Field Notes
I scaled a national mortgage platform from zero to $10B as Founding COO. I diligenced 100 IMB deals and closed 70+. I ran the turnaround on a PE-owned specialty lender and led its sell-side exit.
One essay set per month. M&A and PE-adjacent topics. Specific, operator-level, no abstractions. If you find a piece useful, the engagement page is one click away.
After 100 IMB deals and 70+ closed acquisitions, the pattern is clear: being prepared is 90% of the battle. Five habits that separate the buyers who win from the ones who stumble.
The CIM tells you what the seller wants you to look at. The deal tells you what the seller wants you to ignore. After 100 IMB diligences, here's what sponsors miss when they staff a generalist team.
Gain-on-sale normalization, MSR runoff, recruiter-dependent volume. The math IMB CEOs need to understand before they walk into a sale process — and the haircuts buyers will apply whether they tell you or not.
Top LOs walk. Servicing economics shift. Comp plans collide. The first 90 days post-close decide whether the deal works. From a turnaround I ran on a stalled PE-owned specialty lender.
Pull-through variance, LO concentration, branch lifecycle, retention curves. The signals that show up in the data months before they show up in the P&L.
Warehouse covenants under stress. Hedging discipline. Capacity per closing day. LO comp economics. The questions only an operator thinks to ask — and the ones that decide whether the deal compounds or grinds.