The Most Expensive Note an Entrepreneur Will Ever Write

A true story from Felix Tschopp about a number that was never written down – and why deal structure matters more than the number itself.

Thomas called me on a Tuesday morning.

We have known each other since university. He runs a mid-sized manufacturing company in Switzerland, second generation, solid craft, loyal customers. He is one of those entrepreneurs who say little and deliver a lot.

He had an acquisition on his desk. A company, let us call it SENTRA, with around CHF 27m in revenue, strong growth, and good credit. The owner, a 70-year-old founder named Samuel, had walked Thomas through every operational advantage in detail.

Then came the sentence that made me sit up.

“He says I should just send him a note with a number.”

Thomas could have written that number. He already had the figure in his head. Instead, he reached for the phone. That instinct is the whole story.

A Number is the Easiest Thing to Get Wrong

“Just send me a number” sounds like a shortcut. In reality, it is a trap. Three distinct risks hide inside that single figure, and none of them fit on a post-it note.

• The Illusion of Synergy: Thomas saw what SENTRA could become inside his own company. Shared customers, shared capacity, a stronger whole. But that value does not exist yet. He would have to build it himself. Price that potential into the initial number, and you pay the seller today for the hard work you will do tomorrow. You buy a company for what it is today, not for what you intend to make of it.
• The Trap of Liquidity: Strong growth is not the same as strong cash flow. A fast-growing company usually swallows capital to fund its own momentum. Working capital, inventory, the next hire, the next machine. Pay a high figure up front, and you can easily end up owning a healthy business while starving for the liquidity it needs to keep running. The danger is rarely the price itself. It is the timing of the money.
• The Transfer of Future Risk: A round number on a note lets the seller cash in today on years of someone else’s future effort and risk. Samuel built a great company. He has earned a fair price for what he built. He has not earned a price for what Thomas will build after him.

A Number is Not a Price. A Price is a Structure.

This is where most deals are won or lost, long before anyone signs the closing papers.

A price is not a rigid figure. It is a structure. Where does the first payment come from, the buyer’s own pocket or the company’s excess cash? Does the seller stay in the boat through a vendor loan, so their financial interests still point the same way as the buyer’s? Do the terms pay them for what is, while letting the buyer keep the value they create?

Answer those structural questions, and the actual number almost writes itself. Skip them, and that number becomes the most expensive thing an entrepreneur will ever put on paper.

A transaction is never just a transaction. “Just send me a number” tries to compress a highly complex corporate transition into a single line. It never works.

Why Thomas Called

He did not call because he could not do the math. He could. He called because he knew that the decisive moment in any deal is the brief window just before you commit to paper.

That is the exact moment to slow down. Not to find a bigger number, but to build the structure behind it.

Thomas did not write the note. He picked up the phone. That single decision can be worth far more than any valuation multiple.

A Question for You

When someone asks you for a number, do you reach for the pen, or for the phone?