From a Business You Run.
To an Asset Investors Compete For.
Exit Boston is a middle-market M&A advisory firm that helps founders of $10M–$50M businesses transition into institutional-quality assets investors compete to acquire.
Our Philosophy
The Real Exit Begins
Before the Sale
Most M&A firms start working when a founder is ready to sell. We believe the real work starts much earlier — when a founder begins preparing a business that can thrive without them.
That shift — from founder-dependent operation to institutional-quality enterprise — is what we call The Real Exit. It's not just a transaction. It's a transition.
When investors evaluate a company, they don't see what the founder sees. They see risk, scalability, and structure. Our role is to bridge that gap — to guide founders through the institutional lens and systematically close the distance between where they are and where investors need them to be.
Make no mistake: our ultimate job is to successfully sell companies. We transition your business into an institutional quality asset, bring it to market, and sell it for a premium.
“A business that depends on you is a liability to an investor. A business that thrives without you is an institutional asset.”
Rick McDonald
Founder & Managing Director
Rick McDonald has spent his career at the intersection of entrepreneurship, financial services, and business transition — and he understands the complexity of a founder-led sale from both sides of the table.
After leaving Fidelity Investments in the 1980s, Rick became a serial entrepreneur in the financial sector, building and operating several companies over three decades. That experience — running companies, managing liquidity events, structuring ownership transitions — forms the foundation of everything EXIT-BOSTON does.
Rick founded EXIT-BOSTON on a conviction that founder-led businesses in the lower middle market are systematically underserved by the advisory community. Too many owners sell for less than their companies are worth — not because their businesses aren't valuable, but because they weren't positioned correctly for the buyers who could pay the most: private equity firms executing buy-and-build strategies.
EXIT-BOSTON was built to solve that problem. The firm's Seven Pillars of Institutional Readiness framework reflects Rick's direct experience with what PE buyers underwrite, what they discount, and what they're willing to pay a premium for when it's done right.
Rick works with a small number of clients at a time, ensuring that every engagement receives the attention and preparation it requires. He lives in Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts.
Steve Vesey
Partner
Steve Vesey brings more than four decades of financial and accounting expertise to every EXIT-BOSTON engagement. He built and sold one of New England's top regional CPA firms — which means he has been on both sides of a transaction and understands what institutional buyers see when they open your books.
Steve's focus at EXIT-BOSTON is financial engineering: EBITDA normalization, add-back analysis, quality of earnings preparation, and the financial storytelling that drives multiples. His work ensures that a client's financials don't just survive due diligence — they become a competitive advantage.
Third-Party Recognition, Earned Annually
Axial is the leading independent research and data platform for the U.S. middle market — the source that serious dealmakers rely on to identify the highest-performing M&A advisory firms in the country. Their rankings are not submitted. They are earned.
EXIT-BOSTON has been recognized by Axial three years in succession:
- 2024— #1 in Massachusetts · #3 in New England · #10 in the United States (First Half)
- 2025— Top M&A Firm in Food & Beverage, Nationally · Top 12 in the Country
- 2026— Axial Top 100 M&A Advisors in the United States
Consistent recognition at this level, from the industry's most credible independent voice, reflects something straightforward: a methodology that produces results, and clients who trust the process.
See Your Business Through
the Institutional Lens.
Learn how Exit Boston transitions founder-led businesses into institutional-quality assets.
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