The real reason buyers walk away

I run GetAcquired. I've watched hundreds of deals happen — and hundreds more fall apart.

The reason buyers walk away is almost never the revenue number.

The top 5 reasons deals die

1. **Founder dependency** — "I can't tell if this business works without the founder because the founder does everything." This is the #1 deal killer.
2. **Unclear financials** — Revenue is in three different systems. Expenses are in a spreadsheet. Nobody can explain the discrepancy between the P&L and the bank statements.
3. **Concentration risk** — 80% of revenue comes from one customer or one channel. Buyers see this and walk.
4. **Technical debt** — The codebase is undocumented, untested, and unmaintainable. A buyer isn't buying a business — they're buying a rebuild project.
5. **Vendor lock-in** — The business runs on a platform the buyer doesn't control. If that platform changes terms, the business changes value.

What to do about it

The good news: every single one of these is fixable. They just require time — which is why you shouldn't wait until you're ready to sell to fix them.

Start six months before you plan to list. Reduce dependency, clean the books, diversify channels, document the code, own your stack.

When a buyer looks at your business and sees a well-oiled machine that works without you, they don't walk away. They compete to buy it.