A former client of ours from the UK offered this phrase to describe one of the most valuable services we can perform for our clients. The idea, of course, is that often the best person to hire as a gamekeeper on your estate is a former poacher. Former poachers know all the poachers’ tricks, their strengths and weaknesses, and how to keep them under control.

As former investment bankers ourselves, we know how investment bankers operate. We can apply this insight to help you get the most value out of the investment banks you use for a particular transaction. We can help you select the best banks to interview for a beauty parade, we can tell you how to negotiate reasonable fee arrangements with them, and we can tell you how to monitor and manage their performance throughout the transaction so you get your money's worth and the best possible execution. We will even manage this entire process for you ourselves, if you like.

Given the amount of money involved in the typical M&A or IPO fee, this is an expense that cries out to be managed by an expert. More important, however, is the total value at stake in an IPO or an M&A deal, which dwarfs the advisors' fees by an order of magnitude, and the often unacceptable cost of failure. Making sure that your bankers deliver top quality execution is one of the most critical tasks to manage in a transaction, but one that many companies simply do not have the time or expertise to handle on their own.