Approach
An operator-led approach to the middle market.
We look for businesses with an uncommon combination of traits: the durability of B2B with the fragmentation of Consumer. We reject more than 99% of the deals we see. The ones we pursue meet a specific set of tests.
01
What We Look For
These are businesses where customers buy for clear reasons and keep buying. Where no single customer can break the company. Where the operating model doesn’t require heavy working capital or capex to grow. Where the business generates enough data to make decisions empirically, and where systems are mature enough to deploy AI and modern tooling for real operating gains.
We are sector-agnostic by design, but in practice the businesses that meet our criteria tend to cluster in a few places: multi-site healthcare services, home services, niche manufacturing and distribution, and selective ecommerce and SaaS.
02
What We Require
Every business we pursue meets four tests.
- 01
A superior competitive position.
Not the largest company in the market, but clearly defensible in the market it serves. The reasons it wins should be structural, not promotional.
- 02
Clear operational levers.
We need to see specific places where focused work can compound into margin and growth. We are not buying multiples; we are buying the gap between what the business is and what it can become.
- 03
Multiple paths to growth.
We will not underwrite a deal where everything depends on one channel, one customer, one geography, or one product. Optionality is a precondition, not a bonus.
- 04
A real exit market.
Before we buy, we know who buys it next. We focus on industries where there is an active institutional market for the size of business we plan to build, and we underwrite to that market.
We also look for businesses with at least ten years of operating history, in industries with secular tailwinds. We don’t want to swim upstream.
Our sponsored deals typically target $1–6M of EBITDA at acquisition. We will go higher for the right platform, and lower for businesses with exceptional unit economics, especially in niche ecommerce and SaaS.
03
How We Operate
We are operators first. When we acquire a business, we step in at the executive level for as long as the company needs us there. I typically expect to serve as CEO for some period after close, and we bring in the additional leadership the business needs to succeed.
No one knows a business better than the founder who built it. We come in to learn first and build from there. We are not here to tear down what works.
Partners, not overseers. That’s the bar.