I built the screen I couldn't hire.
When I looked at buying a small business in Portugal, everyone at the table was paid by the deal going through — the broker, the agent, sometimes even the "adviser". The one thing I couldn't find was somebody independent to flag what could kill it. So I built the method — and ran it first, unpaid, for people I know who were buying with their own savings. Now I run it for buyers like the one I was.
I'm Grig Kochedykov. I moved to Portugal, went looking for a small business to buy, and met the traps foreign buyers usually discover late: licences that don't automatically transfer with the sale, leases whose real terms nobody shows you, debts that can follow the business to its new owner. The listings rarely mention them. The people selling have little reason to.
What I wanted was simple: someone on my side of the table, paid a flat fee, with no stake in whether the deal happened. I couldn't find that for deals under half a million. So I did what I've done my whole career with problems — turned it into a system: the recurring risk patterns of Spanish and Portuguese business transfers, drawn from public court records and practitioner literature, run as a repeatable screen.
The method was tested before it was priced. The first screens were unpaid favours for friends and acquaintances buying with their own savings — real listings, real decisions, their own money on the line. My own search ended with a better fit for me: a partner's role in an operating Portuguese company, which I run today. So I don't just read small businesses from the outside — I run one.
Twenty years
operating companies.
I read a business the way an operator reads it — payroll, lease, licences, what the revenue actually rests on — because running them has been my work since the early 2000s. The full history is on LinkedIn, in one click:
CEO of a construction-development company — commercial centres, housing, social infrastructure. Thirteen years of budgets, contractors, permits and municipal licences.
CEO of an IoT / VR technology company (a concurrent role) — from concept to commercial pilots.
COO of a Portugal-based information-technology company; founder of a small SaaS product.
Master of Business Administration — management information systems.
None of that makes me a lawyer or a valuer — and I'm careful to stay in my lane. It gives you what your deal doesn't have yet: an operator's independent read — flat fee, no stake in the outcome.
The Provenance Protocol.
Every screen runs the same way — the full checklist, every time, in plain sight. In practical terms, I check things like:
- What do the public records say about who owns it — and whether it can change hands cleanly?
- Do the licences look like they survive the sale, on the record — activity, terrace, tourist permit?
- Are there public signs of debts that could follow the business to you — tax, social security, creditors?
- Is anyone insolvent — the company, or the person behind it?
- Does the claimed revenue survive the street it's on — the competition, the foot traffic, the reviews?
- Where do the seller's story and the public record not line up?
The step-by-step of what you receive is on How it works, and real specimens are open for inspection: a full sample memo and a €99 Quick Scan.
What the screen has already caught.
I don't show invented testimonials, and client cases will appear here only with written consent — critical ones included. What I can show now: full dress rehearsals of the protocol, run on real public listings, with real findings — labelled as practice, because that's what they were. These finds came out of them — the cases sit right below:
comparable competitors found behind one listing priced as a local monopoly
reviews — the entire rating history behind a "5.0★ turnkey café"; the rival next door held 54
deal-defining findings on one Madrid bar, from public records alone — before any lawyer was paid
ever taken from a seller, broker or platform — the buyer is the only client
The monopoly that had nine competitors
A sushi restaurant in a town of ~30,000, priced as if it owned the local trade. The mandatory competition sweep found nine comparable venues serving the same town — the asking price assumed demand the street could not supply. Verdict: the price was not supported by the observable market; the memo named the conditions under which the deal could still make sense.
The 5.0★ café with four reviews
A "turnkey café" in a Lisbon district. Its perfect rating rested on 4 reviews — while the established rival next door held 4.3★ across 54. No public source could confirm the claimed trading history. What the price actually bought was fit-out and a lease, not a going concern — and the memo said so, with the demand list to test it.
Three deal-defining finds in under an hour
A Madrid bar, run through the full Spanish public-record stack — company registry, insolvency, courts, licensing, competition. Three deal-defining findings surfaced before any lawyer was engaged, at zero data cost — exactly the triage a buyer needs before spending on professionals.
What €99 can honestly tell you
A broker-anonymised workshop listing near Barcelona, at the €99 tier: what a fast pass could see, the three cautions it raised — and a plain statement of where the public trail ended. Enough to decide whether the deal deserved a full Screen.
Practice screens: real listings, anonymised; no engagement with any party. Findings reflect the public record on the retrieval dates. The client review mechanism opens with client #1 — with consent, critical reviews included.
Ask me the uncomfortable
questions first.
"Did you end up buying a business yourself?"
No — my search ended with a better fit: partway through it I was offered a partner's role in an operating Portuguese company. I took it, and I run its operations today — so I don't just read small businesses from a desk, I live inside one. A screen doesn't promise you'll buy; it promises that what you buy — or refuse — you decide with both eyes open.
"Has the method actually put anyone into a business?"
Yes — before it had a price. The first screens were favours for friends and acquaintances buying with their own savings; what they bought, they still run today. I don't dress those up as case studies — favours aren't engagements, and since you can't verify them, I don't ask you to weigh them. The paid track record starts at client #1 and will be reported with written consent, critical reviews included.
"Why should I trust a service with zero paying clients?"
Don't trust it — check it. Every claim on this site opens: the practice memos above with their findings intact, the official registries I cite, my Portuguese tax registration, twenty years of named roles on LinkedIn — all in the verification list below. Payment runs through Stripe under written Terms with a money-back guarantee, and nothing is charged until I've confirmed your deal is a fit. Independence isn't something I ask you to believe; it's something you can inspect.
"If this works, why €550 — and not €5,000?"
Because it's a screen, not a full due diligence — fixed scope, public records plus the documents you obtain, one named expert, no office to feed. It's deliberately priced as the step before the €5,000 decisions: the filter that tells you whether the lawyer's hours, the flight and the deposit are worth buying at all. The heavy lifting still belongs to your lawyer and accountant — the memo hands them a marked map instead of a blank one.
You're hiring me to check people.
Start by checking me.
Everything below is the same kind of public record I use on your deal. It takes about three minutes.
If anything here doesn't check out — don't hire me. That's the same standard I'll apply to your seller.
I'm one part of your deal team — the independent one.
Find the commercial red flags visible in public records — and name, out loud, what isn't visible from a desk.
The transfer itself, enforceability, the full tax picture, completion. My memo tells you exactly what to put on their desk.
Can prove the earnings and the contracts. I tell you which documents to demand — before any deposit.
Judge the work, not the reviews.
Every claim on this site links to something you can open — a sample memo, a public registry, a named source. If the work convinces you, send me your listing: I reply within one working day on whether it's a fit, and you pay nothing until I confirm.
A pre-purchase risk screen from public records — not legal advice, not a valuation, and never a yes/no instruction.