Our Heartbeat: Why MDR & Associates Treats Every Sale as a Life's Work

By Michael D. Rubin, CEO & Founder · Updated September 2026 · 732 words

The heartbeat of MDR & Associates is a simple conviction: a company sale is the result of an owner's life's work, and it deserves an advisor who treats it that way. Everything about how the firm is built follows from that: one side of the table, a limited number of clients, a principal in every negotiation and a fee paid only on success.

Owners rarely get to see what drives the firm they hire. This page explains ours and how it shows up in the work, for owners deciding whether we are the right people to trust with their company.

Why the firm exists

Michael D. Rubin founded MDR & Associates in 2008 to represent owners of Texas companies when they sell. The tagline, Selling Companies For Maximum Value Since 2008, is also the standard: not a quick sale or a convenient one, but the best result the market will support for that owner's goals.

The firm works with owners of profitable companies in manufacturing, home services, distribution and wholesale, and business services: the kinds of businesses built over decades by people who know their customers and employees by name. Every transaction starts with one of those owners deciding to trust someone with the most important sale of their life.

Since then the firm has closed more than 250 transactions, worth about $500 million in total market value, with a success rate above 90 percent, and holds a 5.0-star rating from 43 Google reviews. Michael's book, Sell Your Company for Maximum Value, sets out the thinking behind the approach; you can read more on Michael's profile.

One side of the table

We represent sellers. A buyer is a counterparty, never a client, so there is no question about whose interest we serve when price, terms or the transition are negotiated. We present every offer to the owner in person and the owner decides.

That clarity matters most in the hard moments, such as when a buyer tries to lower the price late in due diligence or asks the owner to take on risk the original offer did not mention. An advisor with divided loyalties hesitates in those moments. We do not have to.

Boutique by choice

The firm takes on a limited number of engagements at a time, deliberately. That means a principal can be in every negotiation, a VP of Client Engagement can be the owner's steady point of contact during marketing, and no client becomes a file waiting its turn. It also means we decline engagements where we do not believe we can deliver maximum value.

Limited capacity is a choice with a cost, because the firm turns work away. We think the cost is worth paying, since an owner's sale deserves the full attention of the people running it.

For how that model compares with larger firms, see boutique M&A firm vs national brokerage.

What owners can count on

• A free, confidential discovery meeting and an honest opinion of value before any commitment
• A confidential marketing package, a financial recast and a professionally produced HD video that tells the company's story
• Buyers screened with an NDA and a financial profile before they learn the company's name
• Multiple letters of intent negotiated at the same time, so competition sets the price
• A fee that is 100 percent performance based: if the company does not sell, the owner owes nothing
• Every offer presented in person, with the decision always left to the owner

What treating a sale as a life's work means in practice

It means preparing the company properly before a buyer sees it, even when the owner is eager to start. It means pressing buyers on the terms that affect the owner after closing, such as the transition period, arrangements for employees and any money held back, not only on the headline price. It means keeping the owner informed without burying them in detail. And it means caring what happens to the company afterward, because for most owners the people and the name they leave behind matter as much as the check.

Start a conversation

You can see how we present companies on our videos page and meet the people who do the work on our team page. If you have spent years building a company in Texas and are thinking about what comes next, we would like to hear its story. Contact us for a confidential discovery meeting.

Where this fitsSell your business in Texas →

Questions owners ask next

Who will I actually work with at MDR & Associates?

A principal of the firm is in every negotiation, and Vanessa Crites, VP of Client Engagement, is the main contact while the company is marketed. Tom LoChiatto, VP of Video Production, produces the marketing video. Michael D. Rubin, the founder, and Mike Mairs, COO, lead the firm.

What size of company does MDR represent?

Profitable companies with $3 million to $100 million in annual revenue, two to three years of records that reconcile, and operations in Texas. The main industries are manufacturing, home services, distribution and wholesale, and business services. The office is in Frisco, and advisors meet owners elsewhere in Texas at their location.