Fixed fee.
Scoped after the diagnostic, a known cost, a fraction of what a traditional consultancy charges.
Activate AI · Approaching Exit
Grow your EBITDA. Increase your multiple.
A measurable, in-year rise in EBITDA from AI in your day-to-day operations, up and running in one quarter. Higher earnings, and a higher multiple on them.
Two sources of value
Value created two ways, simultaneously.
First, your EBITDA grows. AI in your operations cuts costs and gets more work through, and it shows in your management accounts before the transaction.
Second, your multiple expands. An acquirer pays a premium for the business that already runs on AI: lower risk, faster integration, more credible future earnings.
More earnings, multiplied by a higher multiple: the programme is measured in enterprise value created.
Most firms offer a strategy document for the data room, and acquirers discount it. Scout builds working capability within a single quarter.
How it works
One quarter. Working capability in your business.
The CEO conversation.
Start hereYou work on your own business challenges with AI, and leave knowing where it creates measurable value for your valuation, with a written assessment and a proposal.
AI Diagnostic.
Week 1We test the opportunities against your own operating data and agree the baseline for the measures that feed EBITDA.
Capability Build.
Weeks 2 to 910×, our AI-native way of delivering: small senior teams using AI tools to deliver in weeks what a large team takes months. We pinpoint where AI will measurably improve operations and build it in, with quality and security checks on every change.
Your team works alongside it from day one, so due diligence sees AI in everyday use that your team understands and keeps.
Acquirers discount capability they must rebuild or buy through a services contract, and pay a premium for capability built in and owned.
Evidence and positioning (two to four weeks)
Pre-processWe describe the capability in acquirers’ language, with the information memorandum substantiated by the management accounts.
Without a transaction in view: see Optimise.
How we price
Three commercial models.
Performance fee.
An agreed percentage of the measurable EBITDA increase attributable to the capability we embed. No measurable increase, no fee.
Hybrid.
A reduced fixed fee plus a performance fee on the EBITDA increase above baseline; the most common structure for larger engagements.
A note on the performance fee and EBITDA. Structured correctly, it is a one-off, non-recurring cost, an acceptable adjustment in the normalised EBITDA buyers use in due diligence, so the full improvement flows into your valuation.
The maths
How £500k of savings becomes £6.5m of enterprise value.
Worked example (illustrative)
A business with £3m EBITDA selling at 6× is worth £18m.
AI reduces operating costs by £500k per year. EBITDA rises to £3.5m, adding £3m at the same 6× multiple.
The acquirer sees AI proven in everyday use, the risk premium falls, and the multiple moves from 6× to 7×. £3.5m at 7× is £24.5m.
Enterprise value moves from £18m to £24.5m.
£6.5m of additional value created in a single quarter.
£6.5m of additional value created in a single quarter.
£3m from the EBITDA improvement, £3.5m more from the multiple.
For corporate finance advisors
An entry point you can offer your clients.
Introduced through corporate finance advisors, M&A specialists and private equity firms. If you advise businesses preparing to sell, the CEO conversation is the entry point; if your client proceeds, it costs them nothing.
Keep reading
Start with the CEO conversation.
With your leadership team; your valuation is the measure.
Or email contact@joinscout.org