Kirk Michie

Kirk Michie is a nationally recognized financial expert and the founder and managing partner of Candor Advisors, a boutique transaction advisory firm dedicated exclusively to founder-led businesses. For more than 30 years, Michie has worked with entrepreneurs, closely held business owners, and high-net-worth families to achieve their strategic planning, liquidity, investment, and legacy objectives.

Michie's career began on the operations floor of Merrill Lynch, where he entered the industry after initially being rejected for lacking sales experience and ultimately became a top quintile producer. He later served as a partner at a middle-market private equity firm in Los Angeles, gaining experience in mergers, acquisitions, recapitalizations, and the associated capital, strategic, partnership, and operational elements of those activities. Michie also served as an advisor at AB Bernstein before founding Candor Advisors to support entrepreneurs navigating the sale of their businesses.

Michie is recognized for developing a unique approach for private company founders seeking to sell their businesses, focusing on identifying the underlying motivations for a sale and crafting tailored transaction strategies. These strategies may include developing a successor, facilitating an internal sale to employees or management, or structuring an external sale to a strategic or financial buyer. With a track record of participating in more than 60 mergers and acquisitions transactions totaling over $1 billion, and separately raising capital exceeding $1 billion throughout his career, Michie has guided founders to outcomes that address both financial and legacy considerations. Notable transactions include serving as sole financial advisor to the founders of Luxx Lighting in their $215 million sale to ScottsMiracle-Gro Company and to the founders of Dosatron International in their $105 million sale to Ingersoll Rand.

Michie brings expertise in transaction advisory services, mergers and acquisitions for founder-owned private companies, corporate and family office governance, capital raising, private equity, corporate strategy, and succession planning. His firm's philosophy is encapsulated in the concept: if a founder is moving toward the sale of their business and considering doing it alone, they should remember that their buyer is a "Full Time Predator" and they are "Part Time Prey." This candid, founder-focused perspective has led Michie to provide weekly insights to more than 20,000 private company founders and to establish the Candor Advisors National Network, a curated group of more than 50 professional service providers and deal professionals, including investment banks, corporate and M&A lawyers, transactional tax experts, and other advisors.

Michie has been a frequent speaker and panelist at Association for Corporate Growth events, Vistage and Entrepreneurs Organization panels, ECHELON Capital's Deals & Dealmakers Summits, and Tiburon Strategic Advisors CEO Summits, where he was a member of the Financial Advisors Roundtable. He also hosts the "Insights by Candor Advisors" podcast, offering advice and insights about selling a business to guide founders to better outcomes, and has appeared as a guest on programs including "Business Innovators Radio" and "Beyond 8 Figures." As a keynote speaker, his topics span business, consulting, economics, and finance, making him a resource for entrepreneurs at every stage of their ownership journey.