Prospero Advisory brings M&A and transaction advisory, fractional CFO leadership, and tax strategy under one roof — so that every growth decision, acquisition, and exit move is built from a fully coordinated plan, not a patchwork of siloed advisors catching up.
Prospero Advisory was founded on a simple observation: founder-led businesses at the most consequential moments of their growth — an acquisition, a capital raise, a planned exit — are almost always served by advisors who don't talk to each other. The CPA doesn't know what the banker is modeling. The attorney isn't in the room when deal terms are set. The result is gaps in strategy, structure, and outcome.
We built Prospero to be different. Our founding partners bring M&A and transaction advisory, restructuring, private equity CFO, and corporate tax expertise together in a single advisory relationship — so that financial strategy, tax structure, and operating performance are considered together from the first conversation, not retrofitted at closing when the most valuable planning windows have already passed.
Most of our clients come to us 2–5 years before a planned exit, or when they're ready to grow through acquisition. We take on a limited number of engagements at any time, by design.
We work with founders at the moments that matter most — structuring a growth strategy, executing acquisitions, raising capital, and positioning for a tax-efficient exit. Every service we offer is designed to work together, not in isolation.
Most founders navigate their most important decisions with a collection of advisors who don't talk to each other. Your CPA doesn't know what your investment banker is modeling. Your attorney isn't in the room when the deal terms are set. The result is gaps — in strategy, in structure, and often in outcome. Founders who plan 2–5 years ahead of their exit typically save 30–60% on their total tax liability compared to those who don't.
Prospero is designed around a different model. Every engagement draws on the full ecosystem — six interconnected capabilities that operate as a coordinated whole, not a referral network.
At the center of every engagement is Financial & M&A Advisory — the M&A advisory, CFO leadership, and transaction execution capability that Peter Baldwin has built over 25 years spanning UBS, AlixPartners, and operating CFO roles. Whether the work is modeling a growth strategy, structuring an acquisition, or preparing a business for sale, this is where strategy and execution come together.
Running in parallel, Tax Strategy & Business Advisory ensures that every financial decision carries the right structural foundation from the start. Joshua Brinen's approach is integrative by design — drawing on tax law, corporate structure, and estate planning together rather than as separate disciplines. The questions that matter most — asset versus stock sale, QSBS eligibility, installment sale treatment, entity structure — are answered before they become problems, not after.
Accounting & Finance Operations, also led by Peter, handles the financial backbone — the clean books, reliable reporting, and operational infrastructure that make growth, capital raising, and eventual exit possible. Buyers and lenders look hard at a company's financial history. We make sure it reflects the business accurately and presents it well.
Business & Individual Tax Preparation, led by Joshua, closes the loop between strategy and compliance. Returns are prepared in full coordination with the firm's strategic planning — so filings reflect where the client is going, not just where they've been. For founders whose personal and business finances are closely intertwined, this coordination is not a detail. It's often where significant value is preserved or lost.
For matters requiring Legal Representation, Prospero clients have direct access to Brinen & Associates, a boutique law firm specializing in corporate, tax, and securities matters for entrepreneurs. Because the legal work sits inside the same advisory relationship, there is no translation layer between strategy and documentation — the attorney already knows the plan.
Beyond the core team, an Extended Partner Network of specialists in valuation, insurance, banking, and other disciplines can be coordinated through Prospero when the engagement requires it — without the client having to manage those relationships independently.
We work with a focused set of founder-led businesses at high-stakes inflection points. Here are the situations we hear most — and where we tend to create the most value.
These are the questions we hear most often — answered the way we'd answer them in the first conversation.
Peter brings 25 years of investment banking, restructuring advisory, and operating CFO experience to Prospero's clients. His career spans six years at UBS across London, New York, and Los Angeles in leveraged finance and restructuring; five years at AlixPartners as a turnaround and restructuring advisor; and operating CFO roles at Cayman Chemical and Safeguard Medical. In 2022 he founded Baldwin Advisory Group, which became the foundation of Prospero Advisory.
He has closed more than $42 billion in M&A and financing transactions across his career — as the banker structuring the deal, the advisor navigating the distress, and the CFO sitting across the table from the lenders. Today he applies that full range of experience to helping founder-led businesses grow by acquisition and exit on their terms.
Joshua is a corporate, securities, and tax attorney with more than two decades of experience at the intersection of tax strategy, business structuring, and transactions. His approach is integrative by design: he draws on tax law, corporate structure, securities, and estate planning together — rather than as separate disciplines — to help founders make decisions that are both legally sound and financially optimal.
At Prospero, Joshua ensures that tax and structural considerations are built into every engagement from the outset — not retrofitted at closing when the most valuable planning windows have already passed. He has been recognized as a New York Super Lawyer every year from 2014 through 2024.
In Shakespeare's The Tempest, Prospero is the exiled Duke of Milan — a master of craft and strategy who transforms chaos into order through intelligence, preparation, and an almost uncanny command of complex forces. He doesn't merely react to circumstance. He shapes it.
That is precisely what great advisory looks like.
Before founding Prospero Advisory, Joshua spent years studying Shakespeare and trained as a Shakespearean actor — drawn to the discipline of language, the architecture of argument, and the way a well-constructed scene can shift everything. That background never left him. It informs how he reads a statute, structures a transaction, and tells the story of a client's position. The name Prospero, then, is both personal and purposeful: a nod to the text that shaped him, and a promise about what this firm does for its clients — turning complexity into clarity, and uncertainty into strategy.
Whether you've been referred to us or found us on your own — if you're thinking about a transaction, an exit, or building the financial foundation to get there, we'd like to hear about it.