Every serious acquirer has a buy box: a short list of criteria that decides which businesses get a fast, serious look and which get a polite pass.
What goes into a buy box
Most buy boxes cover the same handful of things, weighted differently by each buyer:
- Size. Usually a range of EBITDA, EBITA or seller's discretionary earnings (SDE). This is the first filter for nearly every buyer.
- Sector and model. SaaS, e-commerce, services, and whether revenue is recurring.
- Track record. How many years the business has been consistently profitable.
- Risk signals. Customer or channel concentration, owner dependence, and how the business held up in the last downturn.
- Defensibility. Brand, data, intellectual property or switching costs that keep competitors out.
Why it matters to you as a seller
Businesses that sit squarely inside a buyer's box move faster through diligence, get cleaner terms and see fewer price renegotiations late in the process. Businesses outside it often wait months for a reply that never comes.
Knowing the box before you go to market lets you approach the right buyers first, and shows you which gaps to close if you have time before a sale.
The best time to learn a buyer's criteria is a year before you sell, not a week.
Cedar Sky Capital's buy box
We look for established online businesses in B2B SaaS, e-commerce and digital services with EBITA of $600,000 to about $1.2M, a proven track record, recurring revenue and no single customer or channel that dominates. You can score your own business against these criteria in about a minute with our Buy-Box Checker.