CPA-Verified SMB™
The companies worth buying are never ready when you find them.
So you circle a few for months, check in twice a year, and hope they're still there when they're finally ready — or you find out in week six of diligence why they never were.
SoForma fixes the timing. Submit a target you already know. We reach out for you — so you're never the one asking them to get ready — and get them working with their own CPA to verify the six things every buyer scrutinizes in diligence: earnings quality, financing readiness, hidden liabilities, owner independence, revenue durability, and legal transferability. Under SSAE 19, against real documents.
While it runs, that target is locked to you — no other buyer can claim them or even see they're claimed — and you stay close while we handle the getting-ready, stepping forward when you're ready. By the time they're ready, the diligence that would've eaten six weeks and killed half your deals is already done, and you're the buyer holding the relationship and the verified record.
Free to submit. You never owe a closing fee unless you close. Start with one name you've been sitting on.
The Problem
You didn't lose six weeks to a bad seller.
You lost it to a dysfunctional system.
In every deal you've walked away from, the facts existed. The customer concentration was documented somewhere. The owner dependency was obvious to anyone inside the business. The tax exposure had a number. The CPA who prepared those returns knew things your process eventually found — after the LOI, after the exclusivity, after you'd committed.
The broker model depends on that sequence staying intact. Their fee depends on the deal closing, not on whether it should. Data presented selectively. Questions answered slowly. Momentum managed carefully. Ambiguity is the product. The truth arrives at week six because that's when it's too late to walk away cleanly.
SoForma makes that dynamic obsolete. Not by replacing brokers — by removing the ambiguity they depend on. The seller's CPA — the one professional in the room with no incentive to spin anything, paid by the seller at standard rates regardless of outcome, with years of advisory history with this business — does the verification work before you arrive. Under SSAE 19. Against documented evidence. Six dimensions. Professional standard.
By the time you see a profile on SoForma, the findings are already on the table.
So start the clock now, on the targets you already have.
Your pipeline is proprietary. SoForma treats it that way.
Your pipeline stays private. Here's how.
You submit a target you already know — seller contact, a note on how you know them, and confirmation that you've told them SoForma may reach out. SoForma then opens the conversation with that warm contact — so you're never the one asking them to get ready — and SoForma helps them connect with their own CPA to begin verification. The engagement runs at the pace the work requires — weeks, months, or years.
Throughout, your submission is invisible to the marketplace and invisible to every other buyer. No one can see that this company is in a verification process, that you identified them, or that you have a relationship with them. Platform Priority is established the moment you submit — no other buyer can submit the same seller or claim attribution while yours is active. You get an exclusive runway: through verification, plus six months after it completes. If you haven't moved to close in that window, the verified company becomes visible to other buyers — but the relationship is still yours. Close with that seller within 24 months and the fee you elected applies, on or off platform.
This is not exclusivity outside the platform. Inside SoForma, your position is yours.
If you decide to share, you can monetize.
Every serious acquirer has a pipeline full of companies they identified and deprioritized. Too small, wrong timing, owner not ready, sector doesn't fit. Those companies sit in a spreadsheet generating nothing.
Submit them to SoForma. Let their CPA run a structured SSAE 19 preparation process — six months to three years, at the pace the engagement requires. When the profile is verified and you decide to open it to the marketplace, you earn your Introducing Buyer Share when another buyer closes: 50% of the closing fee under Option A, 60% under Option B.
On a $2M transaction, that's $50,000 to $60,000 back to you. From a company you probably weren't going to close anyway.
Your proprietary outreach becomes a revenue generator.
When the owner isn't ready yet
Stay the buyer who cares. We handle getting them ready.
You have a relationship with an owner who isn't ready to sell, and the best thing you can do is keep showing up — stay interested, show you care about them and the business, be patient. What breaks that is when you start asking them to get ready: clean up the financials, sit for diligence, prepare to sell. An owner who isn't there yet feels the shift from "someone who cares" to "someone who wants something" — and you've taken on the work of preparing a business that isn't even yours.
SoForma runs that getting-ready work for you, independently, through the owner's own CPA. You never have to be the one asking. You keep doing the part that matters — maintaining a real, warm relationship — without the time, the effort, or the overextension of trying to get someone else's business ready. And your priority is yours from the moment you submit, so the patience builds toward your deal — not someone else's.
You stay the one who cares.
Keep showing interest and staying patient. SoForma, not you, runs the getting-ready — so you're never the buyer making demands of an owner who isn't there yet.
Your patience pays off to you.
Your claim is immediate, and once the owner begins with their CPA — the part SoForma drives, within 30 days of submission — it holds through the entire verification and six months past it. If the timing isn't right and they don't start, the claim lapses and you simply resubmit later. A not-ready owner is never tied up, and your patience builds toward your deal, not someone else's.
You can only submit someone you actually know.
Submitting a target means confirming you have a real relationship, describing in your own words how you know them, and confirming you've told them SoForma may reach out. No claiming companies you've never spoken to — that's what keeps your outreach safe and the marketplace free of cold, speculative claims.
The companies worth acquiring usually aren't ready when you find them.
That's not a reason to move on. It's a reason to start the process now in SoForma.
Start with a name you like but aren't chasing hard — test the mechanics on a low-risk target, then load the ones that matter.
Submit a target from your pipeline — not the ones you're about to LOI, but the ones you like and are willing to wait for. SoForma invites them to verify with their own CPA. Over the next six months to three years, that CPA runs a structured SSAE 19 preparation process across all six dimensions. The risks that would have killed your deal at week six get surfaced and addressed now — quietly, privately, while the business keeps running normally.
You get an exclusive runway: through verification, plus six months after it completes. If you haven't moved to close in that window, the verified company becomes visible to other buyers — but the relationship is still yours. Close with that seller within 24 months and the fee you elected applies, on or off platform.
The QoE your team would have run in week six is largely already done. The preparation that would have taken three weeks of management bandwidth is already complete. You arrive to a process, not a discovery.
1
Submit your target
Two minutes. Seller contact and a note on your relationship. Your submission is private. Platform Priority is immediate.
2
SoForma runs the getting-ready, not you
The owner — who already knows you and is expecting us — hears from SoForma, not from you, so you never have to be the one asking them to prepare. We help them connect with their own CPA and run a structured verification at the pace the work requires. You have 30 days to get them moving; if no CPA engagement starts in 30 days, the claim lapses — and you can resubmit when the timing's better, so a not-ready owner is never tied up.
3
Review the findings when it's ready. Move with confidence.
As verification progresses, you see findings in real time. When all six dimensions are verified, you have the verified findings before your first serious conversation. No surprises. No wasted process.
What your submitted target becomes once their CPA verifies it
SoForma ID
SF-4827
Industry
Manufacturing
State
Ohio
Revenue
$10–15M
EBITDA
$1.5–2M
Earnings quality
P&L Recast · Add-back Schedule · YTD Financials
Financing readiness
Revenue Breakdown · Recurring Revenue · Debt Schedule
Revenue durability
Customer Concentration Report
Owner independence
Transition Plan · Org Chart
Hidden liabilities
Tax Review · Compliance Summary
Legal + Transferability
Contract Assignability · IP Ownership
Earnings quality
Three years of P&L reviewed by the seller's CPA. Every add-back documented. You know what you're buying before the QoE starts.
Financing readiness
Revenue breakdown and debt schedule verified against source documents. The lender conversation starts from facts, not a seller's estimate.
Revenue durability
Customer concentration is documented. Week-six surprises become day-one findings. You know before you commit.
Owner independence
Transition risk surfaced and documented before you allocate your process. The org chart doesn't hide a single-person dependency.
Hidden liabilities
Tax exposure, undisclosed debt, compliance gaps — found privately by the seller's CPA before they become your problem at the table.
Legal transferability
Change-of-control clauses, IP ownership, contract assignability — flagged and documented before diligence, not during it.
Verification is performed under SSAE 19 Agreed-Upon Procedures by the seller's licensed CPA. SoForma doesn't pay CPAs anything in accordance with AICPA Rule 1.520 (Commissions and Referral Fees) and Rule 1.510 (Contingent Fees). Their only incentive is professional accuracy.
Pipeline first. Marketplace as it fills.
Three paths.
You choose yours.
Is this you?
I have a target in my pipeline. I'm not ready to commit cash upfront but I'll pay a small closing fee if the deal closes.
Is this you?
I have high conviction on a target. I want priority coordination and a fixed total cost regardless of when the deal closes.
Is this you?
I want to browse verified targets I didn't source myself — as the marketplace fills with verified targets other buyers have submitted.
I · Pipeline · Option A
Submit a target from your own pipeline. SoForma invites them to verify with their CPA.
II · Pipeline · Option B
Submit a target from your own pipeline. SoForma sends a priority invite within 24 hours.
III · Marketplace Buyer
Browse the public marketplace. Every listing is CPA-verified before it appears.
I · Pipeline · Option A
$0 — free to submit
II · Pipeline · Option B
$1,000 authorized at submission. Charged only when the seller starts a CPA engagement within 30 days. Released if no engagement starts.
III · Marketplace Buyer
$0 — free to browse, filter, and watchlist
I · Pipeline · Option A
1% of transaction value
II · Pipeline · Option B
$0 — no closing fee ever on this seller. Your $1,000 upfront was the total cost.
III · Marketplace Buyer
5% of transaction value
I · Pipeline · Option A
$0 — you never paid anything
II · Pipeline · Option B
$1,000 already paid. Nothing further.
III · Marketplace Buyer
$0 — you never paid anything
I · Pipeline · Option A
Immediate on submission. You get an exclusive runway: through verification, plus six months after it completes. If you haven't moved to close in that window, the verified company becomes visible to other buyers — but the relationship is still yours. Close with that seller within 24 months and the fee you elected applies, on or off platform. 30-day claim lapse if the seller never engages a CPA — you can resubmit.
II · Pipeline · Option B
Immediate on submission. Priority coordination — 24-hour invite send target. You get an exclusive runway: through verification, plus six months after it completes. If you haven't moved to close in that window, the verified company becomes visible to other buyers — but the relationship is still yours. Close with that seller within 24 months and the fee you elected applies, on or off platform.
III · Marketplace Buyer
Not applicable — marketplace discovery, no priority claim.
I · Pipeline · Option A
You earn 50% of the closing buyer's fee — your Introducing Buyer Share
II · Pipeline · Option B
You earn 60% of the closing buyer's fee — your Introducing Buyer Share
III · Marketplace Buyer
Not applicable
I · Pipeline · Option A
Pipeline targets you like but aren't ready — let the CPA run a structured preparation process for months or years while you maintain Priority
II · Pipeline · Option B
High-conviction targets where you expect to close and want a fixed total cost
III · Marketplace Buyer
Buyers looking for verified deal flow they didn't source themselves
No closing fee is ever owed if the deal doesn't close.
On Option A, the 1% isn't an introduction fee — you brought the target. It pays for completed CPA verification under SSAE 19 across all six dimensions above, examined against real documents: work you'd otherwise pay for in weeks of your own diligence.
Option B's $1,000 is an upfront election charged when verification begins — the one cost that isn't contingent on closing. Options A and Marketplace owe nothing unless the deal closes.
All fees are governed by the Buyer Member Agreement v1.2. No closing fee is ever owed if the deal doesn't close.
Buyers should be able to expect a CPA-Verified SMB™ before they start a process. The seller's CPA — the professional who knows this business better than anyone, who has no incentive to spin the outcome — should have documented the findings before you arrive. That's not a luxury. That's what due diligence should look like.
SoForma is the first platform built on that expectation.
Patent pending · The CPA-Verified SMB™ framework is proprietary to SoForma.
Rules we follow
The promises that make this work.
You only submit people you know. You confirm the relationship, say how you know them, and confirm you've told them to expect us.
We do the getting-ready, not you. SoForma runs the prep with their CPA, so you never have to push the owner — you just keep the relationship warm.
The seller you submit is yours. Locked to you; no other buyer can claim them or even tell they're claimed.
We go to work getting them verified — their own CPA, under SSAE 19.
You have 30 days to get them moving. If no CPA engagement starts, the claim lapses — and you can resubmit later. No one gets tied up.
You get an exclusive runway: through verification, plus six months after it completes. If you haven't moved to close by then, the verified company becomes visible to other buyers — but the relationship is still yours. Close within 24 months and the fee you elected applies, on or off platform.
Start the clock on the targets you already have.
Submit a target you already know. We handle getting them ready, so you stay the buyer who cares. Their CPA verifies under SSAE 19, and they're locked to you. Free to submit. You never owe a closing fee unless you close.