Wait... What Do You Do?

An introduction to Iris Co.

As friends, family, and community members hear about my business, one question keeps coming up: "Wait... what do you actually do?" Sometimes the easiest way to answer is to start with what I don't do. I don't take over businesses. I'm not a CPA, an attorney, or a financial advisor. I don't manage your money. And I certainly don't compete with the many important advisors you rely on to keep your business running every day.

Here's what I do: I sell and buy businesses in North Dakota for my clients. I run the process. I coordinate the advisors already on the team. I negotiate on behalf of the owner. And I make sure the whole thing moves forward as smoothly and efficiently as the situation allows. That's the short version. The longer version — a taste of how it actually works, and why I think the way we do it matters — is what this post is about. My name is Jake Nesvig, and I'm the founder and managing principal of Iris Co.

What Iris Co. actually does

Iris Co. is a transaction advisory firm based in Bismarck, ND. Most of our work is what the industry calls "sell-side advisory." When a business owner decides they want to sell their company, we run the process that gets them to a closed transaction with the right buyer, on terms that work for them, without blowing up the business along the way.In practice, that means we do the following for every engagement:

Start with an evaluation. Before we talk about timelines, marketing materials, or buyers, we sit down with the owner and work through the fundamental questions. What is the business worth in today's market? What does the owner hope to get for their life's work — and how does that compare to what a buyer is likely to pay? What deal terms are acceptable, and which ones are non-starters? Are there personal, family, or employee considerations that will shape what a good outcome looks like? If the gap between the owner's expectations and the market reality is too wide, this is where we find out — and where we decide together whether to move forward or build value first.

Prepare the business for market. Most businesses are not ready to be sold the day the owner decides they want to sell. There's usually work to do — cleaning up the financial story, understanding what a buyer wants, identifying risks a buyer will flag before they become deal-killers. This phase typically takes weeks or months. We do this work alongside the owner, the owner's CPA, and attorney, not in place of them. If the right advisor isn’t available, we help our owners find them.

Build the marketing materials. A confidential information memorandum (CIM), a teaser document, a financial and other supporting documents are the documents buyers use to decide whether they're interested and then whether they're serious enough to pursue the opportunity. Done well, they tell an honest, compelling story about the company. Done poorly, they either scare buyers off or attract the wrong ones.

Identify and approach the right buyers. Not every buyer is a fit. The wrong buyer wastes everyone's time, leaks confidential information, or makes an offer the owner accepts and then walks away from during diligence. We build a targeted buyer list for each engagement, approach them under confidentiality, and manage the flow of information carefully.

Run the process. Running the process well is the difference between a failed transaction and a smooth transition. This is where the deal gets made or lost: managing inbound interest, coordinating site visits, handling letters of intent, negotiating deal terms, coordinating due diligence with the buyer's team, working with the owner's attorney through definitive agreements, and keeping the owner's existing advisors fully engaged throughout. A typical engagement runs six to twelve months from kickoff to closing, sometimes longer depending on complexity. I'll address the mechanics of running a clean process in detail in a future post.

Who Iris Co. serves

I mentioned above the importance of a good estimate of value as a starting point for a business sale. We focus on a segment of the market that is deeply underserved; North Dakota small business owners with companies at or below $25 million in enterprise value. That's a deliberate choice. North Dakota is not a crowded M&A advisory market. There are roughly 78,200 small businesses operating in the state, employing about 197,200 people — nearly 58% of the state's private workforce.¹ A lot of those owners are approaching the age where succession becomes a real question. Retirement might be on the horizon. And most of the M&A advisory infrastructure that serves them is based somewhere else — Minneapolis, Denver, out-of-state franchise networks that parachute in when there's a deal to work.

I live here. My career is built on face-to-face relationships. I still value those relationships, and the businesses I've worked for throughout my career have served their clients and their communities best when they use local talent, local partners, and build trust through years of small, close, personal interactions. While Iris Co. can serve a much broader footprint than any firm I've worked for in the past, my relationships are still built over lunch, over coffee, and through community involvement. It's a model I learned in community banking, and in my experience it's the best way to ensure alignment, values, and success.

Why I started Iris Co.

I've spent the last 23 years in banking, investing, finance, and accounting. I've worn lots of hats - board member, entrepreneur, banker, manager. Ive been on the lender side of the table watching business sales unfold, worked with owners on the financial structure of their companies, and learned how transactions get done, where they break down, and what separates a clean closing from a painful one. I’ve had enough bumps and bruises over the years to know what to look out for, and how to fix things when they need fixing.

At some point along the way, I realized I had the experience, relationships, and conviction about how this work should be done to go do it on my own. Guys like me aren't the star of the show. We're background actors. We're there to support the client, make them and the firm they created the star, and provide context, connection, and support. The supporting cast is the team of professionals who have served that owner — often for years before I show up. My job is to enable that team during the transaction, not to replace them or push them aside.

I started this firm because I believe there is room for an M&A advisor in North Dakota who does the work, respects existing advisor relationships, and treats every client with the respect, focus, and urgency they deserve.

The enabler, the coordinator, the closer — not the boss

Here's the single most important thing to understand about how Iris Co. works. When we take on a sell-side engagement, the owner almost always comes in with a team already in place. A CPA who knows the business's finances. An attorney who has drafted the contracts and handled the legal work for years. A wealth manager or financial planner who's been helping the owner think about life after the sale. A banker, an insurance advisor, a business coach. These people are assets. They know the owner. They know the business. They know what the owner actually cares about in ways a brand-new advisor couldn't possibly know in the first month of an engagement. Their perspective, wisdom, and input have value. Most M&A firms treat these existing advisors as either irrelevant or inconvenient. Your existing advisors should be more involved during a transaction than at any point prior; the stakes are higher and the decisions are more consequential.

My role is to be the enabler, the coordinator, and the closer — not the boss.

As the enabler, I give your existing advisors the information, tools, and context they need to serve you best during the transaction. Your CPA gets involved. Your attorney gets involved. Your financial advisor gets involved. Businesses succeed because of the quality of the team and the output of the team; a transaction succeeds for the same reason.

As the coordinator, I orchestrate the process. I make sure the team is implementing the steps that achieve success and communicating efficiently so we can all keep moving with urgency in the same direction. Transaction processes have a lot of moving parts. Someone needs to make sure the deal team succeeds.

As the closer, I drive the deal across the finish line. My job is complicated but simple: close transactions. This is the part most firms emphasize, and it's real. Getting a deal closed is hard. It takes persistence, negotiation, creative problem-solving, and the willingness to push through the rough patches that every deal has. I do the work in service of the owner and the team, not as a solo performance.

Why having good advisors matters

If you're a business owner thinking about a transition at some point in the next few years, the single most important thing you can do right now is this: surround yourself with good advisors, and start the conversations early.

No one professional has all the answers. But a CPA who understands your financial story, an attorney who knows your legal exposure, a wealth manager who's thought about your post-sale life, a commercial banker who knows how to fund your business, and — when the time comes — an M&A advisor who can coordinate the transaction is dramatically more powerful than any of those people working alone.

The owners with the hardest exits are almost always the ones who waited until they were ready to sell before they built the team. By then, a lot of the value that could have been captured is already gone. The owners with the cleanest exits started the conversations years before the sale.

If you already have good advisors, keep them close. If you don't, start building that team now, regardless of your timeline. And as you plan, consider having a conversation with a firm like Iris Co. When the time comes to run a transaction, an M&A advisor who will work with your team, not around them makes a huge positive difference.

A few practical things

How I work with owners who aren't ready to sell yet. A lot of my early conversations with business owners are not about selling next month. They're about understanding what a sale could look like two to five years from now, what needs to happen between now and then, and how the owner can position the business to have real options when the time comes. I don't charge for those conversations. I think of them as part of what it means to be a working M&A advisor in a state the size of North Dakota.

How I work with professional advisors who have clients considering a transition. CPAs, attorneys, wealth managers, bankers, insurance agents, realtors — if you have a client starting to think about an exit and you want a second set of eyes on the situation, I'm easy to get hold of. I don't take over your client relationship. I work alongside you, for your client, and your relationship remains the primary one. I've built Iris Co. specifically to be a resource for the professional advisor community in North Dakota.

Cutting-edge tools, human judgment. The cost of top quality technology has never been lower, and I work hard to provide my clients with the best technology, decision making tools, and confidential analysis. We are not a firm that hands out cookie-cutter solutions. We treat every engagement as worthy of the best tools and systems we have, and continue to evolve with technology, focusing on efficiency, security, and confidentiality.

Confidentiality. Everything about Iris Co.'s work is confidential. I do not publish deal announcements. I do not put client logos on my website. I do not promote transactions after they close. If you want to talk to me about your business, or about a client's business, that conversation stays between us.

So — what do I do?

I help North Dakota business owners sell their companies, on their terms, with their advisors fully engaged, through a process designed around their situation rather than a template. I help entrepreneurs find and analyze new businesses.

I'm the enabler, the coordinator, and the closer. I'm not the boss.

If that sounds like the kind of advisor you want in your corner when the time comes — or if you know someone who might — I'd welcome the conversation. You can reach me directly at jake@iriscoadvisors.com.

Footnotes

¹ Source: U.S. Small Business Administration, Office of Advocacy. 2025 Small Business Profile: North Dakota. June 2025. https://advocacy.sba.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/North_Dakota_2025-State-Profile.pdf

Jake Nesvig is the founder of Iris Co., a transaction advisory firm based in Bismarck, North Dakota. Jake brings 23 years of experience in banking, investing, finance, and accounting to sell-side and buy-side advisory engagements across North Dakota. This post is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal, tax, or financial advice.