what we do
Make Extraordinary Exits™ Possible
YOUR EXPERT GUIDES ON THE STRATEGIC JOURNEY TO AN EXTRAORDINARY EXIT
We know that selling your business is an emotional and psychological journey, even if you didn’t start the business yourself. Now that you’re thinking of selling, you need to know what to do. And while you’re the expert at your business, selling it is probably a new experience for you.
As entrepreneurs ourselves, we’ve been in your shoes and we’re here to guide you through the process so you can achieve your own Extraordinary Exit.
sell-side
advisory
Navigate the Complexities of Selling with Confidence, Clarity, and Strategy
Deciding to sell your business can be a huge emotional roller coaster. Whether you’re exploring a full exit, divesting a non-core asset, or responding to an unsolicited offer, every step requires a trusted advisor with proven sell-side M&A expertise.
At STS Capital Partners, we specialize in sell-side advisory services for entrepreneurial and private business owners. Our role is to help you assess your options, protect your legacy, and unlock maximum value, ensuring you achieve an Extraordinary Exit™ – including identifying the right strategic buyer, structuring the right deal, and setting the stage for future success.
SELLING
TO STRATEGICS™
The Key to an Extraordinary Exit™
We focus on maximizing value by Selling to Strategics™. Strategic buyers often pay higher multiples than financial buyers because they are looking at the integrated value and synergies that enhance their own business and unlock greater potential.
Our proven process determines the business drivers that contribute to your integrated value – the value that strategic buyers are willing to pay a premium for. We determine the ideal moment to take your company to market, enhance the factors that increase its worth, and drive a highly targeted outreach to the most qualified strategic buyers around the world.
NAVIGATING
PRE-EMPTIVE OFFERS
Maximizing Outcomes Beyond Traditional Sales Processes
Pre-emptive offers are a powerful strategic lever in M&A, allowing buyers to secure deals before businesses reach the open market. For sellers, these early, unsolicited bids can unlock significant advantages – from faster timelines and increased privacy to more attractive terms than a traditional competitive process might deliver. As shifting market dynamics make these offers more common, knowing how to navigate them can mean the difference between an average sale and an Extraordinary Exit™.
Exploring Your
Exit Options
From ESOPs to IPOs, See Why Selling to Strategics™ Delivers the Strongest Outcomes
You only get one chance to exit your business the right way. Choosing the right path is critical to maximizing value, minimizing risk, and leaving a lasting legacy. Options like Employee Stock Ownership Programs (ESOPs), Private Equity, and IPOs may help you reach certain goals, but Selling to Strategics can achieve those same objectives and more, if done right.
At STS Capital Partners, we start with the Owners Outcomes Exercise (OOE) to understand your goals and then guide you toward the strategy that delivers both the outcomes you want and the value you deserve.
MAXIMIZING VALUE
Position Your Business for an Extraordinary Exit™
Building a business takes more than money – it takes vision, time, and personal commitment. We understand that because we’ve done it too. When it’s time to sell, you deserve an Extraordinary Exit that delivers maximum value and rewards the effort you’ve put in. At STS Capital Partners, we are your expert guides to targeting strategic buyers who believe in your business – and will pay a premium to acquire it. Our strategic sell-side only approach enables us to target the right strategic buyers and emphasizes your unique, integrated value to deliver the maximum financial value possible for your business.
And for those businesses facing financial challenges, we can help identify solutions that support stability and drive value before embarking on an Extraordinary Exit.
ROLL UP TO SELL
Growth Through Strategic Acquisitions, Leading to an Exit
Many mid-market private companies aren’t immediately ready for the international stage, often because owners want to expand through acquisitions before pursuing a sale. The STS Roll Up to Sell Program provides a proprietary strategic framework to help owners grow and prepare their business for an optimal sale.
We work closely with clients to develop roll-up strategies and advise on deal structures that best support their goals. By acquiring complementary businesses and scaling strategically, you can enhance your company’s appeal to high-value buyers and position yourself for an Extraordinary Exit™ within two to four years.
THE VALUEMAX™
PROGRAM
Preparing Your Business to Maximize Value Through Selling to Strategics™
You’ve built a successful business. Selling it is a whole new challenge. Our unique ValueMax program is designed to help business owners prepare for a strategic sale, ensuring they achieve the best possible outcome.
We work with you to build a clear roadmap, identify growth opportunities, close gaps, and ensure your company is in the strongest position when it’s time to sell. By starting ahead of your ideal exit, you’ll position your business for maximum value and attract the right strategic buyers.
Leave a
Lasting Legacy
Build a Better World through Your Extraordinary Exit™
As a long-term passion of our Founder & Chairman, Rob Follows, changing the world for the better is a key aspect of STS’s approach. We believe the real success of a business sale is not just measured in financial return, but in what that return allows you to create next. Legacy planning gives you the opportunity to stay connected to a deeper purpose, to transform capital into meaningful impact, and to channel your values into the world beyond the business itself. Whether through philanthropy, innovation, community work, or mentorship, we can help you leave a lasting legacy.
HOW WE DRIVE IMPACT
Learn About our Goal to Create Billions of Dollars in New Philanthropic Capital Through M&A
STS offers entrepreneurial business owners the opportunity to create a legacy through their financial success and philanthropic initiatives, helping them achieve an Extraordinary Exit™. By helping clients sell their businesses and realize maximum financial value, we provide limitless opportunities to reinvest their proceeds for good, channeling incremental sale assets into foundations, trusts, and other philanthropic activities that can make a meaningful and lasting difference. This approach to philanthropy, is core to our foundation and sets us apart as a unique M&A firm.
STS stands for Success to Significance™ through Selling to Strategics™, and we strive to embody that by changing the world for the better. As a long-term passion of our Founder and Chairman, Rob Follows, giving back is a key aspect of STS’s approach to M&A.
REAL STORIES OF
EXTRAORDINARY EXITS™
We Make Extraordinary Exits Possible for Entrepreneurial Business Owners Across Various Industries
We work with entrepreneurs and private business owners who are considering the sale of their business, whether now or in the future.
Our clients are often founders who have built successful companies over decades, driven by vision, hard work, and personal investment. Many are now looking ahead – whether that means responding to changing markets, preparing for retirement, planning succession, or pursuing a new chapter – and want an exit strategy that honors their legacy while achieving their financial goals.
We help entrepreneurs navigate complex dynamics around ownership, leadership, and transition. What unites those we serve is a shared desire to realize the full value of their business while protecting what matters most: their people, purpose, and impact.
UNLOCK EXCEPTIONAL VALUE
ACROSS ALL INDUSTRIES
Leverage Our Industry-Agnostic Expertise and Global Network to Achieve an Extraordinary Exit™
ABOUT US
It’s More Than a Transaction, it’s a Commitment to the Extraordinary
Our Founder & Chairman, Rob Follows, created STS Capital Partners in 2003, after he sold his business the conventional M&A way and felt the experience was reduced to a mere transaction. He resolved to fix the M&A process and make a sell-side stand on behalf of entrepreneurial business owners looking to exit by building a company that combined strategic selling with his passion for charitable donations to make the world a better place.
A Global Sell-Side Advisor
with International Reach
Leveraging Global Networks to Deliver Maximum Value for Your Exit.
Our team operates on an international scale, reaching the highest levels of organizations worldwide. We leverage not only our extensive proprietary database but also our personal relationships and memberships in elite senior executive business organizations.
Join Our team
Play Your Part in Making Extraordinary Exits™ Possible
STS Capital Partners is made up of people who care deeply about making a difference. People who ask bold questions, build meaningful relationships, and seek smarter ways forward.
Whether you bring experience in M&A, business development, strategic advisory, or operations, if you’re inspired by our mission to help business owners move from Success to Significance™, we’d like to hear from you.
FROM SUCCESS TO
SIGNIFICANCE™
Meet Rob Follows, Founder & Chairman of STS Capital Partners
meet our
leadership team
The Team That Makes Extraordinary Exits™ Possible
We’re a global leadership team of strategic thinkers that work together to help our clients achieve extraordinary results. Our leaders are expert guides who all share a passion for business, a drive to help others, and a desire to redefine M&A. Many of them were entrepreneurs themselves. With offices located in major cities around the world, our leaders are on hand to support you.
WHY PARTNER WITH US WHEN DEALING WITH AN EXISTING OFFER
In the constantly evolving environment of M&A we lead the way in helping our clients navigate pre-emptive offers. Our approach is tailored to align them with the sellers’ strategic goals, and maximize value through expert negotiation and process management without having to run a full traditional sales process.
Our Advantage:
Expertise in Evaluation and Negotiation
At STS, we pride ourselves on accurately valuing your business and negotiating terms that reflect its true worth, ensuring outcomes that align with your desired goals.
Strategic Alignment with Your Vision
We understand that every business sale is unique. Our approach is tailored to align the offer with your strategic long-term goals, ensuring it supports your vision for future growth and legacy.
Greater Deal Certainty and Competitive Pressure
Even without a formal process, our involvement brings structure and urgency. Buyers are compelled to clearly demonstrate their strategic fit. When needed, we are fully prepared to run a full process, including soft auctions with global strategic buyers, enhancing leverage and ensuring the best possible outcome.
Experience in Navigating the Complexities of Pre-emptive Offers
Our team is adept at managing the nuances of pre-emptive offers, from due diligence and legal intricacies to efficient deal structuring, ensuring a seamless process.
Maximizing Outcomes from Single Buyer Offers
From uncovering Rembrandts in the Attic to accessing proprietary market data and buyer insights unavailable to individual sellers, we highlight hidden value and articulate your business’s strategic appeal, often resulting in significantly higher offers.
Smooth and Expedited Transaction Process
We streamline the sales process, balancing thoroughness with efficiency to swiftly achieve comprehensive transaction completion.
WHAT MAKES OUR STRATEGIC SALES APPROACH DIFFERENT?
Selling your business is more than a transaction; it’s a journey, and we are your expert guides.
Our Advantage:
Integrated Value Focus
Our team of strategic professionals invests the time to learn your business and what makes it valuable. We will spend the time to understand your concerns, your needs, and your goals, and we will navigate the unique steps of your deal process for you.
Access to Global Strategic Buyers
Leveraging our global network, we reach out to strategic buyers around the world, generating larger, more competitive, multi-bidder controlled soft auction processes that generate optimum value across industry sectors.
Confidentiality
Our depth of knowledge helps us target the right strategic buyers, the ones who will help you achieve your true potential value. We always keep this information confidential and private with your best interests in mind.
Personalized, Partnered Process
We work shoulder-to-shoulder with you every step of the way, understanding your business and guiding the entire exit journey.
WHAT MAKES OUR STRATEGIC SALES APPROACH DIFFERENT?
Selling your business is more than a transaction; it’s a journey, and we are your expert guides.
Our Advantage:
Integrated Value Focus
Our team of strategic professionals invests the time to learn your business and what makes it valuable. We will spend the time to understand your concerns, your needs, and your goals, and we will navigate the unique steps of your deal process for you.
Access to Global Strategic Buyers
Leveraging our global network, we reach out to strategic buyers around the world, generating larger, more competitive, multi-bidder controlled soft auction processes that generate optimum value across industry sectors.
Confidentiality
Our depth of knowledge helps us target the right strategic buyers, the ones who will help you achieve your true potential value. We always keep this information confidential and private with your best interests in mind.
Personalized, Partnered Process
We work shoulder-to-shoulder with you every step of the way, understanding your business and guiding the entire exit journey.