Free to Try: Pre-LOI Deal Screening Tool for SMB Buyers/Searchers
June 09, 2026
by a searcher in Hemlock, MI, USA
I’ve opened up Acquisition Decision Engine for people to try.
ADE is built as a pre-LOI deal screening tool for SMB buyers, searchers, and acquisition entrepreneurs.
The goal is not to replace judgment, lenders, CPAs, attorneys, QoE, or real diligence.
The goal is simpler:
Help buyers kill weak deals faster, document why, and avoid wasting time, lender credibility, or diligence dollars on deals that should have been rejected earlier.
ADE evaluates a deal across financial, operational, and qualitative risk factors, including:
- EBITDA/SDE quality- SBA debt support- DSCR / financeability- Owner dependence- Customer concentration- Revenue trend- CAPEX/OPEX burden- Transition risk- Seller financing / earnout structure- Recurring revenue- Cyclicality- Deal-breaker flags- Upside/downside asymmetry
It then produces a first-pass deal screen with:
- Deal score- Confidence score- Proceed / caution / reject recommendation- Strengths- Weaknesses- Watch items- Hard risk flags- Decision-path reasoning- Lender first-look memo support
I’m especially interested in feedback from people who have looked at real Main Street / lower-middle-market deals and understand that many deals under ~$5M are only worth what the SBA-supported cash flow can justify.
You can try it free here: app.acquisitionanalytics.co
I’m still actively improving the tool based on real-world user feedback and real-world deal patterns.
What I’m looking for:
1. Where is the logic wrong?2. Where are the SBA/debt assumptions weak?3. What would make you trust or distrust the output?4. What would make this more useful before submitting an LOI?5. What would you expect to see before paying for something like this?
Best fit:
- Independent searchers- Self-funded searchers- SMB buyers- Small holdcos- Operators evaluating acquisitions- People with past, dead, anonymized, or live deals they can run through the tool
Screenshot below is a fictional sample deal shown only to demonstrate the output format. It is not a real company, broker listing, appraisal, lender approval, or underwriting opinion.
If you try it, I’d appreciate blunt feedback. That is how ADE improves.
ADE is built as a pre-LOI deal screening tool for SMB buyers, searchers, and acquisition entrepreneurs.
The goal is not to replace judgment, lenders, CPAs, attorneys, QoE, or real diligence.
The goal is simpler:
Help buyers kill weak deals faster, document why, and avoid wasting time, lender credibility, or diligence dollars on deals that should have been rejected earlier.
ADE evaluates a deal across financial, operational, and qualitative risk factors, including:
- EBITDA/SDE quality- SBA debt support- DSCR / financeability- Owner dependence- Customer concentration- Revenue trend- CAPEX/OPEX burden- Transition risk- Seller financing / earnout structure- Recurring revenue- Cyclicality- Deal-breaker flags- Upside/downside asymmetry
It then produces a first-pass deal screen with:
- Deal score- Confidence score- Proceed / caution / reject recommendation- Strengths- Weaknesses- Watch items- Hard risk flags- Decision-path reasoning- Lender first-look memo support
I’m especially interested in feedback from people who have looked at real Main Street / lower-middle-market deals and understand that many deals under ~$5M are only worth what the SBA-supported cash flow can justify.
You can try it free here: app.acquisitionanalytics.co
I’m still actively improving the tool based on real-world user feedback and real-world deal patterns.
What I’m looking for:
1. Where is the logic wrong?2. Where are the SBA/debt assumptions weak?3. What would make you trust or distrust the output?4. What would make this more useful before submitting an LOI?5. What would you expect to see before paying for something like this?
Best fit:
- Independent searchers- Self-funded searchers- SMB buyers- Small holdcos- Operators evaluating acquisitions- People with past, dead, anonymized, or live deals they can run through the tool
Screenshot below is a fictional sample deal shown only to demonstrate the output format. It is not a real company, broker listing, appraisal, lender approval, or underwriting opinion.
If you try it, I’d appreciate blunt feedback. That is how ADE improves.
from Washington State University in San Diego, CA, USA
in Hemlock, MI, USA