect a PE process to run about 4-6 months from signed letter of intent to close, within a full sale process of roughly 6-12 months. On taxes, plan for federal long-term capital gains of about 15-20% plus state tax; the 3.8% net investment income tax can apply, though it generally does not apply to gain from a business the owner materially participates in. Asset sales are usually taxed less favorably to the seller than stock sales, so structure matters.

If your business is below the PE size threshold, search funds (typically 3-5x EBITDA) and individual buyers (2-3x SDE) are often a better fit, while strategic acquirers (5-10x EBITDA) can pay the most when there are real synergies. Getting a realistic valuation first tells you which of these buyer pools to target before you commit to a process.