Great businesses deserve great exits.

We're an M&A and Growth Advisory firm built for founder-led, middle-market companies. The ones that got built the hard way and deserve to be valued like it.

Our Story

Built from the other side of the table.

100+

Deals Closed

$1.5B+

Transaction Value

50+

Years of TCeam Experience

Josh Donnelly spent a decade inside investment banking, advising on more than $1.5 billion in M&A and bond-financing transactions and becoming the youngest Partner at Shoreline Partners. He saw the same pattern close after close: exceptional founder-led businesses arriving at the negotiating table underprepared, undervalued, and out of leverage.

It was rarely a quality problem. These were good companies with real customers, real margins, and real teams. What they lacked was translation: the financial clarity, operational discipline, and strategic narrative that buyers price a premium against. By the time most founders discovered the gap, they were already in diligence, and it was too late to close it.

Stone Canyon Advisors was founded to move that work forward by two, three, five years. We built the Acquirable™ Framework as the instrument for it, a structured diagnostic that shows founders exactly what a buyer will see, long before a buyer is in the room.

Today we do two things: we make good businesses better, and we make better businesses acquirable. Most of our clients start with the first and end up needing both.

"Founders can spend decades building something remarkable and ninety days finding out what it's actually worth from a guy with a spreadsheet who holds the gold. That asymmetry is the whole problem. Our job is to close the gap, early enough that the founder still has options, with clear eyes and backed with experience so they can trust the number."

Josh Donnelly,

Founder & Managing Partner

The Reality

What drives us

Our Vision

Our vision is to build a platform that serves as a vehicle for entrepreneurs to achieve an irresistible exit with dignity and excellence.

Our Mission

Our mission is to understand each founder’s desired outcome and guide them to opportunities that honor both the value of their business and the future they envision.

WHAT WE DO

Two mandates, one outcome.

Some founders come to us three years out and want to build value. Some come to us three months out and want to capture it. We're built for both, and for the founders who realize, partway through the first, that they're ready for the second.

Growth Advisory

The most successful exits happen when a company is intentionally prepared for sale long before it hits the market. Due diligence gaps in Efficiencies, Financials, Culture, and Scale are the silent pressure points buyers use to lower offers.

By the time we engage buyers on your behalf, your company will not just be a business — it will be a premium, de-risked opportunity with a verifiable growth roadmap that commands stronger multiples.

M&A Advisory

We run the transaction end to end: positioning and narrative, buyer identification and outreach, competitive process design, negotiation, and diligence management through close.

Sell-side representation, growth capital raises, and recapitalizations. You get a market, not a bidder.

The Acquirable™ Method

Acquirable™ Framework

Our advisory framework is built upon four fundamental pillars that drive sustainable growth and maximize enterprise value.

Efficiencies

We blueprint how work really gets done and hardwire it into clean, owner-light processes. The result is faster cycles, fewer errors, and a company that runs on rails, which is exactly how buyers want it.

Financials

We turn bookkeeping into boardroom-grade clarity, GAAP-aligned, EBITDA-tight, and forecastable. No surprises, just a clean story that stands up to diligence and commands stronger multiples.

Culture

We align leadership, organizational norms, and operating cadence so execution feels inevitable. Healthy, sticky teams lower execution risk and signal to acquirers that the value will endure after the handoff.

Scale

We build the engines, stems, people, and partners that let growth repeat without adding chaos. Layer in true moats and buyer synergies, and scale becomes a feature of the business, not a hope.

leadership

Enterprise Value Impact

$4.5 M

$1.5 M EBITDA x 3X Score: 20/ 100

$96 M

$12 M EBITDA x 8X Score: 100/ 100

Efficiencies

Financials

We turn bookkeeping into boardroom-grade clarity, GAAP-aligned, EBITDA-tight, and forecastable. No surprises, just a clean story that stands up to diligence and commands stronger multiples.

Culture

Scale

We build the engines, stems, people, and partners that let growth repeat without adding chaos. Layer in true moats and buyer synergies, and scale becomes a feature of the business, not a hope.

leadership

We build the engines, stems, people, and partners that let growth repeat without adding chaos. Layer in true moats and buyer synergies, and scale becomes a feature of the business, not a hope.

OUR CORE VALUES

Here are the seven rules our employees follow...

Raving Fans

We create experiences worth talking about, earning genuine advocacy through exceptional service and trusted relationships.

Low Egos

We put the founder's outcome ahead of recognition, pride, or being right.

Obsessive Preparation

We do the work upfront, anticipate what’s ahead, and prepare for the moments that matter most.

Radical Transparency

We tell the truth clearly and candidly, especially when it’s difficult, while always leading with care.

Lead With First Principles

We challenge assumptions, get to the root of the problem, and build strategies around what actually creates value.

Moxie

We bring courage, composure, and sound judgment when the stakes are highest.

The 10-Year Mindset

We prioritize lasting relationships and long-term value over short-term wins.

Find out where you stand

Takes 5 minutes. Completely free. You'll receive a detailed breakdown of your score and the specific gaps holding back your exit multiple.

5 minutes

Instant score

No obligation

The people behind the work.

Stone Canyon brings together operators, advisors, analysts, and transaction professionals around one objective: helping founders build and realize the full value of what they've created.