About Us
I've been in your shoes. I know what it's like to be a behavioral healthcare leader on the precipice of selling a business. And I know how it feels to be uncertain; about how to price my business and what it will take to ensure a successful transaction.
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I remember the day I received the first Letter of Intent to buy our company. I was overcome with a wide range of emotion: I was excited, relieved, and even a little scared. Indeed, the LOI was confirmation that others out there valued what we had created. It was validating to know that the years of blood and sweat, of sleepless nights, and anxious times, meant something.
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Yet, even after running hospitals as a CEO, and starting and running our own behavioral healthcare company, I did not realize a few things about that LOI. First, the LOI is just the beginning of a rigorous due diligence process that is not designed to justify the purchase price, but rather to uncover ways to lower it. Second, buyer diligence quite often lowers a purchase price by raising questions about the quality of earnings, identifying hidden risks, and slowing the process down so more items can be uncovered. Price is often lowered by requiring earn-outs based on the findings of buyer diligence. Third, the longer diligence drags out, the likelihood of price erosion and uncertainties about closing the deal increase.
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In short, buyer due diligence does not exist to help the seller, plain and simple. Understanding this, I came to realize one critical truth: the ONLY way a seller can enter the due diligence stage with a sense of comfort and confidence is to have conducted a comprehensive Sell Side Diligence PRIOR to signing a Letter of Intent.
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I want to help you learn these lessons before you go into a deal, not after.
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My focus is to ensure behavioral healthcare leaders never go into a deal unprepared. I help leaders prepare for the rigors of buyer due diligence by providing a Sell Side Quality of Earnings and Operations Assessment. I help uncover the unknowns to make them known to owners well before the buyers identify them during their due diligence.
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My mantra now is "NEVER, ever sign a Letter of Intent without first conducting a Sell Side Diligence - you'll be glad you did".
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Transactions and Projects
Averte has been acquired by Trivium Life Services, Inc.
Summit Strategic Solutions served as Exclusive Advisor to Averte.
OUR VISION
We strive to add value to clients by consulting with Passion and Purpose.
OUR MISSION
We collaborate with behavioral healthcare providers to increase enterprise value and make a more meaningful impact.
OUR CORE VALUES
COMPASSION - We take time to understand the challenges and needs of others first and foremost
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INTEGRITY - We prioritize honesty, honor, and moral principles
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PURPOSE - We exhibit the drive and motivation to sacrifice for something bigger than ourselves
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COLLABORATION - We build strong relationships that allow working together for the greater good
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INNOVATION - We think out of the box to take something and simply make it better
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TRUST - We are able to trust and be trusted as the foundation for all we do
David Nissen, MBA, CHBC
David is a Certified Healthcare Business Consultant with over 34 years of experience in the behavioral healthcare field.
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David has worked in virtually all areas in the behavioral healthcare delivery system, from line staff, to intake, admission, marketing, program management, and chief executive roles.
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Having held the Chief Executive Officer position at three different psychiatric hospitals, David has first-hand experience at turnaround and change management, having inherited challenged facilities and executing successful turnaround plans. Some of the turnaround initiatives included: converting acute care beds to residential beds, building a team of dedicated employed physicians and allied health professionals, starting and growing robust partial hospitalization and intensive outpatient programs, dramatically improving professional referral relations and increasing admissions, correcting workflow inefficiencies, and building a workplace environment where the best people want to work.
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These career successes led David to cofound Pasadena Villa Network of Services in 2001. As Managing Director, he oversaw the opening of Pasadena Villa Orlando in 2002, and Smoky Mountain Lodge in Tennessee in 2010. Both facilities were highly successful and provided best in class psychiatric residential treatment for adults. David successfully negotiated the sale of the company to a private equity group in 2015.
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David is a Certified Healthcare Business Consultant (CHBC) trough the National Society of Certified Healthcare Business Consultants. He is a Certified Middle Market Professional (MMP) through the Association of Corporate Growth. David is also a member of Association of Merger and Acquisition Advisors, as well as an Affiliate Member of the National Association of Therapeutic Schools and Programs (NATSAP).