Playbook · Capital and deals
Should I take the offer to buy my company, or keep building?
For an owner with a real offer on the table who has to weigh money now against what the business could become.
In short
A board of named AI experts — The Investor, The CFO and The Skeptic — takes your situation, asks three things first, and hands back a decision memo: sell or keep going, what the offer is really worth, and what to ask for before you sign. You see one price before anything runs.
Before the board starts
What the board asks first.
What decides this: what the offer really pays you, what the business is likely worth if you keep going, and what you want the next five years to look like.
What is the offer, roughly? Price, cash or shares, and any strings.
Cash today and shares with conditions are not the same number.
In your own words.
How is the business doing this year?
If you sold, what would you want to do next?
What you get back: A decision memo: sell or keep going, what the offer is really worth, and what to ask for before you sign.
A real run
One person’s version,
and what the board said.
I own a 6-year-old online store selling handmade ceramics, about $420,000 a year in sales and $90,000 profit. A larger home-goods company offered $600,000: $350,000 cash at closing and $250,000 paid over 3 years if sales hold, and I would have to stay on for 2 years. If I keep building, I think I could double it in 3–4 years, but I am tired and doing most of the work myself.
An example person, written for this page. Everything below is what the board delivered, word for word.
Reject the current structure and counteroffer. Keep building rather than accept unless the buyer converts most of the price into guaranteed cash, protects the earnout, and clearly limits the two-year role.
What would change it: A signed revised term sheet providing at least $500,000 at closing, lawyer-approved earnout protections, and enforceable limits on the duties and hours required during the two-year stay.
The SkepticReject the offer as structured unless the buyer removes most earnout risk, raises upfront cash, or you cannot sustainably reduce your workload.
The InvestorTake the $600k offer now to lock in a premium exit and avoid high execution risk from burnout.
The CFOLean toward accepting the offer because it de-risks the business and monetizes now, unless workload reduction makes continued growth realistically achievable.
Send a firm counteroffer to the buyer
Questions
Fair questions
about this playbook.
What does running this cost?
Reading this page is free. Running it is a board: on Free it seats 3 experts and its card shows up to 135 credits before anything runs. A board never bills above its card. Nothing is charged until you confirm.
Is the example real?
Yes. The board above ran on a SynthBoard test account with the situation shown. The call, where each expert stood, what would change it and the first step are what it delivered, in its own words. The situation was written as an example; it is not a real person.
What happens when I run it with my situation?
You answer the same three questions with your own facts, then your Chief of Staff shows the board — The Investor, The CFO and The Skeptic on Free, more seats on a paid plan — and its one price. The board researches, argues it out and hands back the piece, with the first step and what would change the call.
Can the experts be wrong?
Yes. They are AI and can be wrong. That is why every board seats someone whose job is to argue against the obvious answer, and why the piece says what would change the call.
Keep reading
Close to this call.
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For someone with a side business that earns something, a salary that pays the bills, and not enough hours for both.
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For anyone who sells something people already pay for, a shop, a studio, a service or an app, and whose costs went up while the price stayed put.
The playbook Playbook · PeopleShould I hire my first employee, or a contractor?
For someone running a business alone who has more work than hours, and has to choose between a person on payroll and help by the job.
The playbookSynthBoard (synthboard.ai) is one place for your business, your life, and every hard call. Your Chief of Staff keeps what you tell her on file, and 24 named experts on different AI models take the calls — one expert for a consult, a board with opposed seats for the hard ones — and hand back a memo with the call, the dissent and the first move. How it works.