"Never accept an earnout" is lazy seller advice.

"Never accept an earnout" is lazy seller advice.

A blanket no costs you the buyers who'll pay your real number — and those are the only buyers who matter.

— A capped, milestone-based earnout can push your effective multiple past any all-cash offer on the table
— The danger isn't earnouts, it's earnouts you don't control: tied to their ops, their ad spend, their reporting
— Tie it to gross revenue you can see, not net profit they can engineer

Refusing all earnouts is refusing upside out of fear.

What earnout terms would you actually sign? Convince me.