Dan Hansher is an Investment Banking Associate and Director of AI and Marketing at Cornerstone Business Services, where he leads the day-to-day strategy and execution of lower-middle-market sell-side engagements. He works directly with business owners to assess value, position their companies for the market, identify and prioritize potential buyers, and manage the transaction process through due diligence and negotiation.
Dan brings structure, accountability, and strategic judgment to complex transactions. He helps owners understand how buyers will evaluate their business and advises them on positioning, buyer strategy, process timing, and important transaction decisions. He also directs the financial analysis, company positioning, buyer outreach, and diligence workstreams required to move each engagement toward closing.
A significant part of Dan’s role is keeping people aligned. He coordinates business owners, buyers, private equity groups, attorneys, accountants, lenders, diligence providers, and Cornerstone’s internal deal team. His ability to build strong relationships, communicate clearly, and maintain momentum helps clients navigate a process that is often unfamiliar and demanding.
Dan has completed more than 200 business valuations across Main Street and lower-middle-market companies. His transaction experience includes sell-side engagements involving companies with approximately $5 million to $250 million in annual revenue. His work spans normalized EBITDA analysis, business valuation, financial modeling, confidential information memorandum development, buyer identification, management preparation, due diligence, and overall process leadership.
Before joining Cornerstone, Dan held leadership roles within large industrial companies, including a $900 million global adhesives distributor and manufacturer and a $6 billion publicly traded industrial manufacturing company. He also gained firsthand experience with acquisitions from the buyer’s side, leading the marketing integration and repositioning of 22 brands following a $2 billion strategic acquisition.
That experience gave Dan a firsthand view of what happens after a transaction closes. He saw how buyers assess products, customers, sales channels, management teams, brand portfolios, and integration risk. He also saw what it takes to combine business units, protect customer relationships, and turn an acquisition strategy into operating results.
Dan applies that perspective when evaluating companies and preparing them for the market. He looks beyond the financial statements to understand how a business operates, why customers buy, where the company is differentiated, and how it could fit within a larger organization. This helps him develop investment cases grounded in both financial performance and commercial reality.
His background spans manufacturing, industrial distribution, adhesives, automation, transportation, construction-related services, consumer products, business services, and technology. Dan understands that business value is influenced by more than earnings. Products, customers, competitive position, operating processes, sales channels, and industry dynamics all matter. His multi-industry experience helps him understand businesses quickly and translate operational detail into a clear case for strategic and financial buyers.
Dan also serves as Managing Director of DealCoach, a Cornerstone company built for Main Street businesses with less than $5 million in annual revenue. DealCoach combines technology with Cornerstone’s transaction process to help owners understand business value, improve financial readiness, identify potential deal issues, and prepare for a future sale. Dan leads its valuation methodology, product development, business operations, and commercial strategy. Unlike basic valuation calculators or business listing platforms, DealCoach applies real-world M&A experience to give smaller business owners a clearer process and a stronger chance of completing a successful sale.
Dan also leads Cornerstone’s marketing, artificial intelligence, and process-development efforts. He focuses on secure, practical applications for financial analysis, business valuation, buyer research, document preparation, and transaction workflow management. His work is designed to improve the quality, consistency, and speed of transaction work while protecting confidential client information and keeping human judgment at the center of material decisions.
Dan holds an MBA in Marketing and Information Technology Management from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. He was also a four-year NCAA athlete and two-time swim team captain.
