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Eighty20 Publishing · Business / Mergers & Acquisitions
Private Equity M&A
How CEOs and Sponsors Go from Thesis to Sale
Digital editions availableSeventeenth on the shelf
Buy the first one. Build everything off it.
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Prices in USD; tax calculated at checkout. BookFunnel emails access to the edition or bundle you buy after checkout. Audiobook orders include a downloadable visual companion PDF. Listen in the BookFunnel app or your browser. The complete fillable Field Guide is sold separately unless included in your bundle. All sales are final.
Ebook, fillable Field Guide and audiobook released . Print forthcoming · February 2, 2027.
About the book
Buying the first company gives you a platform. Turning several businesses into one company is the work that follows. For CEOs and the sponsors who back them, Bill Canady lays out the decisions that connect the original thesis to the eventual sale, in the order they matter: choose the ground, plant the platform, build the add-on engine, make the businesses one, and prove what the next owner is buying.
Write a thesis that tells you what to buy and what to refuse. Set a price and an operating plan that work without a higher exit multiple. Build the capacity to receive an acquisition before closing the next one, make the numbers, purchasing, customers and leadership operate as one company, and keep the evidence of what every add-on promised and what it delivered.
An invented platform, Tolliver Conveyor Products, runs through the book from its first market idea to its sale. Its companies, people and numbers are teaching illustrations, and the arithmetic is worked in the open, including the choices that failed. Your team does the work in Buy the Platform, Build the Exit · The Field Guide.
Readers on Bill’s books
Selected Amazon reviews of The 80/20 CEO, From Panic to Profit and The Rule of Three.
5 out of 5 stars
“What Mr. Canady has done here is curate a business system of complementary processes that make a material impact on business performance. If you are looking for a way to pull your business together and get your teams focused on the few things that truly matter, start here.”
MJMVerified Amazon purchase · The 80/20 CEO
Read the full review5 out of 5 stars
“This book is part of the few business books that have changed my life. Even though the 80/20 principles are simple, implementing 80/20 can be challenging, but Bill shares how he did it multiple times, the obstacles he faced, and how to make the changes stick.”
Denis Ethier (ThriveMate)Verified Amazon purchase · From Panic to Profit
Read the full review4 out of 5 stars
“Bill Canady does not treat leadership as a collection of motivational slogans. Instead, he presents a practical framework for understanding why some organizations execute well while others struggle.”
EstebanAmazon review · The Rule of Three
See it on AmazonAmazon reviews, shown with each reviewer’s Amazon name.
Book → Workbook → Audiobook → Video course
Already have the book? Start with the workbook or explore the related training. Choose only what you need; unfinished editions are marked Coming soon.
Read the method.
The complete ebook in EPUB format for your reading app, delivered by BookFunnel after checkout. The fillable Field Guide is sold separately.
$10 USD
Available now
Buy the ebookChapter 1: A Platform Starts as an Idea.
Put it to work.
The complete 42-worksheet fillable Field Guide: 176 pages with 2,375 fillable fields, and Tolliver Conveyor Products’ version filled in beside every blank. Delivered by BookFunnel after checkout.
$10 USD
Available now
Buy the workbookChapter 1: A Platform Starts as an Idea, including worksheets and completed examples.
Listen on the move.
6h 20m 51s, narrated using a digital replica of Bill Canady’s voice. Includes a separate 45-page visual companion with all 27 figures, the seven tables from its chapters, Put It to Work with its starter worksheets, The Instruments and Continue the Work. The complete 42-worksheet fillable Field Guide is sold separately.
$10 USD
Available now
Buy the audiobookAn excerpt from Chapter One: A Platform Starts as an Idea, narrated using a digital replica of Bill Canady’s voice.
Chapter One sample · A digital replica of Bill Canady’s voice.
Learn it step by step.
Explore the related self-paced training. Each course lists its lessons and included materials.
Coming soon
Title Set · buy together and save
$25 instead of $30 individually.
Available digital books, workbooks and audio are delivered through BookFunnel after purchase. Title Set savings do not include video courses. Each course lists the reading included with it. Prices are in USD; applicable tax is calculated at checkout. All sales are final.
Book resources: Audiobook visual companion (45-page PDF).
Choose across the library and saveEbook reviews
Tell other owners and executives what worked. Choose Write a review, pick your stars and share your experience of Buy the Platform, Build the Exit — Ebook (EPUB).
Bought another edition? Review the Field Guide, Audiobook or Title Set.
Where it fits · PGOS
Buy businesses, integrate acquisitions and prepare the exit.
“How do I buy, build and sell for more?” Before you buy or sell
How to use it
Start with the thesis and the no list before the first deal. Set the price and the operating plan so the return holds without a higher exit multiple, build the receiving dock before the next add-on and make the numbers, purchasing, customers and leadership work as one company. Work the Field Guide’s forty-two worksheets with the CEO, the leadership team and the sponsor, and keep the evidence of what every add-on promised and delivered.
Read it with The Owner’s Edge · Always Be Exiting · The Integration Playbook · How to Become a Board Member
See Deals in the PGOS mapEditions
Available to the trade through IngramSpark and to readers through Amazon and your bookseller when published. Wholesale and bulk terms.
The companion
Fillable PDF available
Forty-two worksheets, one instrument to a page, with Tolliver’s version filled in beside every blank: the platform thesis, the Board’s Number, the receiving dock, the add-on gates, the one-company plan, the engine scorecard and the exit evidence list. The 176-page PDF has 2,375 fillable fields.
Letter-size, built to be written in. Print and fillable PDF. The book keeps the narrative; the guide holds the working paper.
The author
Bill Canady runs two billion-dollar-plus companies — one at $1.1 billion and one at $1.5 billion — as Chairman and CEO of Arrowhead Engineered Products and Chairman of OTC Industrial Technologies. Across global industrial markets he has delivered over $3 billion in shareholder value. A U.S. Navy veteran with an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, he created the Profitable Growth Operating System (PGOS). He is the author of The 80/20 CEO, The Rule of Three, and other books in the Eighty20 library.
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