Frequently Asked Questions

Charles Bedard is a Houston-based corporate development analyst covering Work Tech M&A from frontoffice to backoffice (IT, MSP, HR tech, BPO, payroll, finance & accounting, FinTech, RegTech and compliance), working with operators on buy-and-build and founders on legacy exits since 2000.

A corporate development analyst does the work of an in-house corp dev team for companies that don't have one: market monitoring, target sourcing, valuation benchmarks and deal analysis. Charles watches the deal signals across Work Tech and brings the few that drive value and profits, so operators and founders act on evidence, not guesswork.

Charles works with software and tech-enabled services companies in the $1M–$50M revenue range across Work Tech. Operators use him to plan and run buy-and-build strategies; founders use him to prepare for legacy exits. His track record includes taking firms from below $50M to $50M+ in revenue.

DealNet is Charles Bedard's proprietary Work Tech deal-tracking network. 2026 deals tracked through Fall 2026 include:

• 353 Office of the CFO deals
• 143 payroll deals
• 204 as-a-solution deals
• 661 vertical-market deals

Like-for-like with 2025, solution and vertical-market deals have already passed their full-year 2025 totals, while Office of the CFO and payroll deal counts are tracking close to 2025's pace.

DealNet is the data source behind his analyst briefings, DealTalks, deal-driver findings and market map rankings. Next update: Winter 26/27.

See the quarter-by-quarter DealNet Briefing →
Download the Fall 2026 YTD counts (.md)
Download the year-end 2025 counts, Spring 2026 edition (.md)

It depends on your model and your revenue quality more than your size.

• Workflow software trades near 10.2x revenue; effort-based services near 1.78x.
• Firms above 120% net revenue retention trade near 9.3x; firms around 100% NRR near 3.1x.
• Across DealNet's disclosed-price private deals, the average multiple fell from 4.54x in 2025 to 2.97x so far in 2026.

Public software reset first and private markets followed. The SaaS Capital Index closed 2025 at 5.58x EV/ARR and fell to 3.82x by July 2026, a 31.6% drop, most of it in a single month (February, down 25%). Large PE-backed firms repriced in the spring and smaller PE deals in the summer. Bootstrapped and early-stage founders mostly haven't repriced yet.

The market has stopped paying for the average: two companies with identical revenue can now sit an order of magnitude apart on multiple. Premiums go to companies with:

• monetized AI (5–14x revenue with AI revenue, vs. 1.7x without)
• ownership of the workflow
• usage across two or more functions
• high customer intensity

To re-rate, yes. Effort-based services trade near 1.78x revenue, and disclosed $5–50M services deals average about 3.1x. Solutions, meaning services delivered on your own software, are about 2x more profitable than point products, and firms that add the software layer move gross margins from roughly 50% toward 75%. AI isn't eliminating services; capital is consolidating them.

It depends on the buyer's rationale more than the buyer type.

• Sponsors price on payback. Roughly 3 of 4 PE buyouts are add-ons to an existing platform.
• Strategics pay up when your product fills a gap in their stack. Paychex paid $4.2B for Paycor; Gusto bought Mosey for compliance.

Two to three years before you want to sell. Build relationships with a short list of the sponsors and strategics most likely to buy you. Buyers pay for evidence, and they pay a premium for trust built over time.

Two benchmarks set the range:

• r-value, the Rule of 40 (revenue growth % + EBITDA margin %)
• revenue quality: GRR, NRR, gross margin and opex scalability

Retention moves the number most: about 9.3x revenue above 120% NRR, vs. about 3.1x near 100%.

If you raised at 2021–22 valuations, assume that mark is gone. Old-vintage early-stage companies face write-downs of 30–90%; Airtable sold in 2026 at about 2.7x ARR, against an $11.7B 2021 valuation. The founder who raised the least often keeps the most. Your options now are growth equity, a sale to a solution buyer, or rebuilding the model before you sell.

Don't wait for 2021 multiples to come back. The public reset found a floor (3.2–3.7x through spring), and private pricing is still catching up. Timing matters less than which arm of the K you're on: moving up to monetized AI, owning the workflow and stronger retention re-rates you faster than the market will.

Yes. Minority stakes, majority growth investments with founders keeping a stake, and earnouts are all more common in 2026, as buyers use them to manage valuation uncertainty. OneSource Virtual took a majority growth investment from TA Associates in January 2026 after building organically: a premium recapitalization rather than a full sale.

DealNet tracked 60 Office of the CFO, 36 payroll, 62 as-a-solution and 236 vertical-market deals in Q2 2026. The public software index held a 3.2–3.7x floor while the reset cascaded into smaller PE deals, and stack buyers moved on payroll: Gusto–Mosey, Mercury–Central, UnitedHealth–Alegeus and LumberFi–Pivla.

Read more: The K-Shaped Market

DealNet tracked 72 Office of the CFO, 46 payroll, 102 as-a-solution and 293 vertical-market deals in Q1 2026. The SaaS Capital Index broke in February to 3.62x EV/ARR, down 25% in one month. TA Associates made a majority growth investment in OneSource Virtual, and Payoneer acquired Boundless.

Read more: What Actually Happened to Multiples in 2026

DealNet tracked 168 Office of the CFO, 127 payroll, 148 as-a-solution and 484 vertical-market deals in 2025. Public software closed the year at 5.58x EV/ARR and private disclosed-price deals averaged 4.54x. Scale M&A defined payroll: Paychex–Paycor ($4.2B) and Thoma Bravo–Dayforce ($12.3B).

Read more: What Actually Happened to Multiples in 2026

Start with an analyst briefing. It's a working conversation, not a report to read. Here's how it runs:

1. You request a briefing and name your segment: payroll, HR tech, PEO, BPO, FinTech, compliance or IT.
2. Charles pulls the deal signals for your segment from DealNet: who is buying, what they're paying, and why.
3. In the briefing, you get three answers: where your company stands against the r-value and revenue-quality benchmarks; where buyers are paying premiums right now; and the next move that raises your value, whether that's buy-and-build, a legacy exit, or getting ready for either.