IMPORTANT NOTES FOR COMPANIES SERIOUS ABOUT M&A
- Sri Malladi
- May 22
- 3 min read
At Athena, we’re often brought in by CEOs or CFOs who’ve decided that M&A needs to be a real growth lever, and not just something they react to once in a while. Sometimes they’ve done a deal or two already. Other times, they’ve just raised capital or hit a scale where partnerships and organic growth aren’t enough.
What they need is a structured, strategic way to source, evaluate, and execute deals—and in many cases, to build a corporate development capability from the ground up.
If that’s you, here’s how we think about it.
Most companies don’t start with a corporate development team. They start with a deal.
Maybe a banker sends something interesting. Maybe a founder hears a competitor is quietly looking for an exit. Maybe someone on the board says, “We should start looking at tuck-ins.”
And then leadership reacts. Meetings happen. A spreadsheet gets built. People ask around. It’s all very informal.
That’s fine—for a while. But at some point, companies hit a stage where opportunistic dealmaking starts to feel like a distraction.. or worse, a liability.
That’s when it’s time to stop reacting to deals, and start building the infrastructure to pursue them.
What does creating a corporate development team look like?
Here’s a basic blueprint we’ve seen work, particularly for companies that have never had a formal M&A function before:
1. Get clear on what a good deal looks like - before you hire anyone.
Don’t start by recruiting a head of corp dev or retaining a banker. Start by aligning internally.
What are we actually trying to buy?
Are we solving for growth, capabilities, talent, geography?
What’s our integration appetite—bolt-ons or full absorption?
What would we walk away from, no matter the price?
Most companies skip this and pay for it later. Always start with clarity first and hires second.
2. Don’t build a function in a silo.
Corporate development isn’t just a finance function. It has to be tightly linked with product, commercial, legal, HR, integration - because all of those functions need to be ready to absorb what you acquire.
Make sure that you communicate across the organization (and to key investors, at the right time) what the goal of building out this function is, and how the overall growth strategy of the company ties to the corporate development muscle.
3. Start with one owner.
You don’t need a team of five. You need one person with good pattern recognition, internal credibility, and the trust of senior leadership. They’ll define focus areas, start conversations, and build the internal case for action.
Get momentum first, then scale. We've seen companies do very well with just one individual who works cross-organization for a few months to establish the strategy, process and the relationships - and then builds the team around them.
4. Have a thesis before the pitch deck shows up.
Most companies get serious about a deal after a banker sends them something that looks interesting.
That’s backwards. And it leads to either overbidding in the heat of the deal, and a rushed scramble to meet the deadline - while in the process, you may be over-estimating synergies and ignoring the second order effects of doing the acquisition.
The best buyers already know what they’re looking for. When a deck shows up, they’re evaluating it against a framework - not building the framework on the fly.
5. Momentum matters more than polish.
You don’t need a perfect process on day one. You need forward motion.
Even a basic deal screen, a short list of targets, and a lightweight internal scorecard can go a long way in getting the organization aligned around what’s worth pursuing.
Last thought:
Doing M&A is one thing. Being built for M&A is another.
If you’re serious about growing through acquisitions, don’t just wait for deals to find you... build the infrastructure so you’re ready to move when the right one does.
If you're interested in talking more about M&A, contact us!
Learn more about our team here.
