Advisory for owners of $5M–$250M businesses

Earn the freedom to choose what happens next.

Sell it someday. Hand it to the next generation. Bring in the right investors to scale. Or keep it, and step back. The owners who get to choose all built the same thing first: a business that is strong without them. That takes years, not months. Which is why the work starts now, long before any decision is on the table.

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Advisors, not brokers About 20 min · free Confidential
VQ · 00
/ 100
Developing
↗ 2 bands to "On Your Terms"
68
VQ · OUT OF 100
What we are
Agora doesn't sell businesses. We're operating advisors: we help owners build companies that are stronger, more valuable, and less dependent on them. What you do with that strength stays entirely your call.
est. 2013 · operator-built
01
Start Where You Are

The questions owners actually ask themselves.

Nobody wakes up wanting an assessment. You wake up, usually at 3am, with one of these.

3am · 01

Is the business worth what I think it is?

3am · 02

Could it run without me?

3am · 03

Could I sell in five years, if I wanted to?

3am · 04

What happens if I'm out for three months?

3am · 05

Am I building something a buyer could actually want?

The thing is

Underneath, these are all one question: how strong is this business, apart from you?

That one is measurable.

Measure yours, free →
02
Why Strength First

Strong first. Then options.

The point of the work isn't a sale. It's a business good enough that every path stays open, and the timeline stays yours.

Path · Someday

Sell, on your terms

A business that runs without heroics lets you choose the when, the who, and the terms. Buyers could pay meaningfully more for a company that doesn't need its owner in the room.

Path · Scale

Attract the right investors

Scaling with outside capital starts with the same principles: investor-grade numbers, real systems, a leadership team that holds. That's what draws serious partners, on serious terms.

Path · Generations

Hand it down, intact

A business that depends on you is a hard inheritance. One that runs on real systems and a real leadership team is a gift the next generation can actually carry.

Path · Keep it

Keep it, and get your life back

Plenty of owners never sell. A stronger business pays them twice anyway: better numbers, and weeks that don't run on firefighting.

What the work looks like All of it is ordinary operating work: process discipline, leadership depth, customer strength, cleaner numbers. To your team it reads as investment in the business, because that's exactly what it is.
03
Meet VQ

One number for all of this: your VQ.

The Value Quotient scores your business from 0 to 100 across seven dimensions and roughly fifty signals: the ones that decide whether it runs without you, scales without breaking, and holds its value over the next decade.

VQ · 00
/ 100
Developing
↗ moves ranked
68
VQ · OUT OF 100

Not a sellability verdict. A readiness read.

VQ describes your business's operating strength and the options it could earn you, never your worth as a human, and never a promise about price. You get the headline number, the honest range around it, and the breakdown that explains it. No black box.

Seven dimensions, weighted by impact on enterprise value:

VQ·01Financial Performance & PredictabilityRevenue, margins, concentration, recurring revenue
VQ·02Operational Maturity & ScalabilityProcess, tech enablement, KPIs, documentation
VQ·03Leadership, Talent & CultureOwner dependence, bench depth, retention
VQ·04Customer & Market PositionRetention, reputation, barriers, repeatable sales
VQ·05Deal Readiness & DocumentationReporting quality, cap table, diligence readiness
VQ·06Legal, Compliance & RiskEntity cleanliness, contracts, insurance, exposure
VQ·07Strategic Clarity & VisionDirection, resilience, differentiation, innovation
Exposed
0 – 39
A bad quarter, a lost customer, or a key departure can rewrite everything.
Reactive
40 – 54
The business runs, but it runs through you. Most weeks feel like firefighting.
Developing
55 – 69
The business stands without heroics. You have time to think past this week.
Approaching
70 – 84
The business gives you options. You choose where to invest and what to say no to.
On Your Terms
85 – 100
The business is a portfolio of choices, yours to make on your own timeline.
040557085100
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04
What You Walk Away With

A report your CFO won't roll their eyes at.

The free Snapshot gives you the score and what could move it. The advisor-led Value Roadmap turns it into a written, defensible, investor-grade plan.

CONFIDENTIAL · DRAFT
Insights Report · Value Roadmap
Where you stand,
and what could move it.
Prepared for [Owner Name] · [Company]
Your VQ
Developing · 55–69
68

Plain language. Real evidence. A move set you can defend.

  • 01
    A single VQ number, on a 0–100 scale.
    Plus the seven category scores that built it. No black box.
  • 02
    Benchmarks by industry and revenue band.
    So you know whether 68 is a problem in your peer set, or a quiet superpower.
  • 03
    A ranked 12–36 month action plan.
    The two or three moves with the biggest impact, time to value, and capital required.
  • 04
    What "stronger" looks like, in operating reality.
    Drivers and risks broken out plainly. The kind of read you can hold up in a board meeting without asterisks.
See a sample Snapshot result →
05
How to Start

Start free. Go as deep as the work deserves.

Every engagement starts the same way: with your VQ. What happens after it is up to you, and most of it happens over years, not weeks.

Step 01 · Free
VQ Snapshot™
$0  ·  about 20 minutes
A guided interview, not a form. The questions adapt to your industry, size, and answers. You finish with your VQ, its honest range, and what could move it.
  • Your VQ (0–100) and band, with its honest range
  • The three forces buyers price: transferability, value quality, readiness
  • Your strengths, and what to fix first
  • Instant on screen, emailed to keep. No commitment
Take the Snapshot →
Your Next Step
Step 02 · Advisor-led
Value Roadmap
$2,497 · flat
Not an automated output. A senior Agora advisor verifies your VQ against evidence, writes your insights report, and walks your prioritized plan through with you, live.
  • Advisor-verified VQ: the self-reported range narrows to ±2
  • 18-page insights report, written for your business, not a template
  • Live 1:1 working session with a senior advisor
  • Prioritized plan with 90-day and 12-month milestones
  • 30-day follow-up to keep the plan honest
Start my Value Roadmap →
Step 03 · Ongoing programs
Build · Fortify · Command
Scoped · ongoing advisory
Where the number actually moves. Three programs at increasing depth carry the work, from a steady advisory cadence to an embedded operating partner.
  • Build: establish the discipline, periodic advisory, annual rescore
  • Fortify: systematically strengthen, senior coaching, deeper rescores
  • Command: transform and position, an embedded operating partner
  • Periodic VQ re-scoring as the operating KPI throughout
Talk with an advisor →
Coming soon VQ Membership: your score tracked, benchmarked, and re-scored year over year. Roadmap clients are first in line.
06
About Agora

Operators, not brokers.

Agora has been working with lower-middle-market owners since 2013. We aren't a transaction shop. We're operating advisors who sit alongside leadership teams across the long arc that makes a business strong. VQ is the framework we wished we'd had, pulled out of thirteen years of engagements.

The premise. Lower-middle-market owners are extraordinary at building. They are systematically under-served when it comes to making the business operate as well as it performs: the difference between a company that runs on its founder's energy and one that compounds on its own. That gap costs them every year, in money, in time, and in joy.

The people. The free Snapshot is exactly that: a fast, directional read, generated for you in minutes. Everything beyond it is led by a person. A seasoned advisor interprets your score, pressure-tests it against the reality of your business, and tells you plainly what to do next.

The promise. No surprise upgrades. No deck that's mostly stock photos. No score without a plan to move it.

2013
Working with owners since
7
Dimensions scored
~50
Signals behind the score
1
Number to move
– The Agora Team

Built companies. Bought companies. Sold companies. Led companies. Now we help owners strengthen theirs.

Partners
Garry Krum
Founder & Partner
Garry Krum
40+ years of M&A experience helping hundreds of owners achieve transition success. Garry's wisdom is present in every engagement, and he can often be found as a guest speaker on the topic of exit readiness.
LinkedIn ↗
Aaron Stevens
Managing Partner
Aaron Stevens
25+ years in sales, leadership, and growth strategy in organizations large and small. Aaron approaches every engagement with a client-first perspective, and takes real pride in helping owners get unstuck and find clarity on what's next.
LinkedIn ↗
Wally Beecroft
Partner
Wally Beecroft
35+ years of executive leadership, M&A integration, and board governance. Wally has led companies through transformative growth and highly successful exits, and now brings strategic insight, operational rigor, and people-centered leadership to Agora clients across the Midwest and beyond.
LinkedIn ↗
AssociatesSpecialist depth across strategy, finance & operations
Jessica Archer
Associate
Jessica Archer
Seasoned executive with experience helping businesses ranging from start-ups to Fortune 50 giants. Jessica is a facilitator-extraordinaire, skilled in helping leaders clarify what they want, what they have, and how to get to ultimate success.
LinkedIn ↗
Derick Jiwan
Associate
Derick Jiwan
10+ years turning complex operational realities into clear, executable commercial strategy, across corporate and startup environments, product launches spanning 20+ states and five countries, financial modeling, and ag-tech commercialization.
LinkedIn ↗
+ Interested in joining as an associate?
Now welcoming
Associate advisors
We work with a growing bench of operators who've built and run real businesses. If that's you, and the work resonates, we'd like to hear from you.
Introduce yourself →
–
Clients & Partners

Owners don't take our word for it. They take theirs.

“
We'd run on instinct for fifteen years. VQ was the first time anyone put a number on what we already felt, and then handed us the order to fix it in.
Owner & CEO · Industrial services
“
The score gave my leadership team a shared language. We stopped debating opinions and started working the same list, together.
Founder · Professional services
“
I bring VQ into every owner conversation now. It turns "you should get your house in order" into something concrete they actually act on.
M&A Advisor · Partner firm
–
Honest Questions

Things owners have asked us.

If yours isn't here, write to hello@agoravq.com and we'll get back to you right away.

Is the Snapshot really free, or is this a polite intake form?+
Really free. No card, no commitment required, no email-verification gauntlet. You answer the questions, your results are emailed to you. If you decide later that you want the drivers behind your score, and the plan to move it, the upgrade path is right there. If you don't, that's fine too.
Are you going to try to sell my business?+
No. Agora is an advisory firm, not a broker. There's no listing, no buyer outreach, no process. We help you build a stronger business over years. If a transition ever happens, it happens on your timeline, with whatever bankers and advisors you choose, and the business walks in already ready.
How is VQ different from someone telling me what my business is worth today?+
A point-in-time valuation tells you what the market might say about today's business. VQ tells you which moves could change what it is, across the seven dimensions that actually drive strength. One is a rear-view mirror. The other is a steering wheel.
I'm happy running the business indefinitely. Is VQ still for me?+
Honestly, these are the owners who get the most out of it. The seven dimensions that build long-term strength are the same ones that determine how the business runs when you're not in the room, which is the version of the business most owners actually want, regardless of whether they ever bring in a partner. A stronger business is a better business to own.
Who sees my answers?+
Only us, and only the named members of our team scoring the report. We don't sell data. We don't share company names without explicit written permission. If you'd like a mutual NDA before the Snapshot: fine, just ask.
My team is going to wonder why outside advisors are involved. What should I tell them?+
Tell them the truth: you're investing in making the business stronger. VQ is a structured way to look at the seven dimensions that make a company resilient and scalable, things every leadership team should want to be measured on. The work touches everyone in good ways: clearer process, better tools, more thoughtful succession planning, leadership development. We design the interviews and workshops to feel like an opportunity, not an audit.
What does the Value Roadmap actually cost?+
The Value Roadmap is a flat $2,497. A senior Agora advisor verifies your VQ against evidence, writes your 18-page insights report, and walks your prioritized plan through with you in a live 1:1 working session, with a 30-day follow-up. We thought about tiering it by revenue band and decided not to: the work is the same whether you're at $5M or $50M, and the insight is worth the same either way.
What's the best way to reach the Agora team?+
Email is always fastest: hello@agoravq.com. We respond like humans, not ticket systems. If you'd prefer to call, you can reach us at 214-302-9310. We're based across Denver CO, Dallas TX, and Chicago IL, but we serve clients across the US.
For advisors & investment bankers VQ gives your owner conversations a shared language. Co-branded Snapshot links, partner pricing, and a structure owners don't push back on. We're advisors, not brokers, so the client relationship stays yours. Why partnering with Agora is a smart move →
Begin · Free Snapshot

The work takes years. The first read takes twenty minutes.

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