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The Signal

by Gia Cilento

AI AS INFRASTRUCTURE, NOT ACCESSORY

Why Small Business Must Adopt AI – Inc.
SMBs are turning to AI not for novelty but necessity; using it for time recovery, real-time ops, and sharper marketing. This piece outlines 3 grounded strategies owners are using right now.
Why it matters: The AI conversation has matured. We're not in “tool tips” territory anymore. AI is shaping process, positioning, and value, even for exits.
Read more →

U.S. Chamber: AI Tool Usage vs Regulatory Risk
98% of U.S. SMBs report using AI tools, but 86% are worried about how looming regulation could disrupt growth.
Why it matters: Governance is the next frontier. Rapid adoption with slow legal scaffolding creates exposure, especially for acquirers assessing risk-adjusted scale.
Read more →

AI Agent Integration by SMBs – Inside AI News
97% of SMBs using AI voice/text agents report increased revenue or saved team hours.
Why it matters: The labor shift is real. AI is not just augmenting, it’s replacing roles. Founders must recalibrate org charts and ops strategy accordingly.
Read more →

BUYER READINESS OVER GROWTH NARRATIVES

Post‑Pandemic Trends in SMB Acquisitions – Clearly Acquired
Buyers now prioritize clean financials, digital readiness, and steady-state operations over fast growth or founder charisma.
Why it matters: Exits are rewarding operational maturity, not storytelling. Clarity is the new competitive advantage.
Read more →

SBA Equity Rollover Policy Shift – Embarc Advisors
New SBA rules allow equity rollovers in 7(a) deals, opening more flexible structures for buyer-led acquisitions.
Why it matters: Small change, big impact. This unlocks exit pathways for owners who want partial liquidity without full detachment.
Read more →

Thryv Survey: AI Adoption up 41% – Marketing Tech Insights
AI adoption in services and retail is up 41%, with revenue boosts across marketing and sales workflows.
Why it matters: Strategic buyers are factoring AI integration into valuations. Tech fluency is now a price driver, not just a positioning perk.
Read more →

QUIET SURGE IN DEAL VOLUME — LARGE & SMALL

U.S. M&A Volume Surging – Business Insider
JPMorgan reports a 27% YOY increase in U.S. M&A, with billion-dollar+ deals up 72%.
Why it matters: Capital is moving again, especially toward AI-adjacent infrastructure. This backdrop favors clean, high-functioning companies with strategic fit.
Read more →

Union Pacific & Norfolk Southern $200B Merger Talks – Reuters
Two rail giants are in talks to merge into a coast-to-coast network, pending major regulatory hurdles.
Why it matters: These aren’t just mega-deals, they’re infrastructure plays. For acquirers, this signals long-view moves into foundational systems.
Read more →

FCC Approves Paramount–Skydance $8B Merger – Washington Post
FCC approved Skydance’s $8B acquisition of Paramount, ending the Redstone era and tightening editorial oversight.
Why it matters: Media consolidation now involves policy dance and narrative control. A signal for founders operating in public-facing sectors.
Read more → 

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The News

The Pods

Featuring Original Reviews by Ron Skelton and Team

Founders don’t always know what’s changing until someone sends them the signal. If this issue brought clarity, share it with someone who needs it. 

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The Sosh

Who to follow this week: Kim Perell

Kim Perell – Execution-Led Exits & Scalable Infrastructure
Kim Perell is a 9× founder, bestselling author (The Execution Factor, Jump), and investor with over 100 early-stage deals. She’s built and exited multiple companies, including a $235M exit to Amobee, and now leads AI-driven ventures like 100.co.

Why her voice matters now:
Kim isn’t about noise. She’s a living example of founder durability, execution over ego, structure over story. Her lens is both operational and investor-aligned, offering rare clarity for builders looking to exit clean and scale wisely.

Follow Kim on LinkedIn →
Explore KimPerell.com →

The Deep Dive

Here is your Deep Dive Growth & Acquisition Premium Tier Preview:

Infrastructure Is the Strategy

AI Is No Longer a Tool, It’s the Backbone of SMB Leverage

By Gia Cilento

Something subtle but massive is unfolding across the SMB landscape, and it isn’t about “using AI” anymore. It’s about becoming something else entirely.

Over the last 18 months, we’ve tracked hundreds of signals: software deployments, acquisition structures, buyer frameworks, and capital behavior. In that time, one theme has moved from faint background radiation to front-and-center strategic truth:

AI isn’t a layer. It’s infrastructure.
Not a plug-in. Not a hack. Not “efficiency.”
It’s the new bloodstream of how small businesses scale, and of what acquirers value.

What changed? Let’s walk through it.

From Tools to Transformation

The earliest AI integrations in small business looked like duct tape, tactical, fragmented, easy to rip out. A chatbot here, a content generator there, maybe a scheduling assistant or a client-facing knowledge base. Tools were bolted on. Nothing foundational changed.

But the shift now underway is not additive. It’s transformational.

The founders reshaping the landscape aren’t “using AI”, they’re re-architecting their entire business models with AI-native infrastructure. This isn’t about delegation. It’s about redesign.

Here’s the line in the sand:
Tool-users still think in tasks.
System-builders think in transfer functions.

A tool plugs a gap.
A transfer function redefines the flow of input into outcome.

We’re watching founders rebuild fulfillment entirely on autonomous workflows. Client journeys once powered by SOPs are now guided by fine-tuned agents with conditional logic. Finance functions run daily reconciliation and reporting through LLM-led audit layers. Sales teams generate, vet, and prioritize leads through AI-mapped behavioral triggers, not gut instinct or cold outreach scripts.

This isn’t window dressing.
It’s a shift in operational gravity.

The business is no longer designed to be executed by people alone.
It’s designed to run on intelligent infrastructure, people + agents + automations, woven together with intention.

This changes the surface area of the company.
It reduces fragility.
And most critically, it allows for scale without stress.

You can’t bolt that on.
You have to build for it from the inside.

What we’re seeing now is a subtle revolution:
Founders who once chased efficiency are now embodying a new architecture of dynamic, embedded, intelligence-led systems.
Not tools.
Not hacks.
But transformation.

What Acquirers Are Really Looking For Now

When the market was flush, acquirers hunted for upside: growth curves, lead velocity, product-market fit. Today, they’re scanning for something quieter — systemic resilience.

In a world reshaped by AI-native operations and unstable attention markets, value has decoupled from surface metrics. Traffic spikes, clever branding, even user volume all matter less than the architecture underneath.

What do modern acquirers want to see?

• Signal-rich, system-led operations. Is the business powered by embedded intelligence? Can it surface actionable insight from inside its own operations without external stress?

• Adaptive, not reactive, teams. Is the leadership building from conviction with frameworks and rhythm, or chasing headlines and hacks?

• Low fragility. High transferability. Can the business run without the founder? Is there clear operational leverage without heroics or burnout cycles?

The truth is this: Acquirers aren’t just buying cash flow. They’re buying certainty about the business’s ability to hold, flex, and endure inside a rapidly changing environment.

That’s why founder-led clarity matters more than ever. The deal terms, the valuation multiple, the structure—all of it flows from one simple filter:
Does this business hold?

If you want to sell strong, build that answer into the bones of your company now.

Case Study: AI as Exit Engine

Case Study: From Tactical Automation to Strategic Infrastructure

The Company:
A Midwest-based B2B logistics SaaS platform, built for small fleet owners, serving over 1,200 clients across four verticals.

The Situation:
Their ops team had implemented a patchwork of AI tools—Zapier for workflow automation, a GPT-based chatbot for support tickets, and a few scraping utilities to keep competitor pricing in check. On paper, it looked like they were “leveraging AI.”

But under the hood? Fragmentation. Tools weren’t integrated. No central system of record. The team couldn’t explain how anything scaled—or what broke when it didn’t.

The Pivot:
Instead of chasing the next shiny plugin, leadership pulled back and re-anchored around three principles:

1. Consolidate data flows. Every tool had to feed a single operational dashboard that could surface insight and enable action.
   

2. Codify internal logic. Playbooks weren’t just written—they were translated into workflows and decision trees, embedded in infrastructure.
   

3. Build for the buyer. They mapped their systems to what an acquirer would want: resilience, traceability, and clarity of operations.

They moved from hacks to architecture. From tool stack to intelligence layer.

The Result:
Within 8 months, the company was approached by two strategic buyers. Both cited the same reason:

“You’re small, but your system runs like a much larger company.”

They closed a full-cash acquisition at 6.2x EBITDA. Not because they had the best chatbot—but because they had transformed their tools into transferable, resilient infrastructure.

What This Means for You

If you're building or acquiring a business in this market, the edge isn't just in what you're using. It's in how you're integrating. Tool adoption without transformation is noise. But transformation, when anchored in operational logic and identity-level clarity, compounds.

This means now is the time to pause and assess:

• Are you still in experimentation mode, or have you designed your systems with transfer in mind?

• Do your workflows show resilience, or are you relying on a single VA, a founder’s creative spark, or a handful of brittle automations?

• Are you building for visibility, or for value?

True leverage isn't just about scale. It's about being able to step out while the business keeps moving with integrity.

For founders and acquirers alike, this is the work: shaping infrastructure that holds not just hacks that help.

Conclusion: Infrastructure Is the New Identity

This market is no longer asking who’s using the most tools. It’s watching to see who’s moved from tech-as-tactic into infrastructure-as-identity.
That’s the signal.

Whether you're prepping for a clean exit, absorbing a company into your own, or simply making sure your next layer of growth doesn’t come at the cost of your time or team, the path is the same: simplify, stabilize, and systematize.

Not for the sake of polish.
For the sake of permanence.

This is what sustainable businesses are made of.

🌐 Coming Soon: The G&A Paid Tier

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• Quiet signals others miss

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• Strategic casework you can apply

We’re not here to sell you hype. We’re here to show you how to build what holds.

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Featured Events

🔭 Strategic Throughline

“The firms that hold value are no longer the loudest, they're the ones who build what lasts, connect what matters, and evolve with clarity.”

This week’s signal confirms it: AI is now foundational. Deal volume is real, not speculative. And founders who pair clarity with readiness are being quietly rewarded. We’re not in a hype cycle, we’re in a precision cycle.

Now is the time to steady the signal and build what holds.

Share the Signal

If this week’s signal sharpened your lens, send it to a founder, buyer, or advisor who’s ready for the next elevation. The future isn’t hidden. It’s just structured for those who can see it.

Questions, sponsorships, or topics you want us to explore? Reach out:
Gia Cilento on LinkedIn
Ronald Skelton on LinkedIn

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