Nick Brunelle

## About Devin Craig and Verity Brokers **Devin Craig is Co-Founder and Managing Broker of Verity Business Brokers, a business brokerage and M&A advisory firm serving business owners throughout Washington and the Pacific Northwest.** Devin brings a perspective to business brokerage shaped by firsthand experience as a business owner, buyer, operator, investor, advisor, and broker. Over the course of his career, he has been involved in **several dozen business transactions** across brokerage, acquisition, ownership, investment, and advisory roles. Before representing owners in the sale of their companies, Devin experienced the acquisition process from the buyer’s side. He has personally purchased and operated businesses, evaluated acquisition opportunities, negotiated transactions, worked through financing and due diligence, and dealt with the realities that begin after a transaction closes. That experience strongly influences how he represents sellers today. Devin believes a business should not simply be assigned a multiple, given an asking price, and placed on the market. For most entrepreneurs, their company represents years or decades of work, financial risk, family sacrifice, employee relationships, customer trust, and a substantial portion of their personal net worth. A successful exit therefore requires much more than finding a buyer. ### An Owner’s Perspective on Business Brokerage Having sat on multiple sides of the transaction table, Devin understands how buyers and lenders evaluate privately held companies. He looks closely at normalized earnings, owner dependence, management depth, customer concentration, working capital, capital expenditures, financing feasibility, seller financing, transition requirements, and the many operational issues that can affect both valuation and certainty of closing. That perspective allows him to help sellers prepare for the questions a sophisticated buyer is likely to ask before those questions become problems during due diligence. Devin’s objective is not simply to establish the highest possible asking price. It is to determine what the business is realistically worth, how buyers are likely to view it, whether the transaction can be financed, what issues could threaten a closing, and what can be done to improve the outcome. Sometimes the right answer is to sell now. Other times, the best advice may be to spend another year or two improving financial reporting, developing management, reducing owner dependence, addressing customer concentration, or strengthening other aspects of the company before going to market. That willingness to give owners candid advice is central to Devin’s approach. ### Several Dozen Transactions After participating in several dozen business transactions, Devin has developed a strong conviction that **the quality of the preparation often determines the quality of the exit.** A profitable company can still be difficult to sell if too much of the business depends on the owner. A strong business can struggle to obtain acquisition financing if its financial statements do not clearly demonstrate sustainable cash flow. An attractive offer can collapse during due diligence because important issues were discovered too late. And the highest offer is not always the best transaction when financing risk, seller notes, working capital, transition requirements, taxes, and certainty of closing are considered. Devin works with owners to evaluate these issues early and build a process around the actual economics of the business. ### Verity Business Brokers Devin co-founded **Verity Business Brokers** alongside **Erik Trefzger and Nick Brunelle**. Together, the three partners bring complementary experience in business ownership, acquisitions, operations, finance, commercial real estate, sales leadership, business development, negotiation, investing, and transaction advisory. The team has experience on both sides of transactions—as owners, buyers, sellers, operators, brokers, investors, and advisors. This allows Verity to evaluate a transaction not simply from the perspective of the seller, but also from the standpoint of the buyer and lender. The team considers questions such as: * What does the company actually earn after normalizing the financials? * Is the business transferable without the current owner? * Can a qualified buyer finance the purchase? * Where is the transaction most likely to encounter problems? * What transition support will the buyer need? * How should seller financing, working capital, real estate, or other deal terms be structured? * What outcome actually serves the owner’s financial and personal objectives? That broader perspective is central to the way Verity represents privately held businesses. ### Co-Author of *The Stewardship Exit* Devin is also co-author, alongside Erik Trefzger and Nick Brunelle, of ***The Stewardship Exit: How Business Owners Prepare, Sell, and Transition Their Companies Without Destroying Their Legacy*.** The book grew out of the team’s belief that selling a business should not be treated as a purely financial event. An owner must certainly understand valuation, buyer expectations, financing, negotiation, due diligence, and deal structure. But there are also larger questions: What happens to the employees who helped build the company? How will customers and key relationships be protected? What does the owner want life to look like after the transaction? And how can an owner realize the value of what they built without unnecessarily damaging the people or legacy attached to it? Those questions are an important part of Devin’s work with business owners. ### Leadership and Education Devin earned a **Master’s degree in Organizational Leadership from Gonzaga University**, and his background in leadership and organizational development also influences his approach to business transitions. A buyer is rarely acquiring only financial statements, equipment, and contracts. They are acquiring an operating organization made up of employees, customers, suppliers, systems, relationships, institutional knowledge, and culture. Understanding whether those elements can successfully transfer from one owner to another is an important part of evaluating the quality and value of a business. ### Deeply Rooted in the Pacific Northwest Devin is deeply rooted in Washington and the Pacific Northwest, and Verity is intentionally focused on serving established privately held businesses throughout the region. He believes local businesses play a critical role in their communities. They provide employment, support families, develop employees, serve customers, and often represent decades of an owner’s life. When those businesses change ownership, the impact extends well beyond the buyer and seller. That is one reason Devin places significant emphasis on finding not simply a buyer, but a transaction structure and transition plan capable of supporting the company after closing. ### A Different Definition of a Successful Exit Price matters. For many owners, their business is the largest financial asset they own. But Devin believes a successful exit should also consider **certainty of closing, financing feasibility, transaction structure, seller risk, employee continuity, buyer capability, transition requirements, and the owner’s objectives after the sale.** The highest theoretical valuation means little if the transaction cannot actually close. Devin’s goal is to help owners understand what they have built, prepare it properly, obtain fair market value, navigate the transaction with discipline, and enter the next chapter of their lives with clarity. That philosophy is summarized in Verity’s guiding principle: **Truth before transaction. Stewardship through transition.**