Before PartnersOutsourced M&A for growth companies, SMEs and mid-caps
Your own Head of M&A,
part of the time.
A sale, an acquisition, a fundraising: for you, it is an event. For the person across the table, it is a habit. We take a seat on your side of the table, for as long as it takes.
Before Partners, based in Paris, provides an outsourced M&A (mergers and acquisitions) function to SMEs, family-owned mid-caps and growth companies in France and across Europe: a fractional Head of M&A who prepares, leads and follows through their sales, acquisitions and fundraisings.
A transaction happens to you, or you lead it.
In an SME, it happens to the company more often than it is led. Three difficulties explain why: a lack of awareness of the work to be done, its cost, and the asymmetry of experience with the other side.
Lack of awareness
Few CEOs know what gets prepared before a transaction.
A company is prepared before it is put up for sale. Criteria are set before looking at a company to buy, and figures are checked before they are shown to investors. Yet this is the work that decides the outcome.
Cost
This work looks unaffordable for an SME.
Employing a Head of M&A makes little sense for a company that does a transaction now and then, and the large firms work for larger companies. Many CEOs conclude that it is not for them.
Asymmetry
The other side has done this before.
For a fund or a group, it is a profession; a seasoned acquirer has already completed several. They set the timetable, ask the questions and choose which figures are discussed. The CEO, meanwhile, goes through the process instead of controlling it.
The CEO turns to the people already there: the accountant, the lawyer.
The accountant and the lawyer know the company, and each does their own job: the accounts for one, the law for the other. Leading a transaction is the job of neither. The transaction falls back on the CEO and the CFO, who already have a business to run.
Share of future sellers who rely on each of them for their succession. Bpifrance Le Lab, Transmission et reprise d'entreprise, 2025
Many consider a transaction; few see it through.
Each year in France, 74,000 companies are due to change hands. 26,000 actually do: one in three. Bpifrance Le Lab, Transmission et reprise d'entreprise, 2025
of SME leaders completed an acquisition within five years, whereas 81% had considered or started one. Those who gave up cite first a lack of time and of in-house skills. Bpifrance Le Lab, La croissance externe à l'échelle des PME, 2022
Someone on your side of the table.
To these three difficulties we answer with Before Leadership: a Head of M&A inside your company, on a fractional basis, without your having to hire one. He leads the transaction from start to finish, alongside your accountant and your lawyers. And he does himself part of what is usually handed to an outside firm, starting with the search for an acquirer or for a company to buy.
What gets prepared before the transaction, we do with you.
You have a Head of M&A for as long as it takes, without putting one on the payroll.
We have done this before, like the other side. And we are on yours.
The founder of Before Partners leads your transaction himself.
Stéphane Hincourt-Thomassin
Founder
Thirty years leading corporate finance engagements: sales, acquisitions, fundraisings, due diligence. He was a director at Deloitte, then a partner at BDO.
One dot, one engagement.
Transaction Services and Corporate Finance engagements supervised at Deloitte, then BDO. Most of them consisted of examining the accounts of a company being sold or bought.
interim management mandates, carried out from inside the company. Their details are covered by confidentiality agreements; references are available on request.
Before Leadership turns this into an offer in its own right: working from inside your company, directly and on a fractional basis.
Direct
You have a single point of contact, the person leading the transaction. When the assignment calls for it, he brings in partners and providers he has vetted himself. He takes no commission from them.
Confidentiality
Your project is handled by one person. If you stop, you keep everything delivered to you, and the data we hold is deleted, for good.
Before OS
Our proprietary platform holds our methods and our models. It takes on the mechanical part of the work, and your file is built on it from one step to the next, then from one transaction to the next.
Trusted by
What is your situation?
We work for SMEs, family-owned mid-caps and growth companies, up to €50m in revenue. We also work inside larger companies, when their M&A team is absent or stretched.
Selling, handing over
You are selling your company, all or part of its business, or the fund on your cap table is preparing its exit. A sale cannot be replayed. We prepare the company before it goes to market, we run the process with the acquirers, and we follow the price until it is actually paid.
Leading your sale →Acquiring
You have a target in sight, or a whole buy-and-build programme. We set with you what you are looking for, we carry out the examination of the target (due diligence) or oversee it, then we prepare the decision and the integration.
Leading your acquisition →Raising, financing
You are looking for equity or debt. We validate your financial model, build the investor file and run the fundraising, then we track the use of funds against the plan.
Leading your fundraising →Thinking of selling, and not sure where to start? If you are only considering it, start with a training session on your own accounts. If your decision is made, it is Before Leadership. And if all you lack is verified figures, it is Before Diligence.
Doing one transaction after another, or with a fund already among your shareholders? The long-term format is made for this case →
In France, 58,000 SME leaders intend to hand over their company within five years.
These are SMEs with 10 to 249 employees, to which 1,200 mid-caps are added. An intention is not yet a transaction. Bpifrance Le Lab, Transmission et reprise d'entreprise, 2025
Who is there, and when.
You, your CFO and your accountant keep the business running, transaction or not. The advisers you appoint come in for the duration of the transaction. The M&A function starts before them and continues after signing.
The M&A function, from start to finish
Why each stage matters
Deciding, and preparing.
More than a year before the sale, 70% of sellers are still only thinking about it. Bpifrance Le Lab, Transmission et reprise d'entreprise, 2025
The advisers you appoint are there too: investment bank, lawyers, auditors
Running the transaction.
In SMEs, one abandoned acquisition in two is dropped during negotiation. Bpifrance Le Lab, La croissance externe à l'échelle des PME, 2022
Enforcing what was signed.
In Europe, nearly one transaction in two provides for a price adjustment after signing. CMS European M&A Study, 2026
- With your advisersWe replace neither your accountant nor your lawyers: we work with them. Whether to appoint an investment bank or to do without one is something we think through with you, and we go with the best option for the transaction. What is not handed to an outside firm, we do: searching for acquirers or targets, and leading the discussions.
- Two formatsFor one transaction, which we run from start to finish, as an interim Head of M&A. Or over the long term, when you carry out a series of acquisitions, or sell, one by one, the businesses that are no longer core to your plan.
- The priceYou pay a monthly fee set at the outset, without putting anyone on the payroll for the year. We take no success fee: our advice does not depend on the deal being signed. You can stop along the way.
In an SME, the Head of M&A's seat is often empty.
We have made it our profession.
The M&A function does not fill a full-time position, and it goes beyond what is handed to an adviser for the duration of a transaction. Before Leadership is built to fill it. Compared with an adviser, three things change: trust over time, continuity, and knowledge of the file.
Trust over time
An adviser comes for the transaction. Your Head of M&A is there before it starts, and still there after signing.
Continuity
The same person prepares the file, defends it, then follows up on what was signed. Nothing is lost along the way.
Knowledge of the file
Your Head of M&A knows your company and its figures before the transaction starts. If there is another one, he does not start from scratch.
Advisory mandates, and training.
You can also entrust us with a specific assignment, without taking on a Head of M&A.
Before Diligence
We scrutinise the figures of the transaction, on your side. When buying, it is a red-flag report or a full due diligence. When selling, we prepare your figures before the acquirer reads them (vendor assistance).
Before Diligence, financial due diligence →Before Advisory
We run your sale, acquisition or fundraising as a mandate, from preparing the file through to signing.
Before Advisory, sale, acquisition and fundraising mandates →Before Training
Fifteen ready-made courses on selling, acquiring, due diligence and fundraising, and others built to order. They are intended for CEOs, finance and accounting departments, and the teams of investment funds and investment banks.
Before Training, fifteen courses and bespoke programmes →Let's talk about your project.
A first 30-minute conversation to understand your situation.
Book a call — 30 min →