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The Salmon Index™

Acquisition
Science.
Exit Architecture.
Generational
Wealth.

The only complete, empirically grounded system for engineering institutional-grade exit outcomes from non-technology business acquisitions. Four instruments. One acquisition lifecycle. Zero guesswork.

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20%
The Salmon Threshold™

The empirically documented recurring revenue inflection point at which non-technology businesses begin achieving technology-sector exit multiples. Discovered through doctoral research across 536 publicly traded firms.

8+
Transactions Closed
536
Firms Analyzed
13
Qualifying Sectors
4
Proprietary Instruments
The Architect
Gregory
Salmon
JD · MBA · DBA
Gregory Salmon, JD MBA DBA

Gregory Salmon did not arrive at this methodology through inheritance, institutional access, or a career that began at the right firm. He arrived through conviction — the conviction that systematic thinking, applied with sufficient rigor, produces outcomes that privilege alone never could. His path from GED to Doctor of Business Administration is not a biographical footnote. It is the thesis of every framework he has built.

Across eight M&A transactions as principal decision-maker, Gregory has deployed what he now calls the BEER cycle — Buy below intrinsic value, Extract salary and distributions throughout the hold, Exit at a multiple that reflects engineered fundamentals, Repeat at larger scale. Each transaction refined the methodology. The instruments exist because operators asked for a systematic version of what he had been executing by hand across multiple sectors and multiple cycles.

His doctoral dissertation — an empirical analysis of recurring revenue models and firm valuation multiples across 536 publicly traded non-technology firms, built on hand-coded SEC 10-K data producing over 5,000 firm-year observations across 13 sectors, analyzed using Callaway-Sant'Anna staggered difference-in-differences methodology and propensity score matching — produced The Salmon Threshold™: the first statistically demonstrated proof that non-technology businesses crossing a 20 percent recurring revenue inflection point begin commanding technology-sector exit multiples. The finding was not intuition. It was institutional-grade econometric proof.

Gregory is a licensed New York attorney, a published author of seven titles, and the creator of the only acquisition methodology in the lower-middle market that traces a direct, unbroken line from peer-reviewed empirical research to four deployable, instrument-grade tools that operators can use on live transactions today.

Super Lawyers Rising Stars — 2024
Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch — 2025
Published Author — 7 Titles
8 M&A Transactions Closed
The Complete System

Four Instruments.
One Acquisition Lifecycle.

Most operators buy with intuition and sell with hope. The Salmon Index™ replaces both with a connected suite of instruments built on empirical research and tested methodology — covering every phase from operator profiling to terminal exit.

Phase 01 — Know Yourself
Wealth Creation
Decision Engine™
WCDE
Profile your acquisition operator type across seven proprietary dimensions. Receive a complete personalized acquisition prescription before you look at a single target.
Phase 02 — Qualify the Target
Acquisition
Initialization Mandate™
AIM
Subject every potential target to fourteen computed inputs against the full acquisition mandate. Surface disqualifiers before diligence dollars are deployed.
Phase 03 — Price the Entry
Subscription Value
Engineering™
SVE
Compute a defensible valuation range across thirteen non-technology sectors. Time the entry. Apply The Salmon Threshold™ re-rating. Produce the LOI framework.
Phase 04 — Engineer the Exit
Exit Cycle
Protocol™
ECP
Engineer the hold period across five systematic workstreams. Track every dollar of value across all five wealth extraction layers toward the terminal exit event.
The Instrument Suite

Built to Be Used
on Live Transactions.

Each instrument produces actionable output immediately applicable to a real acquisition situation. They are designed to work in sequence and to stand alone.

Phase 01 — WCDE
Wealth Creation
Decision Engine™
Operator Profiling · Acquisition Prescription

Thirty-five questions across seven proprietary behavioral dimensions. One operator type classification. One complete acquisition prescription naming the specific business to buy, where to find it, how to finance it, the franchise variant when applicable, and the multi-cycle wealth creation roadmap. There is no instrument like it anywhere in the market.

Open Instrument → Live at wcdeinstrument.com
Phase 02 — AIM
Acquisition
Initialization Mandate™
Target Qualification · Mandate Screening

Fourteen computed inputs. Auto-calculated entry multiples. Four-category diligence scoring. Hard disqualifier logic that eliminates bad deals before the first NDA is signed. A complete sector-calibrated acquisition thesis with an exit buyer universe already identified at the mandate output. Every LOI that emerges from an AIM-qualified target starts with structural confidence that unscreened deals cannot offer.

Request Access → Available — Contact for Access
Phase 03 — SVE
Subscription Value
Engineering™
Valuation · Timing Gate · LOI Framework

Built directly on The Salmon Threshold™ research. Thirteen qualifying non-technology sectors. Sector-specific EBITDA multiple ranges calibrated against recurring revenue concentration. The Salmon Threshold™ re-rating applied automatically when the 20 percent inflection point is crossed. Entry timing gate. Complete LOI framework including deal structure, earnout architecture, and negotiation positioning. This is where the doctoral research lives in practice.

Request Access → Available — Contact for Access
Phase 04 — ECP
Exit Cycle
Protocol™
Hold Period Engineering · Exit Architecture

Five systematic hold-period workstreams: owner dependence elimination, recurring revenue conversion, EBITDA normalization, systems documentation, and exit engineering. A real-time exit readiness score that tracks where you are against the mandate threshold. All five wealth extraction layers computed — compensation, DSCR surplus, add-back double collection, entry-to-exit multiple arbitrage, and rollover equity. An SVE handoff when exit readiness reaches mandate parameters.

Request Access → Available — Contact for Access
The Empirical Foundation

The Research That
Changed the Multiple.

Non-technology businesses have always been valued at a discount to their technology peers. The conventional wisdom held that service businesses, trade contractors, and professional practices simply could not command institutional exit multiples. That assumption turned out to be empirically wrong.

The Salmon Threshold™ is the documented recurring revenue inflection point at which a non-technology business begins to achieve technology-sector exit multiples. It was produced through doctoral research using hand-coded SEC 10-K data, Callaway-Sant'Anna staggered difference-in-differences methodology, and propensity score matching — the same methods used by institutional economists. The finding is not a theory. It is a statistically demonstrated threshold that every instrument in this suite is calibrated to target.

The Salmon Threshold™ 20%
Firms in Dataset 536
Total Observations 5,000+
Sectors Analyzed 9
Data Source SEC 10-K
Methodology Callaway-Sant'Anna DiD
The Operating Methodology

The BEER Cycle

Every instrument in The Salmon Index™ maps to one phase of the BEER cycle — the operating methodology that converts a single acquisition into a repeating, compounding wealth creation engine.

B
Buy
Acquire below intrinsic value using operator-profile-matched targeting, AIM mandate qualification, and disciplined SVE entry pricing. The discount you negotiate at entry is the first wealth creation event — and it happens before you own the business.
E
Extract
Extract management compensation, DSCR surplus distributions, and add-back double collection throughout the hold period. Three of the five wealth extraction layers are running from the first day of ownership, before the exit is even in sight.
E
Exit
Exit at a multiple that reflects engineered fundamentals, not entry conditions. The ECP’s five workstreams and the SVE’s Salmon Threshold™ re-rating convert a 3x entry into a 5x or 6x exit on expanded EBITDA — producing the multiple arbitrage that makes the entire investment thesis work.
R
Repeat
Deploy exit proceeds into the next acquisition at a larger scale. Cycle 2 is always a different category than Cycle 1. The track record and operational infrastructure from Cycle 1 re-price your buyer profile in the market — permanently.
Begin Here

Your First Step Is Knowing What Kind of Operator You Are

The Wealth Creation Decision Engine™ takes fifteen minutes. It classifies your operator type, names the specific business you should acquire, tells you exactly where to find it, and produces a complete multi-cycle wealth creation roadmap. There is no cost to begin.

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