Niraj Shah

WORK HISTORY

EDUCATION

SKILLS

ABOUT NIRAJ SHAH

If your business is worth under $100m, the mainstream M&A industry doesn’t care.You\'re too small for top investment banks.Business brokers will treat you like a house listing.Accounting firms talk a good game, but they don’t have founders\' street smarts.That’s insane. A $5m,$15m or $35m exit should be life-changing.I started DKZ Equity because I\'ve been on every side of this: employee at 2 exits, 5x founder, buy-side operator, and investor or advisor to 50+ entrepreneurs. I\'ve seen how poorly most M&A advisors operate at this level - and I\'ve seen what\'s possible when someone actually fights for the founder.At 30, I survived a sudden, serious stroke. It permanently changed how I think about time, energy, freedom and risk. Entrepreneurship should be an engine for freedom - not a trap, a burnout guarantee, or a job you can\'t leave. That perspective shapes everything about how I work.DKZ focuses exclusively on privately owned, entrepreneur-led businesses doing $1–50m in revenue - where we can have the most impact - bringing institutional-grade M&A thinking and execution to a segment the industry routinely mishandles. We run sell-side exit processes end-to-end, and we work with founders years before a sale through what we call Exit Literacy™: the idea that when you see your business through a buyer\'s eyes, you build something worth more at a potential future exit *and* better to own right now. We fight like operators, think like buyers and only win when you win. If you\'re building in the $1–50m range and want clarity on where you stand - before decisions get forced - feel free to reach out. Outside of DKZ, I invest across real estate, private companies and public markets, and write about entrepreneurship, energy and freedom at nirajs.com.