Episode Details

Here's a number that should make you uncomfortable.

98% of the time, when a CPA digs into a business's financials, the real EBITDA comes back different from what the seller claimed.

And we're not talking about rounding errors. The real EBITDA is a different number entirely.

Sometimes it's 5% off. Sometimes it's 50% off. And in about a third of cases, the deal dies right there.

That number comes from a CPA who's done over 200 quality of earnings reports, on both the buy side and the sell side.

This week, I sat down with Mubarak Shah, a CPA, M&A advisor, and QoE specialist who also works with our members inside the Pro program.

Mubarak started his career in audit, became VP of Finance at a startup that raised a $10M Series A, and cut his teeth doing QoEs at firms that served private equity clients. He's now completed over 200 of them.

He's seen every trick in the book. And in this episode, he walks through exactly what sellers do to make their businesses look more profitable than they are.

Here are some of the highlights from the deep dive:

🔥 The seller accounting trick that sails right past SBA underwriting and can cost you millions (it's shockingly simple)

🔥 Why your bank's underwriting isn't designed to protect you, and what it's actually designed to do instead

🔥 The one M&A concept that nobody actually understands that led to a seven-figure lawsuit

🔥 A breakdown of exactly what happens during a QoE, what it costs, how long it takes, and why the biggest bottleneck has nothing to do with the accountant

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