Initial underwriting
Reconcile earnings, investigate customer profitability and renewal evidence, and test a volume-loss scenario before choosing an opening price and conditions.
UPLEVERED / DEAL ROOM SIMULATION
One acquisition.
Three decisions.
Your investment view.
Work through Calder Industrial Supply as the evidence changes, from the first price discussion to exclusive diligence and the final funding decision.
For acquisition searchers and junior PE and corporate-development professionals.
Try the free practice preview →WHO THIS IS FOR
You can model. Now practice the decision.
Designed for acquisition searchers and working junior private-equity and corporate-development professionals. You understand financial statements and basic valuation, and want practice deciding what the evidence supports, what price you can defend and what still needs diligence.
Self-funded searchers are welcome. The case depicts an investor-backed acquisition with stipulated cash-flow debt and an equity limit. It is not an SBA-financing course or a model of a typical smaller owner-operator purchase.
What you will produce
An opening recommendation, a diligence update and a final funding decision, each supported by your calculations and source evidence. Compare your work with verified numerical solutions and several defensible judgment alternatives.
Whether you are searching for a business to buy and operate or evaluating deals on a team, practice how a finding changes your bid, equity requirement and decision to proceed.
Written recommendations are self-reviewed against the debrief. Release of the next stage does not depend on receiving a passing grade.
THE COMPLETE PAID CASE
A changed record should change your work.
Exclusive diligence
Resolve a disputed working-capital balance against a defined purchase agreement. Separate that closing-price adjustment from the supplier earnings correction demonstrated in the free preview.
Financing and final decision
Apply a lender cash-coverage condition, test debt capacity and required equity, then decide whether the price, funding or transaction must change.
The free preview demonstrates the supplier issue. The paid edition adds customer profitability and renewal evidence, a separate working-capital decision and a changed financing constraint.
Included in your case
- One original acquisition, with up to 12 source documents.
- Three stage-specific learner Excel workbooks and three completed solutions.
- Defined numerical checks, source trails and three written debriefs.
- Investment-update templates, with examples of defensible alternatives.
- Each stage is released after you submit your decision.
Email your saved decision after each stage. We will send that stage's solution and debrief, plus the next stage where applicable, within two business days. Business days are Monday through Friday, excluding U.S. federal holidays, in Chicago time.
All three stages will be ready and Stage 1 sent by December 1. Work at your own pace; there is no scheduled live cohort.
A clear scope
One named individual learner; no team license or redistribution.
Not included
- Personal grading or coaching
- Live sessions
- Full LBO or IRR course
- SBA financing instruction or live-deal advice
- Additional cases or a library
- Employer or team licenses
Project Forge is a separate $59 timed interview-modeling exercise. Calder is one connected acquisition focused on revising decisions through diligence and financing. It is not a four-case library.
WHO BUILT THIS
Built from experience doing the work.
Andrew, UpLevered's founder, is a former middle-market PE Senior Associate who executed lower-middle-market buyouts in distribution and industrials.
Calder turns that work into an original fictional acquisition: reconciling records, testing the seller's case and deciding what changes the price or the decision to proceed.
About UpLevered →PRE-ORDER TERMS / calder-founding-199-v3
Know what the paid case includes.
The total is $199 USD, charged in full when you pre-order. This is an order for a case in development. The completed paid case is not available immediately.
Full money-back satisfaction guarantee: ask for a full refund for any reason before final delivery and through 14 days after the final stage, all solutions and debriefs have actually been sent to you. You do not need to prove a defect or complete the case. All case content will be ready and Stage 1 with release instructions will be sent by December 1, 2026 at 5 p.m. Chicago time. If we miss that deadline, we will issue a full refund, with no automatic extension. Your learning pace does not shorten the refund period.
To request a refund, email [email protected] from your order email. Refunds are issued to the original payment method. Any rights required by applicable law remain unaffected.
Delivery does not depend on reaching a minimum number of buyers. One accepted order creates the same delivery commitment. The five-seat cap limits this founding edition; it is not a claim that seats have sold.
YOUR PRE-ORDER
Practice a better investment recommendation.
One named learner, one original acquisition and three decisions.
Read the delivery, scope and satisfaction guarantee above before continuing. Stripe will collect your payment and order email.
Pre-order with Stripe · $199 totalThe paid case is in development. Your first stage is due by December 1, 2026.
HOW DELIVERY WORKS
Decide. Email your work. Get the next evidence.
After a paid order is verified, Andrew confirms your order by email. All three stages, solutions and debriefs will be ready, and Stage 1 sent, by December 1.
- Complete the stage using the source records and workbook.
- Reply to the delivery email with your saved decision record and workbook, if used. Use your order email.
- Within two business days, Andrew sends that stage’s solution and debrief, plus the next stage where applicable. The final decision triggers the final solution and debrief.
You do not need a passing grade to continue. Personal grading and coaching are not included. The free preview’s check and save buttons do not send your work to Andrew.