Who's who
If someone just pitched you a marketplace, a broker, or an employee-ownership program — here is where they sit.
As of August 2026. We name competitors and peers because a list that only names friends is an ad. Corrections welcome. This is not a county map.
| Layer | Who | What they do |
|---|---|---|
| Public listings | BizBuySell, BizQuest | Teaser ads, unvetted inventory. Their own data shows ~3× asks against ~2.3–2.4× closes. |
| “Better listings” | Baton (Series A, 2025) | Verified financials, AI valuation, NDA, data room, broker assist. The closest thing to a modern marketplace-broker. |
| Gated lower-middle market | Axial, DealStream | $1–50M+ mandates. Wrong size for Main Street. |
| SaaS / internet businesses | Acquire.com, Flippa | Works because the asset is the data. Does not transfer to an HVAC shop. |
| Brokerage | CABB members, Transworld, locals | Relationships, privacy, emotions. CABB already maintains CAR-style standard LOI/APA forms for members. |
| Civic succession | Project Equity (Oakland HQ), SF OEWD, city legacy programs | Employee-ownership transitions; SF’s Legacy Business Registry lists 433 firms 30+ years old. |
| EO software | Zolidar × Project Equity | AI-assisted succession plus ESOP/co-op execution. |
| Diligence rooms | DealRoom, Firmex, Dropbox | File storage after the letter of intent. A commodity. |
| Ops documentation | Trainual, Notion | Internal SOPs. Not sale-native. |
| Financing | SBA 7(a) lenders (PLPs), online 7(a) shops | 78% of Main Street closes involve SBA financing. Lenders are users of a good file, not assemblers of one. |
The thin layer
The crowded layers are listing and storage. The thin layer is the join: a single file that is lender-shaped (returns reconciled, add-backs evidenced, SBA down-payment math done), license-aware (who holds what at close), and carries the first 90 days of the handoff (who calls which customer, what transfers when). Nobody is paid to produce that file for the buyer’s side of a $240k–$2M Main Street deal — the sell-side broker works for the seller, the lender only underwrites what arrives, and the attorneys bill either way.
That gap is why the ask/close spread and the six-month median time on market persist, and it is the layer this site’s maintainer works in.
Sources
Company descriptions from public materials, August 2026. Survey figures from BizBuySell Insight, Q2 2026. Legacy Business count from SF Office of Small Business, Winter 2025.