{"slug": "show-hn-open-source-m-a-tools", "title": "Show HN: Open-Source M&A Tools", "summary": "Main Street Wealth launched an open-source hub of M&A tools for lower middle-market deals in HVAC, plumbing, roofing, pest, landscaping, pool, and electrical services, pairing valuation calculators, quality-of-earnings checklists, deal-structure models, and diligence packs with AI agents and an MCP server. The hub joins 20 live tools on mainstreetwealth.ai, with open datasets, APIs, and dashboards covering multiples and trade KPIs that ship with sample sizes and sources. The project accepts pull requests, with contributors credited on the tool page, in the changelog, and in the data license.", "body_md": "### HVAC\n\nRollover-friendly, PE-active. HVAC multiples compound with recurring maintenance plans.\n\nValuation calculators, QoE checklists, deal-structure models, diligence packs, and AI agents. Built for lower middle-market deals in HVAC, plumbing, roofing, pest, landscaping, pool, and electrical. Pairs with the [20 live tools on mainstreetwealth.ai](https://mainstreetwealth.ai/tools).\n\nEvery category maps to a stage of the deal. Pick your spot and dig in.\n\nCalculators and models to size a business and defend a number.\n\nNormalize the financials, prove the earnings, and stress the quality.\n\nModel earnouts, seller notes, waterfalls, and net-of-everything proceeds.\n\nBuild the buy-box, run outreach, and manage the pipeline.\n\nRequest lists, data rooms, red-flag scanners, and operational checks.\n\nNDAs, LOIs, disclosure schedules, and state-by-state references.\n\nFor owners: score the gap, plan the pre-sale year, and plan the proceeds.\n\nOpen datasets, APIs, and dashboards covering multiples and trade KPIs.\n\nPrompt libraries, extraction pipelines, evals, and an MCP server for agents.\n\nHVAC, plumbing, roofing, pest, landscaping, pool, and electrical bundles.\n\nQuick to adopt, searched often, and the fastest path to a defensible valuation.\n\nReconstruct EBITDA from net income by adding back interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization.\n\nCompute seller's discretionary earnings for owner-operated businesses, including an owner's compensation add-back.\n\nBuild a defensible add-back schedule with a documentation checklist for each adjustment.\n\nLook up typical EBITDA multiples by trade and revenue band, with the sample size and the source.\n\nModel rollover equity: cash at close, retained equity, and the second-exit outcome.\n\nWhat the seller actually keeps after taxes, broker fees, legal, and payoffs.\n\nScore the business across financials, people, systems, and growth to see how sale-ready it is.\n\nScore owner dependence across sales, operations, finance, and relationships.\n\nEach trade has its own economics. Jump to the hub toolkit or straight to the advisory page on mainstreetwealth.ai.\n\nSBA-financeable at the bottom; family offices and PE roll-ups at the top.\n\nStorm cycles and insurance mix drive add-back schedules and multiples.\n\nHighest recurring-revenue mix in the trades. Attracts premium multiples.\n\nMaintenance vs. design-build mix changes multiple and buyer universe.\n\nSeasonal, membership-driven. Route density and geography do the heavy lifting.\n\nOpen data by trade and size, with sample sizes and sources. Pulled by hand first, then kept honest with community PRs. Cross-checked against the main-site [comparable sales](https://mainstreetwealth.ai/tools/comparable-sales) and [competitor acquisitions](https://mainstreetwealth.ai/tools/competitor-acquisitions) tools.\n\nIllustrative figures. Full dataset ships with sample size and source for every row.\n\nEvery tool here ships with a byline and a review date. Here's who's behind it.\n\nThis hub is built in the open. Everything from calculators to the AI tooling takes PRs.\n\nEach tool page lists what's needed. Start with the ones tagged for new contributors.\n\nLearn more\nOne tool, one PR. Keep the scope small. We'll review within a week.\n\nLearn more\nContributors are credited on the tool page, in the changelog, and in the data license.\n\nLearn more\nShare a few financials and we'll walk you through what a buyer would actually pay today, with context on how we got there.\n\nNot legal, tax, or financial advice. For a specific recommendation, talk to a licensed advisor.", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/show-hn-open-source-m-a-tools", "canonical_source": "https://opensource.mainstreetwealth.ai", "published_at": "2026-10-02 19:21:17+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-10-02 19:36:50.659191+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["ai-agents", "agent-protocols", "ai-tools", "structured-data"], "entities": ["Main Street Wealth", "mainstreetwealth.ai"], "also_reported_by": [], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/show-hn-open-source-m-a-tools", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/show-hn-open-source-m-a-tools.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/show-hn-open-source-m-a-tools.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/show-hn-open-source-m-a-tools.jsonld"}}