11x exit
$68.2M
build $18.2M · +36%
Every private-equity-backed business is run against an exit. The sponsor underwrote a return before you were in the seat, and every quarterly conversation you have is really a conversation about that number — the EBITDA the business has to reach by the exit year for the fund to earn what it promised its own investors.
That number is rarely handed to management. Not out of secrecy, usually. It just lives in a model nobody thought to translate.
This tool translates it. Enter the deal as it was underwritten — entry EBITDA, entry multiple, leverage, hold, target return — and the model solves the chain backwards to the only figure that matters: what EBITDA you have to deliver, and what growth rate that implies from where you sit today.
Every input has an i next to it explaining what the number is and where to find it. You do not need a CIM open to use this.
Nothing is hidden behind a form. Run it as many times as you like. The email only buys the written report.
Enter the deal off your CIM. The model solves the chain — required exit EBITDA, MOIC and IRR — live.
| Entry enterprise value | $500.0M |
| Entry debt | $250.0M |
| Entry equity | $250.0M |
| Target exit equity | $625.0M |
| Debt at exit | $125.0M |
| Exit enterprise value | $750.0M |
Your sponsor's required equity doesn't change. If the exit multiple moves, the entire burden lands on EBITDA.
Equity goes from $250.0M to $625.0M. Here is what produces the gain.
PE doesn't just lever up and grow — it acquires. Add-ons bought at lower multiples compress what you actually paid; synergies compress it further; everything re-rates at the exit multiple on the way out. That spread is the juice.
Add-ons are bought below the platform multiple. Synergies are EBITDA you add for no extra purchase price — they compress the blended multiple further. The capital is not free — pick how you fund it.
| EBITDA acquired (add-ons) | $15.00M |
| Synergies — free EBITDA | $3.75M |
| Total EBITDA added | $18.75M |
| Capital deployed on add-ons | $90.0M |
| Worth at exit (× exit multiple) | $187.5M |
| Gross spread | $97.5M |
Your sponsor needs the same exit equity either way. The question is how much EBITDA you have to build with your own two hands.
| Required exit EBITDA | $75.00M |
| Debt at exit | $125.0M |
| From acquisitions | $0.00M |
| Organic build required | $25.00M |
| Required exit EBITDA | $84.00M |
| Debt at exit | $215.0M |
| From acquisitions | $18.75M |
| Organic build required | $15.25M |
Two bridges. The first totals the EBITDA you have to produce and where each dollar comes from. The second totals the equity value and what creates it. Both are solved to your sponsor's requirement, so both tie exactly.
| EBITDA today | $50.00M |
| + Acquired EBITDA (add-ons) | $15.00M |
| + Synergies (free EBITDA) | $3.75M |
| + Organic build — your two hands | $15.25M |
| Required exit EBITDA | $84.00M |
| Entry sponsor equity | $250.0M |
| + Enterprise value growth | +$340.0M |
| + Net debt paid down | +$35.0M |
| Exit equity value | $625.0M |
Everything above only asks for $15.25M of organic build, because acquisitions carry the rest. But suppose you run the company as if there were no deals — you deliver the full $25.00M organic plan and you close the acquisitions. Now you overshoot.
| Entry EBITDA | $50.00M | Hold period | 5 years |
| Entry multiple | 10x | Target MOIC | 2.5x |
| Leverage | 5× EBITDA ($250.0M) | Exit multiple | 10x |
| Debt paid down over hold | 50% | Add-on EBITDA | $15.00M at 6x |
Your sponsor did not pick a number out of the air. They paid a price, borrowed against it, and told their investors what the equity would be worth on the way out. That promise is fixed the day the deal closes.
Work backwards from it and only one EBITDA figure satisfies it. That figure already exists. Most CEOs have never calculated it, which means they are running a plan against a target they cannot name.
| EBITDA today | $50.00M |
| + Acquired (add-ons) | $15.00M |
| + Synergies | $3.75M |
| + Organic build | $15.25M |
| Required exit EBITDA | $84.00M |
| Entry sponsor equity | $250.0M |
| + Enterprise value growth | +$340.0M |
| + Net debt paid down | +$35.0M |
| Exit equity value | $625.0M |
Read the left column as your operating plan. Every line is something a named person has to deliver, and the organic line is the only one you cannot buy.
Read the right column as your sponsor's arithmetic. Notice how much of their return comes from paying down debt rather than from growth — that portion is won or lost on cash discipline, not on ambition.
| Cumulative EBITDA over the hold | $335.0M |
| − Interest at 9% | $104.6M |
| − Capital expenditure at 20% | $67.0M |
| − Tax at 25% | $40.8M |
| Cash available | $122.6M |
| Debt reduction assumed | $35.0M |
Nobody will congratulate you for the multiple, and nobody will excuse you for it either. Plan against the lower one and you have built in your own margin for error.
This is also the single best argument for starting early. Time is the only thing that lets you absorb a turn of multiple compression without heroics.
| EBITDA acquired | $15.00M |
| Synergies | $3.75M |
| Capital deployed | $90.0M |
| Effective multiple paid | 4.8x after synergies |
| Worth at exit | $187.5M |
| Gross spread | $97.5M |
| Required EBITDA, organic only | $75.00M |
| of which you build | $25.00M |
| Required EBITDA, buy-and-build | $84.00M |
| of which acquisitions supply | $18.75M |
| of which you build | $15.25M |
You are buying EBITDA at an effective 4.8x and it re-rates at 10x on the way out. That spread is why sponsors push acquisitions — it cuts what you personally have to build from $25.00M down to $15.25M.
Acquisitions are a lever on the same bridge, not a bonus on top of it. The capital is never free — it either sits on the balance sheet at exit or it comes out of the cash that would have paid down debt.
Knowing you need to reach a figure does not tell you how. But it does something more useful than most planning exercises: it tells you whether the gap is a growth problem or a margin problem — and those are different businesses to run.
If the implied growth rate above is a number your market can support, you have an execution question. If it is not, you have a mix question, and no amount of selling harder will close it.
Run the Profit Map. Before you commit to a growth rate, find out where your profit actually lives today. In most businesses, a small share of customers and products carries nearly all of the earnings, and the rest quietly consumes the capacity you were about to grow with. Map your profit concentration →
Bring the number to the next board meeting. Not to negotiate it. To agree on it. A management team and a sponsor working from the same figure argue about method; a management team working from a figure it has never seen argues about reality.
Download the report above and it arrives as a document you can put in front of your team — your assumptions, the bridge, and the sensitivity around the exit multiple you do not control.
