After a friendly meeting or two, the PEG will ask for preliminary information, both financial and operational. Before you provide it, get a nondisclosure agreement in place. (This is the first of many times in this process that you’ll need an experienced transaction attorney.) If the PEG likes what it sees, it will give you a letter of intent (LOI). You should understand that this is a nonbinding offer—I refer to it as a hunting license. This offer will be based on the investment value of your company, calculated as an industry-standard multiple of the adjusted EBITDA, or free cash flow. This number is...