About
We Build the Infrastructure. You Close the Deals.
Second Chair Advisory exists because the way M&A professionals source deals is fundamentally broken. We built something better.
The Origin
How Second Chair Started
Second Chair Advisory started with a simple observation: M&A advisory firms spend 60 to 70 percent of their time sourcing deals and only 30 to 40 percent closing them. The economics are inverted. The highest-value activity gets the least attention because sourcing is manual, unpredictable, and exhausting.
Referral networks dry up. Cold outreach gets ignored. Broker databases sell the same leads to every firm that pays. Business owners who are actually considering an exit have no trusted, private way to explore their options without being immediately sold to.
We asked a different question: what if you could build a platform that business owners actually wanted to use? One that gave them real value, real data, and real answers about their exit options. No sales pitch. No credit card. No catch. And what if every owner who engaged with that platform generated detailed financial and operational data that could be delivered exclusively to one firm in their territory?
We built the first platform for HVAC companies. It worked. Within weeks, a $2M residential HVAC company in New York completed a full valuation scan exploring a 12 to 24 month exit. A 40-technician commercial operation in California came through evaluating growth-through-acquisition strategy. Both found the platform organically. Neither was cold-called.
Then we built a second platform for home care agencies. Same architecture. Same results. A home care agency in Washington generating nearly $600K in annual revenue completed the scanner in the first month.
Two platforms. Two industries. Three states. Three qualified leads. Zero dollars in advertising. And every paywall has since been removed, so the pipeline is only accelerating.
The Model
Why Everything Is Free
We made a deliberate decision to remove every paywall on every platform. The Quick Wins Reports are free. The Deep Dive Analyses are free. Every tool, every guide, every resource is free for the business owner. That decision maximizes engagement, which maximizes lead flow, which is what subscribing firms are paying for. The incentives are perfectly aligned. Owners get the best free exit planning tools in their industry. Firms get a pipeline of educated, self-identified owners with detailed financial data.
Founder
Billy Baumann
Billy Baumann is the founder of Second Chair Advisory and the architect behind the Exit Lab platform network. His background is in M&A advisory and private equity operations, focused on founder-led businesses in the lower middle market.
Billy also serves as Chief Operating Officer at Stone Capital Partners, an M&A advisory and co-investment firm focused on founder-led businesses generating $5M to $50M in revenue. That dual role means Second Chair is not a theoretical product built by outsiders. It is infrastructure built by an operator who uses it every day.
Second Chair was built to solve the sourcing problem at scale. Instead of building one platform for one firm, Billy built a network of industry-specific platforms that any qualified M&A firm can subscribe to for exclusive regional access.
The approach is infrastructure-first. Every Exit Lab platform is a complete ecosystem: valuation scanner, 50 state M&A guides, industry blog content, EBITDA multiples database, exit timeline calculator, email nurture sequences, and detailed PDF reports. The platforms are built to rank, to convert, and to deliver qualified leads without paid advertising.
By the Numbers
4
Exit Lab platforms built or in active build
260+
Unique content pages across live platforms
100
State-specific M&A guides published
27
Factors analyzed in every valuation scanner
3
Qualified leads generated within weeks of launch
$0
Ad spend. Every lead is organic.
What Second Chair Is
A proprietary deal flow network that owns and operates industry-specific exit planning platforms.
An infrastructure company that builds complete ecosystems designed to attract business owners organically.
A subscription network where M&A firms access exclusive, consent-based deal flow in their territory.
What Second Chair Is Not
Not a SaaS company. We do not sell software.
Not a lead list. We do not sell shared databases.
Not a marketing agency. We do not build websites for clients.
Not a consulting firm. We do not sell advice.
Not a technology company. We are a network operator.
See What We Have Built
The best way to understand Second Chair is to see the platforms in action. Schedule a 20-minute call and we will walk you through the infrastructure, the data, and the results.