Baton Changelog: Empowering small business owners and buyers with data

Since we launched Explore we’ve been busy reviewing and incorporating your feedback to make deal flow even more accessible, surface the most important data, and empower both small business sellers and buyers with new insights. (We’ve smoothed out a few stray hairs too; thanks for pointing them out!)

Here’s what’s changed.

Buyers: Listing Page Improvements

A listing is a business’s front page. The clearer the data and next steps the easier it is for buyers and sellers to connect. 

Surfacing Key Criteria 

Your time is valuable. We wanted to surface the most important criteria so you can scan and keep moving or go deeper.

Listing Engagement Card

We’ve brought this out of the data room and onto the listing. From a business’s listing page, buyers can choose their own adventure:

• Explore the data room: Review the latest financials, video interviews with the owner, and other key documents.

• Ask questions: Is there a document or detail you’re not seeing in the listing or data room that could help you move forward? Request it from the owner. 

• Contact the M&A Advisor: Want to talk to us about a deal? Book a call.

• Request buyer-seller meeting: Seriously interested and ready to speak with the owner? Let us know.

Our M&A Advisors’ Take

As you review listings, get some tips on what to focus on from our in-house experts. In the M&A Advisor take section, we’ve taken the time to cover some highlights and helpful context for each business to get ahead of potential questions you might ask.

Sellers: Listing Dashboard 

As an owner, you’re busy running the business you’re also selling, so we built you a dashboard to help you understand how your sale is progressing.

You can now pop in and quickly get:

• Views of your listing, teaser, and valuation, all in one place.

• A weekly update from your M&A Advisor.

• An engagement graph that displays a tally of buyer leads and actions along with a comparison of how your engagement stacks up to the average Baton seller’s listing.

Who’s engaging with your listing: A list of interested buyers, what actions they’ve taken, and a word about next steps.

Owners: New Valuation Report Format 

We’ve cleaned up our valuation reports to clarify: 

• The date the financial data is based off of as well as the date the report was run.

• Your Baton valuation vs. your estimate from onboarding.

• The inputs that go into your valuation: Revenue, Cost of Sales, Operating Expenses, Adjustments, Adjusted Cash Flow, Cash Flow Multiple that we’ve used the latest Trailing 12-month data whenever possible.

Owners: Dashboard

We know your journey isn’t always a single-shot straight line. That’s why we’ve built you a dashboard that includes:

• Where you are in your valuation process. 

• A view of your business valuation (once completed).

• A link to Explore (On- and Off-Market businesses) to see what’s going on in the market and scout out potential next ventures.

• A link to our Resources for the latest tips, guides, and owner stories.

Explore at your own pace and get in touch if we can help with your next move.

Bug fixes and improvements:

• Deals that are Under Contract are now labeled as such to avoid any confusion.

• Some owners encountered 404s on their Valuation Reports upon logging in. We’ve fixed this.

• Any owner can now book a call with one of our Valuation Specialists after reviewing their Valuation Report.

• We’ve updated our platform Terms of Use and NDA

• Our expanding library of case studies now has a dedicated home on the site! Big shoutout to the owners and buyers who volunteered their time to share their experiences. 

Thanks again for helping us continually improve a new breed of small business marketplace. Have a suggestion? Drop us a line. And please stay tuned. Much more to come!