About Potomac
Selling a business is one of the most consequential decisions you’ll make. Potomac brings the clarity, discipline, and judgment to make sure you make it once and make it right.
How we think
These are the principles that guide every decision we make in a process. They keep you protected, focused, and in control from start to finish.
We teach before we advise. You understand how buyers think, what drives value, and what matters before any decisions are on the table.
origins
Why we exist
Most founders sell a business once. The people across the table do it every day. That imbalance shapes how deals unfold. Buyers move quickly, anchor early, and steer the process toward outcomes that work in their favor. Most sellers don’t realize it’s happening until it’s already cost them.
Potomac was built to close that gap.
Outcomes in M&A are not determined solely by the business. They’re determined by how the sales process is designed and run. When the process is structured with discipline, the right buyers compete, the real value gets seen, and leverage stays where it belongs. When it isn’t, value leaks at every stage, usually quietly and almost always permanently.
Our role is to bring clarity, discipline, and judgment to a moment most founders have never experienced and won’t experience again. We slow things down when speed costs you money. We tell you the truth when other advisors would tell you what you want to hear. And we stay focused on one outcome: that you finish the deal knowing it was the right decision, with no second-guessing later.
Who we are
The Potomac team
Every transaction is handled by a team that understands both the mechanics and the psychology of a sell-side process.
Our professionals are trained to think in terms of leverage, timing, and control. They know how buyers behave, how processes drift, and where deals are won or lost.
It is about judgment applied at the right moments. From the first conversation through final close, the team stays focused on one objective: protecting your position and driving the best possible outcome.
Our team includes senior dealmakers alongside in-house transaction advisory and financial diligence professionals. Your financials are prepared, pressure-tested, and ready before going to market, so buyers stay focused on value rather than uncertainty.
About Paul
Meet the founder
Paul Giannamore founded Potomac after years of watching founders make sale decisions in the dark, with advisors who had every incentive to push deals across the line. He built the firm around a different premise: that the best outcomes come from disciplined process, deep buyer knowledge, and the willingness to tell clients the truth, even when it slows things down.
industries
The industries we serve
Each vertical reflects our expertise: founder-led businesses, fragmented markets, and active consolidation by strategic and private equity buyers.
Business & Professional Services
Founder-led firms in accounting, bookkeeping, insurance, staffing, business process outsourcing, and adjacent professional services. Recurring revenue and active consolidation make these markets attractive to disciplined buyers. Professional services firms share the structural traits that have defined Potomac’s specialty for twenty years: recurring or contractual revenue, fragmented competitive landscapes, and active consolidation by buyers who know exactly what they’re paying for.…
Consumer Health & Wellness Services
Multi-location and recurring-revenue consumer health and wellness service platforms. Med spas, fitness, aesthetic services, recurring wellness, and adjacent multi-location consumer health businesses are where consolidation is reshaping the market. Consumer health and wellness service businesses share the structural traits that have defined Potomac’s specialty for twenty years: recurring or membership revenue, fragmented landscapes, multi-location operating models, and active consolidation by…
Education & Training
Multi-location and recurring-revenue education and training platforms. Tutoring and learning centers, childcare, career and skills training, and corporate training services. Where consolidation is active. Founder-led firms across multi-location and recurring-revenue education and training platforms, where active consolidation is reshaping each category. Childcare and Early Childhood Tutoring and Learning Centers Career and Skills Training Corporate Training and L&D Services Test Prep…
Fire Protection, Safety & Security
Inspection-driven, contract-anchored businesses across fire protection, life safety, and physical security. Recurring revenue, retention, and territory density drive valuation, and the active consolidators know exactly how to value all three. Fire protection, life safety, and physical security platforms are being actively acquired by national consolidators, including Pye-Barker Fire & Safety, Summit Fire & Security, Pavion, Performance Systems Integration, and Impact…
Healthcare Services
Founder-led healthcare service businesses in dental, veterinary, behavioral health, home health, dermatology, and adjacent multi-location and route-based platforms. Recurring patient demand and active consolidation define the market. Healthcare services share the structural traits that have defined Potomac’s specialty for twenty years: recurring or contractual revenue, fragmented landscapes, multi-location or route-based delivery models, and active consolidation by buyers who know exactly…
HVAC, Plumbing & Electrical
Residential and commercial HVAC, plumbing, and electrical service businesses sit in one of the most actively consolidating segments in M&A. Potomac advises across both. The operational fluency comes from twenty years inside service businesses. HVAC, plumbing, and electrical platforms are being acquired at a pace few service categories can match. PE-backed consolidators, including Wrench Group, Apex Service Partners, Authority Brands,…
Lawn, Landscape & Tree Care
Potomac has executed more than $800 million in lawn care transactions and served as strategic advisor through the sale of one of the largest lawn care companies in the United States. The expertise in this category goes back to the firm’s founding. Lawn care, landscape, and tree care platforms are being actively acquired by strategic acquirers and private equity-backed consolidators.…
Pest Control
Potomac advises on more sell-side transactions in the global pest control industry than all other advisors combined. The credentials, buyer relationships, and operational fluency gained from twenty-plus years in this market shape every engagement. Pest control is one of the most actively consolidating service industries in the world. Strategic acquirers, including Rollins, Rentokil, and Anticimex, compete with private-equity-backed platforms and…
Propane & Fuel Oil
Density-driven distribution businesses where route economics, customer retention, and territory consolidation shape valuation. The active acquirers in this category know exactly how to value all three, and Potomac knows which ones. Propane and fuel oil distribution is a mature, density-driven category that consolidates in cycles. National and super-regional platforms, including Suburban Propane, AmeriGas, Ferrellgas, and Energy Transfer, compete with strategic…
Residential Services
Route-based, recurring-revenue service businesses are the foundation of the firm. Potomac advises on more sell-side transactions in this category than any other firm in the world, across pest control, HVAC, lawn care, fire and safety, propane, and access control. Pest control, HVAC and plumbing, lawn and landscape, fire and safety, and propane are five distinct industries on the surface. Underneath,…
Technology & Software
Founder-led software and tech-enabled service businesses where product differentiation, recurring revenue, and strategic fit drive premium outcomes. Potomac brings the analytical framework of a bulge-bracket tech bank to the founder mid-market. Founder-led technology businesses face a structural gap in the M&A market. Bulge-bracket banks chase the largest transactions. Specialist tech-only boutiques crowd the same set of buyers. The founder running…
The buyers we sit across from
We work with founder-led businesses and the buyers actively acquiring in their markets. These are transactions where strategic interest, capital, and timing align.
Potomac resources
How value gets built & sold
Insights on valuation, leverage and process.
