Agora · the neutral market
Where every serious buyer
competes for one company.
The agora was the open square of ancient Athens, where everyone traded on the same terms.
Final bids
3 sealed offers · no fund sees another’s
- Your priorities
- 1 Price
- 2 Certainty
- 3 Employees
- 4 Rollover
| Fund | Price | Cash at close | Rollover | Financing | Close | Employees | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Harbor Lane Partners Chosen buyer | $46.0M | 85% | 15% | Committed debt | 60 days | Keep all | 88/100 |
Weatherby Family Office Backup | $43.5M | 100% | None | All equity | 45 days | Keep all | 81/100 |
Summit Ridge Capital Backup | $47.0M | 70% | 30% | Not yet committed | 90 days | Under review | 74/100 |
Scored in code on your ranked priorities. The backups stay live through diligence.
Why a neutral market
Competition matters more than negotiating skill.
An auction with one more serious bidder earns more, on average, than a perfect negotiation with one fewer. Most private sales end up one-on-one, because finding and managing buyers is expensive. Agora makes the competition cheap to run, and keeps it running until the deal closes.
Neutral by design
Agora's fee is the same whichever fund wins. It holds no stake in the outcome, never negotiates for either side, and can't see inside any fund's model.
Sealed and structured
No free-form haggling and no buyer-to-buyer channel. Funds bid in rounds, see only their own offers, and every action is logged.
Alternatives stay alive
Exclusivity is where sellers usually lose leverage. On Agora, runner-up offers stay live through diligence, so a buyer can't cut its price without cause.
Agora · the neutral market
Founder
Garde
Reads documents · builds the model · ranks offers
Sealed offer book
rules · deadlines · logs
Fund A · Ryo
private model
Fund B · Ryo
private model
Fund C · Ryo
private model
Fund D · Ryo
private model
No fund’s Ryo sees another’s bids, and there is no buyer-to-buyer channel.
A sale, stage by stage
From the first match to the final price.
Each stage runs on Agora today. Agents do the first pass; people make every decision that matters: the founder decides to sell, chooses who continues and picks the buyer, and each fund’s team sets what it actually bids.
One sale, eight stages
Who runs each stage: agents, people, or both
01People
Decide
The founder decides to sell
02Agents
Ryo bids
Each fund's own model
03People
Pick firms
The founder picks who continues
04Both
Data room
Opens to invited firms
05Both
Revise
People adjust assumptions
06Both
Final bids
Sealed, full LOI terms
07People
Select
The founder picks the buyer
08Both
Close
Re-priced on verified figures
Runner-ups stay live until close
Every later price is checked against the re-priced quote. Going lower needs a documented finding, or it counts against the firm.
Sale
Offers and meetings · sealed offers; management calls with leading bidders
Activity
- Summit Ridge Capital downloaded FY25 audited financials.pdf10:42
- Weatherby Family Office submitted a final bid09:30
- Harbor Lane Partners asked a question about churnYesterday
- You opened the final round · due Nov 14Oct 30
Final bids due
Nov 14 · in 9 days
- Firms invited
- 5
- Accepted
- 4
- Live offers
- 3
- Open questions
- 7
One sale, start to close
Illustrative timing- 01
Invitations
Firms accept terms
- 02
Indications
Ranges, round 1
- 03
Final bids
Sealed, full terms
- 04
Meetings
Shortlisted firms
- 05
Diligence
Verified figures re-price
- 06
Close
Price recorded
Backups stay live until close
Each round has a deadline; late bids are flagged.
Before any of this, every fund’s Ryo has already screened the company against its fund’s mandate, anonymously, so the funds that fit are known the moment the founder is ready.
- 01Live
The founder decides to sell
The founder chooses what to release: confirmed figures and a description. Nothing that identifies the company goes out.
- 02Live
Every fitting fund's Ryo bids
Each fund's Ryo prices the released figures with that fund's own model and assumptions, and returns an indicative bid. The founder sees every bid, with an explanation; no fund learns who the founder is.
- 03Live
The founder picks the bids and firms
The founder invites the funds whose bids and fit they like best. Each sees a teaser, then accepts confidentiality terms, records a deposit and declares whether it owns a competitor before seeing the company.
- 04Live
The data room opens
Folders for financial, legal, commercial, HR and operations files, in two tiers: standard, and sensitive (customers, contracts, pricing, pay), which competitor-owners see only through clean teams. Every download is logged, and questions and document requests run inside it.
- 05Live
People revise Ryo's assumptions
Each invited fund's team reviews its Ryo's model, has Ryo read the data room and propose changes with evidence, and approves the ones it agrees with. Then it bids for real: indications, then final sealed bids with full letter-of-intent terms, each round with a deadline.
- 06Live
Offers ranked, management met
Garde scores every sealed offer on the founder's own priorities and compares full terms side by side. The founder shortlists the leading funds, which opens management meetings and exchanges contact details.
- 07Live
The founder picks the buyer; the others stay in
Runner-up offers stay live through diligence as backups, and the chosen buyer's diligence costs are covered up to a cap if the founder switches.
- 08Live
Verify and close
Verified figures, each backed by a data-room file, re-price every quote automatically. A cut below the re-priced quote without a documented finding is flagged, and the founder can switch to a backup. Both sides track the closing checklist, and the final price is recorded.
The rules
What keeps early numbers honest.
01 · Re-trades
A price cut needs a reason.
Conditional quotes
LiveEvery quote states the figures it assumes and re-prices mechanically when they're verified. A buyer can go lower only with a documented diligence finding.
Reputation scores
LiveEach fund's bids after review are compared with its Ryo bids, and with how far the other bidders moved on the same deals. A fund that bids high to win invitations, then drops more than everyone else, is marked down; when every bidder drops because of a real problem, no one is. So is a fund that drops on most of its deals, even if its peers dropped too, because a real problem belongs to one company. If Ryo bids run high across Vendu, owners see that drift too, and each Ryo bid adjusted by the fund's record.
Harbor Lane Partners
Chosen buyer · confirmatory diligence
- Ryo quote
- Assumed EBITDA of $5.0M, FY25
- $47.5M
- Verified EBITDA
- FY25 audited financials.pdf, in the data room
- $4.8M
- Re-priced quote
- 9.5x × $4.8M, recomputed in code
- $45.6M
- Revised offer
- No documented finding attached
- $41.0M
Flagged: $4.6M below the re-priced quote, without a documented diligence finding.
Backup live: Weatherby Family Office, $43.5M
Switch to backup02 · Disclosure
Each file reaches only the people it should.
Tiered disclosure
LiveStandardized figures go broadly; sensitive material only to invited funds, and through clean teams for funds that own a competitor.
Funds' models stay private
LiveAgora never writes, pools or inspects a fund's model. A quote reveals what a fund would pay, never why.
Everything logged
LiveInvitations, bids, downloads, messages and every change of stage are recorded, so either side can show what happened.
Standard · every invited fund
- FY25 audited financials.pdf
- Monthly P&L, 2023–2025.xlsx
- Lease agreement.pdf
Sensitive · clean teams for competitor-owners
- Customer list.xlsx
- Top ten contracts
- Pricing schedule.xlsx
- Payroll summary.xlsx
Download log
Summit Ridge Capital10:42
FY25 audited financials.pdf
Harbor Lane Partners · clean team09:15
Customer list.xlsx
Weatherby Family OfficeYesterday
Lease agreement.pdf
Inside the room
7 open questions · 2 document requests
Coming next
Deposits with teeth, and agents that counter.
- Deposits collected, not just recordedToday a fund's deposit is recorded when it accepts an invitation. Collecting it, and releasing or forfeiting it under the rules, comes next.Coming soon
- Agent-to-agent counter-roundsStructured counter-offers between Garde and each Ryo, within limits each side sets, with people approving anything binding.Coming soon
Questions
What people ask about Agora.
Does Agora act as a broker or adviser?
No. Agora runs the venue and its rules. It doesn't negotiate for either side, doesn't advise on price, and its fee doesn't depend on which fund wins. The sale itself, including the purchase agreement, happens between the owner and the buyer with their own advisers.
Can funds see each other's bids?
No. Bids are sealed: each fund sees only its own offers, and there's no channel between funds.
What happens if the chosen buyer re-trades?
If it cuts its price below the re-priced quote without a documented diligence finding, the cut is flagged and the owner can switch to a live backup.
Can a fund that owns a competitor take part?
Yes. Excluding them would often cost owners the highest bid. They must declare it, and they see sensitive files only through a clean team.
One platform, three parts
The two agents that meet on Agora.
The company's agent
Garde
Holds your company's data, handles the buyers who contact you, and represents you when you decide to sell. It answers only to you.
Learn more
The fund's agent
Ryo
Prices every company the way your fund would, from your own mandate, model and limits, and reads data rooms for your team. It answers only to your fund.
Learn more
A sale where the alternatives never go cold.
Owners start with Garde. Funds join through Ryo.