Deal flow that never reaches a banker's process.
Proprietary origination in blue-collar, asset-heavy businesses between $5MM and $50MM+ — with operating diligence from people who have run the equipment, and a CFO who can sit in the seat after close.
The lower middle market's real problem
The businesses worth owning in the trades are owner-operated, unbanked by anyone sophisticated, and largely invisible. They do not hire bankers. They do not appear in an auction. The owner is sixty-three, the books are on a shoebox-and-QuickBooks system, and the first sophisticated conversation he ever has about his company is the one that ends in a sale.
Reaching those owners is a relationship problem, not a screening problem. Diligencing them is an operating problem, not a spreadsheet problem. We are built for both.
Origination, underwriting, and somebody to run it after.
Proprietary origination
Direct owner outreach in the trades, plus a lender and workout network that sees companies in trouble before the market does. Distressed sellers, stranded processes, and owners who were never going to call a banker.
Operating diligence
Fleet age distribution and deferred maintenance. WIP schedules and over-billings. Loss runs, safety scores and authority. Whether the estimator or the dispatcher is the actual business. Things a diligence checklist does not catch.
The Survival Underwrite
Earnings normalized with every add-back traced. Equipment at orderly liquidation value. Coverage at 1.5x minimum, modeled again at revenue down 20%. Concentration over 30% is a walk. Applied to every deal, including ones we want.
Capital structuring
Conventional and private credit, seller notes, rollover equity, earn-outs and escrows. We arrange the debt and run the lender process rather than handing you a lender list.
Post-close CFO
The gap that kills lower-middle-market returns is the first hundred days. We can put a fractional CFO in the seat — reporting, controls, unit economics, lender management — instead of leaving you to find one.
Co-investment
Ten percent of ten companies beats a hundred percent of one — and it means we are carrying the same downside you are.
What we are actually looking at.
| Sectors | Trucking & logistics, construction, excavation, oil & gas services, manufacturing, specialty trades |
|---|---|
| Enterprise value | $5MM–$50MM+, concentrated $3M–$15M |
| Geography | United States |
| Profile | Asset-heavy, owner-operated, real equipment, real customers, unglamorous |
| Situations | Retirement and succession, stranded processes, distressed and workout-driven sales, carve-outs, roll-up platforms and add-ons |
| Hard passes | Customer concentration over 30% without a mechanism, add-backs that cannot be traced, structures that break on a 20% revenue decline |
Straight answers.
What is your buy box?
Asset-heavy blue-collar businesses — trucking and logistics, construction, excavation, oil & gas services, manufacturing and specialty trades. Enterprise values $5MM to $50MM+. US only.
Is this proprietary flow or auction processes?
Mostly proprietary. Our origination runs through direct owner outreach, a lender and workout network that sees distress before the market does, and industry relationships. We see auction deals too and we will tell you plainly which is which.
Do you co-invest?
Where the deal earns it. Our stated philosophy is that owning ten percent of ten companies beats owning all of one. That means our money is beside yours.
What do you bring that a banker does not?
Operating diligence. We value a fleet the way a liquidator would, read a WIP schedule for the over-billing, and can tell you whether the owner is the business. Then we can put a CFO in the seat after close rather than handing you a report and leaving.
Will you run a sell-side process for us?
No. We represent buyers. That is deliberate — it means there is never a question about whose side we are on in a transaction, and it is why intermediaries are willing to send us their buy-side flow.
Send us your mandate and we will screen to it.
Tell us the sectors, the check size and the situations you want. We will only bring you deals that clear our underwrite and your box.