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Buy Scale Sell (valuation and diligence) vs Guardian Due Diligence

Side by Side

Buy Scale Sell (valuation and diligence) and Guardian Due Diligence, attribute by attribute
AttributeBuy Scale SellGuardian Due Diligence
What It IsA paid valuation and diligence shop selling fixed-price products rather than engagements: a valuation report, a quality of earnings report, a diligence bundle, a key-person risk audit and an exit readiness audit, each with its price on its own page.A quality-of-earnings boutique for searcher-sized deals, offering a full QoE, a QoE Light delivered in Excel without the report, Cash Proof, and an Advised QoE with founder hours, plus a Deal Closer's Society membership for part-time searchers and Guardian Grow, a post-close program priced with an equity earn-in. Founded in 2017 by Elliott Holland, with $600M+ in transactions and 1,500+ deals evaluated.
CategoryDiligence & Earnings ReviewDiligence & Earnings Review
Pricing ModelOne-TimeOne-Time
What It CostsPublished per product on its own pages: a valuation report at $1,499, a quality of earnings report at $4,500, a diligence bundle at $9,500, a key-person risk audit at $3,500 and a portfolio valuation at $2,499, with advisory quoted separately.Publishes exact tiers on its services page: QoE Light $20k, full QoE $25k, Advised QoE $40k, with the caveat that pricing is for deals under $2 million in purchase price and larger deals are slightly more. Deal Closer's Society runs $24k one time or $3k per month for up to 18 months; Guardian Grow is $1k per month plus a 1 to 5 percent equity earn-in on a 3 year vesting schedule.
Best ForA buyer who wants to know the price of a second opinion before asking for oneSelf-funded searchers who want a QoE shop that lives in sub-$5M deals rather than a regional CPA firm fitting them in
Where It FitsSource & Screen Deals, Diligence & Close the DealDiligence & Close the Deal
Our VerdictThe published price is the reason to look; read which side each product was written for.Shortlist them for QoE on searcher-sized deals; with the tiers published, the first call is a scoping call rather than a pricing discovery.
Pros
  • Publishes a price for every product on its own pages, which most of this lane quotes instead
  • Names this reader directly, listing searchers, business buyers and rollup operators among the people it is built for
  • Its blog carries posts dated within the last two months, so the offering is current
  • Specialization is the pitch: QoE for searcher-sized, often SBA-financed deals is the entire practice
  • Publishes exact engagement pricing, which most QoE shops still make you call for
  • Claims to find 85% of major deal-breaking issues within 7 days, materially faster than typical CPA-firm timelines
Cons
  • The published prices are list prices for defined products, and a messy set of books is the case a fixed product handles least well
  • It sells to buyers and to exit-ready owners from the same shelf, so a reader should check which side a given product was written for
  • No practitioner account of how it handles a deal that goes sideways, which is the thing a fixed price cannot tell you
  • The published tiers hold only under $2 million of purchase price; larger deals are quoted slightly more without saying how much
  • Marketing-forward brand (the founder styles himself 'King of QoE'); calibrate marketing claims against references
  • Testimonial-heavy public reputation; ask for recent client references on deals your size

Our take

Choose Buy Scale Sell when you want the bill before the conversation: a quality of earnings report at $4,500, a valuation report at $1,499 and a diligence bundle at $9,500, each priced on its own page. What a list price cannot cover is a messy set of books, which its own row names as the case a fixed product handles least well.

Choose Guardian when the deal size is the whole practice: a quality of earnings shop working sub-$5M deals, publishing exact tiers at $20k for the light version, $25k for the full report and $40k with founder hours. Read the caveat beside those numbers. They hold under $2 million of purchase price, and a larger deal is quoted higher without the page saying how much.

Looking wider than these two: alternatives to Guardian Due Diligence, each with a line on when it is the better pick.