Improve the multiple buyers will actually pay.
Operating work that strengthens revenue quality, leadership depth, and the growth narrative buyers underwrite, delivered alongside your bankers, attorneys, and accountants.
Aptos Strategy Group, Inc. advises GovCon CEOs, founders, private equity firms, and portfolio company leaders on the operating work that drives enterprise value and M&A readiness. The firm works alongside your investment bankers, deal attorneys, and accounting advisors. We do not render legal, tax, or audit opinions. We improve the operating story those advisors will be selling.
The operating drivers buyers actually underwrite.
Buyers underwrite revenue quality, contract concentration, leadership depth, pipeline credibility, EBITDA discipline, and the credibility of the next 12 to 24 months of growth. Aptos works on the operating drivers, not the financial engineering. Bankers and accountants handle that.
Exit readiness diagnostic
An honest assessment of the operating story buyers will pressure-test: contract concentration, recompete risk, pipeline quality, leadership bench, customer references, and the operating data room. Documented, scored, and prioritized.
Enterprise value creation plan
6 to 18 month operating workplan that improves valuation drivers in time for the value event. Pursuit prioritization, leadership investments, process maturity, and the data room readiness work that compounds the multiple.
Pre-sale preparation
Management presentation development, growth narrative, buyer Q&A prep, data room operating documentation, and the rehearsed responses to the diligence questions that always come.
PE portfolio company diligence
Pre-investment or post-close diligence support on GovCon portfolio companies for private equity firms. Market position, pipeline quality, leadership depth, and the operating work required to hit the value-creation plan.
What sellers and PE firms actually need to know.
- When should we start M&A readiness work?
Ideally 12 to 24 months before the intended value event. Six months is workable but limits the improvement runway. Three months or less is mostly narrative cleanup, not real value creation. The earlier the start, the more multiple improvement is achievable.
- What do buyers actually underwrite in a GovCon firm?
Revenue quality (single award versus IDIQ versus T&M mix), customer concentration, contract durability, recompete exposure, pipeline credibility, leadership depth beyond the founder, organic growth trajectory, and the operating data room. Stories are pressure-tested; documentation wins.
- How does Aptos work with our bankers, attorneys, and accountants?
Aptos handles the operating side: pipeline quality, leadership bench, capture posture, customer narrative, and operating data room readiness. Bankers handle process and price discovery. Attorneys handle structure. Accountants handle financial diligence. Aptos coordinates rather than duplicates.
- Can Aptos help us re-price diligence valuations?
Aptos can help build the operating evidence that supports a higher multiple — pipeline quality data, capture maturity documentation, leadership bench strength, customer concentration mitigants — but the price negotiation belongs to your banker and the deal team.
- What can be improved in 6 months versus 18 months?
Six months: data room readiness, narrative discipline, basic leadership gap closure, pipeline quality scoring. Twelve to eighteen months: real recompete defense work, organic growth proof points, leadership depth that survives a CEO transition, customer concentration improvement.
Three contexts where readiness work pays the most.
GovCon CEOs and founders
Use Aptos 12 to 24 months ahead of an intended sale or recapitalization to strengthen the operating story before bankers begin a process.
Private equity firms
Use Aptos in pre-investment diligence on GovCon targets and in post-close value creation work to drive the multiple at exit.
Portfolio company boards
Use Aptos for an independent read on operating readiness ahead of a board-approved value event or sponsor recapitalization.
Tell us when the value event is.
A 30-minute working call sizes the readiness gap and the realistic improvement window. Most engagements run 6 to 18 months ahead of the intended event.