Project Transit, Transit Consulting & Technology Advisory Firm, New Jersey

$7.7M

Revenue

$1.1M

SDE

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Full Editorial Writeup

Project Transit is a management and technology consulting firm founded in 2010, serving asset-intensive clients primarily in the public transportation sector with growing capabilities across aviation, micromobility, and paratransit. The firm advises public transit authorities and infrastructure operators on strategic planning, operational efficiency, disruption planning, and modernizing the technology and systems behind their transportation networks. Based in Bergen County, NJ, the company runs a 30-person full-time team with deep operational roots inside the transit industry.

The business holds diversity certifications (women- and minority-owned) that let it benefit from federal and state mandates favoring diverse participation in public contracting. That certification advantage, combined with longstanding relationships with top-tier prime consulting firms, has driven strong penetration into the competitive Northeastern market where it frequently serves as a preferred sub-consultant on major engagements. Over its history the firm has secured more than 200 engagements with leading public transit authorities.

Financially, the firm generated $7.7M in revenue and $1.1M in EBITDA in 2025, with management projecting over $8M in revenue and $1.4M in EBITDA by year-end on a diversified and increasingly complex contract portfolio. Roughly 50% of projects lead to follow-on work from existing clients, reducing reliance on competitive bidding. The company is actively transitioning from sub-consultant to prime consultant roles and is seeking a partner to scale operations into that next phase.

Why we like it

Earnings quality is solid for a services firm, with $1.1M EBITDA on $7.7M revenue (roughly 14% margin) and a stated path to $1.4M EBITDA on $8M+ by year-end. The revenue base is anchored by public transit authorities, which are slow-paying but extremely reliable counterparties funded by federal and state budgets.
The moat is real and unusual: women- and minority-owned diversity certifications that qualify the firm for set-aside dollars under federal and state public-contracting mandates. Combined with 200+ completed engagements and preferred sub-consultant status with top primes, this creates a structural advantage that a generic competitor cannot simply buy.
Public transit and infrastructure spending is a durable, non-discretionary tailwind. Agencies must maintain, plan, and modernize their networks regardless of the economy, and federal infrastructure funding provides multi-year visibility that most consulting shops would envy.
Client stickiness is a genuine advantage here, with roughly 50% of projects generating follow-on work from existing clients. That reduces competitive bidding, lowers customer acquisition cost, and gives an incoming operator a predictable base to build the prime-consultant transition on top of.

How to improve it

Accelerate the sub-to-prime transition deliberately, since prime roles carry higher margins and control of the client relationship. Map the existing 200+ engagements to identify which agencies would let the firm bid prime on the next cycle, and staff a dedicated capture function to pursue those.
Build a formal business development and proposal engine in the first 90 days. Public agency work is won through disciplined RFP response and relationship management, and a systematized capture process will let the firm pursue more opportunities without diluting win rates.
Geographically expand beyond the Northeast by leveraging the same diversity certifications, which have counterparts in most states and federal DOT programs. Aviation, micromobility, and paratransit are named growth areas, so entering adjacent metro transit markets diversifies away from concentration in a single region.
Reduce key-person and certification risk by documenting how the minority/women-owned status is maintained post-sale. Structure the acquisition so the certification survives the ownership change or build a plan to re-qualify, because losing set-aside eligibility would gut a core competitive advantage.
Invest in the technology-enabled solutions side, which the listing hints at but does not quantify. Turning repeatable advisory frameworks into productized or software-supported offerings would raise margins and create recurring revenue on top of project-based consulting fees.
Tighten utilization and bench management across the 30-person team. Consulting profitability lives and dies on billable hours per head, so installing basic utilization tracking and a staffing model can lift EBITDA margin meaningfully without adding revenue.

Diligence notes

Scrutinize the certification dependency: quantify what share of revenue and backlog flows from diversity set-aside eligibility, and confirm whether that status transfers on a change of ownership. If the certification is tied to specific individuals and cannot survive the sale, the moat and a large slice of the pipeline may disappear at closing.
Examine client and contract concentration across the 200+ engagements. Understand how many agencies drive the top revenue, the length and renewal terms of current contracts, and how much of the $7.7M is committed backlog versus pipeline, since public-sector timing can be lumpy.
Validate the projected jump to $8M+ revenue and $1.4M EBITDA against signed contracts and awarded work. Confirm whether the improvement is booked or aspirational, and reconcile the EBITDA figure against add-backs, owner compensation, and true post-sale management cost.
Assess key-person risk in the leadership and senior consultants, given the firm's value rests on decades of transit relationships and preferred-sub status with primes. Determine which relationships travel with the seller, what non-competes and retention packages are in place, and how the prime firms would react to new ownership.
Review working capital and cash conversion carefully, because public agencies are notoriously slow payers. Understand DSO, any factoring or line-of-credit usage, and how much cash gets tied up funding projects before invoices are collected.

Source

Originally listed on BizBuySell. View original listing →