The Deal Review
A deal review is a working session, not a report. You bring the deal you are looking at; on a live call we load your documents into the system together, and you watch it read them: the earnings rebuilt, every add-back tested, the bank math stressed, every number traced to its source page. Then Brad Detlor, who has spent thirty years and roughly sixty transactions in the lower middle market, walks the deal with you: what has to transfer from the owner to you, whether you are positioned to receive it, and what price this deal actually structures at. You leave operating the system yourself, holding the exact questions to ask the owner. During the introduction period it is free, and a real operator is on every deal.
Why it is free, said plainly
Because the trade is honest and we would rather say it out loud. The machine work costs nothing to run, so it is priced at nothing. What we learn from real deals goes back into the product for everyone. And the human judgment is the part that will cost money eventually, once we have learned exactly where it is needed. During the introduction, even the operator is included, because we are still learning together where the machine can carry you and where a person still has to. This is not a trial that expires into a credit card wall. You get an operator on your deal for nothing. We get to learn from what you run. That is the whole arrangement.
The problem with how buyers get help today
A first-time buyer today has three options, and all of them fail at the same point. Courses charge $8,000 to $15,000 to teach you how deals work in general, and then you are alone with your specific deal. A quality of earnings report costs $10,000 or more and makes sense only after the letter of intent, when you are already committed and the clock is running. And free advice from forums and friends is generic by nature, because nobody giving it has read your CIM. What none of them deliver is judgment applied to the actual deal in front of you, at the moment it is cheapest to walk away.
What the machine does first
Before any human opinion enters the room, the JCoBee system does the work that should never be done by feel. The earnings waterfall gets rebuilt from the documents: SDE verified, every add-back tested against the taxonomy of legitimate, aggressive, and fatal. The bankability stress test runs the structure across time: covenant headroom, what happens at revenue down ten percent, where the payment breaks. Concentration and owner dependence get flagged. And every claim in the CIM gets checked against the underlying records, because what you are told and what is true are rarely the same document. Every figure in the report traces to its source page.
What the operator does next
Numbers do not decide deals; transfers do. Every owner-run business carries knowledge that was never written down, and the whole question of your acquisition is whether that knowledge can move from the owner's head to yours. The operator's read maps it: what actually has to transfer, which parts can be documented and which live in relationships, whether the people who hold it will stay and will talk, and, honestly, whether you are the right buyer for this particular business at this particular price. The same business can be safe for one buyer and fatal for another. The review tells you which one you are.
What you walk away with
Your deal, loaded and working in your own account, with the full analysis live: what the machine found, what the documents cannot say, and the gap between this business and you. The exact questions to ask the owner, with strong and weak answers described in advance, so you know what you are listening for in the room. A read on what price the deal structures at and what would have to be true for it to work. And a standing connection while the deal is in motion, including one follow-up call after you meet the owner, so we can read the answers together. If the deal deserves a full quality of earnings report, the session says so plainly, and tells you what to point it at.
How it works
Email to book a working session and tell me a little about the deal. Send the CIM ahead if you like, so the machine work is waiting when we talk, or bring it to the call and we load it together, which is the fastest way to learn the system. A deal gets worked over time, not in one sitting: as yours moves, the analysis lives in your account and I stay connected for the moments that need a person. One thing said plainly: this is teaching, never investment, legal, or accounting advice. I will show you how this work is done and how the system does it, the way people who do this for a living actually work a deal. Every decision, and the deal, stays yours. The introduction runs a small number of deals at a time; if the queue is full, you will get an honest date instead of a fast no.