Durare · Advisory & Holdings

Buy well.
Sell well.
Endure.

Durare sits on both sides of the middle-market table: preparing owners to sell for full value, getting buyers and founders financed and deal-ready — and, for the right company, stepping in as the acquirer ourselves. Operator-tested, not theory.

5x
Revenue growth, PE-backed platform
10x
EBITDA growth over five years
$20M
Incremental EBITDA from one pricing initiative
10+
Years of operating and advisory experience
Current offerings

Three ways to work together right now

Tightly scoped, fast to start, and priced for a clear yes. Two are built for acquirers and founders; one is built for the owner who needs a second brain in the business.

For buyers & founders · Fixed scope

Capital Package

Walk into your lender's or investor's meeting with the package they wish every deal brought — whether you're acquiring a company or financing a new venture. Built by someone who has sat on your side of the table.

  • Institutional-grade financial model — three-scenario P&L, debt service, returns
  • Sources & uses, debt schedule, and equity structure
  • LOI structure and terms review
  • Lender application or investor memo, fully assembled — SBA processes included
Flat fee · 2–3 week turnaround Get lender-ready
For buyers · Per deal

Buy-Side Deal Screen

Before you spend months and legal fees on a deal, spend a week finding out whether it deserves them. A candid go / no-go from an operator's read, not a banker's.

  • CIM review and financials normalization pass
  • Market sizing and competitive read
  • Red-flag inventory — customer concentration, add-backs, key-man risk
  • Written go / no-go memo with valuation posture
Per deal · ~1 week turnaround Screen a deal
For owners · Monthly retainer

Fractional Right Hand

The role that grew a PE-backed platform 5x — now available in fractional form. A standing advisory cadence for the founder who has no one to think out loud with.

  • Weekly working session with the CEO
  • Board, lender, and investor preparation
  • Pricing, margin, and deal support as situations arise
  • Deliberately scoped as advisory — cadence, not headcount
Monthly retainer · Limited seats Claim a seat
Sell-side

Getting owners ready to sell

Most owners start preparing for a sale eighteen months too late — and pay for it at the closing table. The businesses that command premiums are made, deliberately, in the years before they're marketed.

Exit Readiness Program

Sell-side preparation for owners twelve to thirty-six months from a transaction. Clean, defensible financials; a growth story buyers believe; reduced owner-dependence; and the operational proof points acquirers pay premiums for. Built by someone who has prepared companies for institutional buyers from the inside.

Multi-month · Retainer + success share
Margin Sprint

A 90-day pricing and profitability engagement — often the first phase of exit preparation, because every dollar of EBITDA found here gets multiplied at the sale. The same playbook produced roughly $20M of incremental EBITDA in a single year.

90 days · Fixed fee + EBITDA share
Durare Acquisitions

We don't just advise on deals.
We buy them.

Durare is actively seeking to acquire one exceptional business from an owner ready for their next chapter. No auction, no banker's process, no retrade — a direct, discreet conversation with the person who would actually run the company. For an owner who cares what happens to their people and their name, that matters.

Start a confidential conversation
What we're looking for
  • Essential services or niche manufacturing with recurring demand
  • Established, profitable operations with a tenured team
  • Southeast or Mountain West preferred; the right fit considered anywhere
  • Owners seeking a clean transition and a steward for what they built
Also on the desk

Two specialized practices

Memoir & Legacy Writing

Collaborative memoir development for founders, executives, and families with a story worth keeping. Structured interviews, archival work, drafting, and editorial management — from first conversation to a publisher-ready manuscript.

Project-based · By conversation
Land Acquisition Evaluation

Diligence for land, ranch, and commercial property purchases. Market and comp analysis, highest-and-best-use assessment, development potential, and financing structure — an operator's read before you commit capital to dirt.

Per property · Fixed fee
Approach

How we work

i.

We've run the play

Every recommendation comes from having done the work inside an operating company — pricing actions, acquisition integrations, lender processes — not from a framework slide.

ii.

We work lean by design

We use AI to compress the work that used to require a four-person team. We never use it to replace judgment.

iii.

We price for outcomes

Engagements include aligned economics wherever the work allows it. More EBITDA, a closed deal, a higher exit value — we make money when our clients do.

Principal
James Chancellor Delany
Founder & Principal
Education Kellogg School of Management, MBA
Undergraduate UNC Kenan-Flagler, BSBA
Operating Right Hand to CEO, PE-backed manufacturing platform
Advisory Big Four consulting, M&A and strategy
Recognition Commercial Baking Industry Innovator, 2023

Durare was founded on a simple observation: most owner-operated businesses are worth meaningfully less than they could be, and the people best positioned to help them are too expensive, too disinterested, or both. The middle market is overserved by transaction advisors and underserved by anyone who actually understands what it is to run the business.

The work draws on a decade of operating and advisory experience. As Right Hand to the CEO of a private-equity-backed manufacturing platform that grew approximately five times in revenue and ten times in EBITDA over five years — the work spanned a pricing initiative that added roughly $20M of incremental EBITDA in a single year, multiple acquisition integrations, multi-state facility expansion, and a full company rebrand. Before that came a strategy consulting career at a Big Four firm focused on M&A advisory and transformation at Fortune 500 clients.

Today, Durare works with buyers pursuing acquisitions, founders financing new ventures — including SBA-backed deals, a process the principal has navigated personally as a borrower — and owners expanding margin or preparing for sale. And for the right company, Durare is a buyer itself: the firm is actively seeking to acquire an established business to own and operate for the long term.

Start a conversation

Good work starts with a direct conversation.

Thirty minutes, no deck, no pitch. Bring the deal, the lender question, or the problem in the business — and leave with a straight read on whether we can help.

info@durare.net