The Advantage Nobody’s Talking About

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Hey, it’s David

Welcome back to M&A from the Plane  quick stories and insights drawn from the many miles I log in the air talking to business owners, founders, and dealmakers.

There’s a lot of noise right now about AI in M&A, advisory, and deal prep.

And while most people are chasing the latest tools, I’ve been asking a different question:

What if the real advantage isn’t technical fluency…
but historical pattern recognition?

But Before We Get to That… A Quick Word From This Week’s Sponsor

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Same Route. Same Altitude. Same Turbulence.

I was on a flight recently when we hit a patch of turbulence. Nothing major, but enough to get your attention.

A woman across the aisle turned to her colleague and said:

“Every time I take this route, it hits right here.”

She didn’t need a forecast.
She remembered the pattern.

And it hit me:
Most people ignore the turbulence until they feel it.
Smart operators adjust before it starts.

That’s the power of Retrospective Foresight.

The Edge Isn’t in the Tools It’s in the Timing

Think about it. Every wave be it cloud, mobile, SaaS, automation triggered the same scramble.

But the ones who won weren’t just early adopters.
They were early observers.

They looked at what broke last time.
They saw what would break again.
And they moved before everyone else felt it.

Retrospective Foresight was built to do exactly that.

It helps you:

• Surface repeating patterns from past transitions

• Anticipate breakdowns before they show up in the data

• Use AI not as a bandage, but as a directional asset

What We Are Seeing

We’ve already seen it expose inefficiencies that could unlock $1M–$2M in value.

Some firms are using it to reframe how they position their advisory model.
Others are mapping wedge opportunities around exit planning or portfolio clarity.

But the common thread? (and this is subtle but very important…)

They’re not reacting to AI.
They’re recognizing a shift they’ve seen before and moving early.

The Bottom Line

Retrospective Foresight doesn’t guess the future. It builds it by remembering how the last wave broke.

If your firm is trying to figure out what comes next and how to act before everyone else gets there… we can help.

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Thank you!

David