Full process
What happens at every step.
Including what happens between steps, what happens if nothing comes of it, and what we will never do regardless of how the conversation goes.
Nothing on this page is aspirational. It describes the actual process as it runs, including the parts that end in nothing.
Step by step
The process, start to finish
Before the email: how your name got into the outreach.
Serava builds a database from public business registries: government corporate filings, licensing boards, and similar records. When a buyer subscribes and uploads their acquisition mandate, Serava matches their criteria (industry, geography, size range) against the database and generates a list of candidate businesses.
Your business appeared on that list because it matched a buyer's stated criteria. No one called your competitors. No one scraped your social profiles. The same information appears in public records any lawyer or lender could pull.
What Serava does at this step
Matches buyer mandates against public registry data. Generates the outreach list. Sends the initial email from Serava's domain, not the buyer's.
You receive the email.
The email comes from a Serava domain, not directly from the buyer. It explains what Serava does, what the buyer is looking for at a high level, and links to this page so you can verify who sent it before deciding anything.
Nothing is asked of you. Replying starts a conversation. Not replying ends one. There is no automated follow-up sequence designed to escalate pressure.
What Serava does at this step
Sends the outreach email. Logs the send. Waits.
You reply (if you decide to).
One line is enough. You do not need to prepare anything. You do not need to know your revenue numbers off the top of your head. You are not committing to anything by replying.
If you reply to opt out, that is handled. If you reply with a question, we answer it. If you reply to start a conversation, we schedule a call.
What Serava does at this step
Reads the reply. Routes it appropriately. If it is a removal request, processes it. If it is a question, answers it. If it is an expression of interest, schedules a call.
A 15-minute call, on your schedule.
This call has one purpose: to give you accurate information about what buyers in your market are currently looking for and what they typically pay attention to when evaluating a business. No pitch. No pressure. No documents required.
We will tell you honestly if your business is not likely to match what buyers are looking for right now. That saves everyone's time.
One thing we will not do on this call: give you a valuation. Anyone who tells you what your business is worth before seeing your financials is either guessing or using a number to hook you into a process. Valuations come from your own advisors, with your actual numbers.
What Serava does at this step
Describes the buyer's mandate: what industry, what size range, what geography, what they typically look for in management transition. Asks about your business at a high level only. Assesses fit honestly.
If you want to go further: an NDA.
Before anything specific about your business goes anywhere, we sign a mutual non-disclosure agreement. Request it before any call — we send it immediately, no commitment required.
Have your own attorney review it before signing. We mean that. Do not sign any legal document, including this one, without understanding it.
What Serava does at this step
Prepares the NDA. Gets it signed. Files it. Does not move to the next step until it is executed.
We describe buyers in detail.
With an NDA in place, we share more specifics: the buyer's mandate in detail, their capital availability, their acquisition history, what they typically do with teams and operations post-acquisition, and their stated timeline.
We can also describe your business to the buyer in general terms — revenue range, service mix, geography — without revealing your name, to test interest before any introduction. If the buyer is not interested at that level, you find out without having exposed yourself.
What Serava does at this step
Optionally runs a blind test of buyer interest (no name, no city, just profile). Reports the result honestly, including if the answer is no.
Introduction, only with your explicit consent.
Nothing about you goes to any buyer until you have said yes, by name, to a specific introduction. This is not a policy we can waive. It is how the product works.
When you approve an introduction, the buyer receives your name and basic business information. They sign their own NDA before receiving anything further. From here, you are in direct contact.
What Serava does at this step
Facilitates the introduction. Shares the buyer NDA. Steps back from the direct conversation. Remains available if questions come up.
If it becomes a real transaction: get your own advisors.
Serava is not your advisor. We are not licensed M&A advisors, investment bankers, or attorneys. We made a connection. The transaction itself requires people who represent your interests specifically.
If a deal is moving toward letters of intent, due diligence, and closing, engage an M&A attorney and, if the deal is large enough, a sell-side advisor or investment banker. We will tell you the same thing at that stage. This is not a disclaimer. It is genuinely the right advice.
What Serava does at this step
Nothing additional. We earned our money from the buyer subscription. The deal is between you, the buyer, and your respective advisors.
What if it goes nowhere
Most conversations do not become transactions.
That is normal in M&A. A business owner may decide the timing is wrong. A buyer may move in a different direction. The fit may not be there on either side.
When a conversation does not go anywhere, it ends. There is no obligation to continue, no invoice, and no record in anyone else's database. If you told us things under NDA that did not lead to a deal, those things stay under NDA.
Scenario
You reply but decide after the call you are not interested.
What happens
The conversation ends there. Nothing about you goes anywhere.
Scenario
The buyer is not interested after the blind profile.
What happens
We tell you honestly. You can decide whether to approach other buyers or stop.
Scenario
You are introduced to a buyer but the deal doesn't close.
What happens
We have no further involvement. Your NDA remains in force with both parties.
Scenario
You opt out at any point.
What happens
All Serava outreach stops within 10 business days. You can also request suppression from subscriber exports.
Constraints
What we will never do.
Not policy statements. Structural constraints. Most of these are things Serava cannot do because of how the product is built, not because of a rule we could waive.
Contact your employees, customers, or competitors for research or diligence.
Share your name with any buyer before you have given explicit consent.
Give you a valuation. That requires your actual financial statements and an independent expert.
Take a success fee, commission, or percentage of any transaction.
Charge you anything. Not now, not later, not in a revised agreement.
Pressure you to move on a timeline that serves us instead of you.
Continue outreach after you've opted out.
Represent the buyer. They are our customer. You are not paying us. If there is ever a conflict, you should assume it.
Timeline
How long does this take?
Steps 1 through 3 — email, reply, call — can happen in a week or stretch across a month depending on how busy you are. There is no deadline.
If the conversation advances to NDA and introductions, add another two to four weeks for the buyer to review your profile and respond.
If it becomes a real transaction, M&A processes typically run six to twelve months from first introduction to close. That timeline involves due diligence, negotiations, financing, legal documentation, and regulatory review if applicable. This is true regardless of who made the introduction.
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