Investment Approach

The World Is Noisy. We Find Clarity By Listening.

Selling your company is a major milestone with many financial and emotional considerations.

We have a deep admiration for those willing to take risks and build a business – we took that leap ourselves by leaving a comfortable job to pursue something we believed in and are passionate about.

We empathize with the moments when it felt like you were “betting the farm,” juggling multiple roles in a single day, or questioning, “Are you sure we should do this?” We want to hear your story, share ours, and together determine if we are a good fit.

Our strategy is rooted in building long-term relationships. Reflecting on our most successful outcomes, our initial conversations often didn’t lead to immediate transactions. Many times we found ourselves telling business owners to “keep doing what you are doing,” or “have you thought about doing this?” We love advising companies, and if our interactions lead to incremental success for you, it’s more than worth it for us.

CEP has a long track record of working with family, entrepreneurial, and founder-led companies. We understand the unique intricacies and dynamics these businesses face. Leveraging our capital, operational expertise, access to financing markets, sourcing, and years of experience, we aim to help all our investments thrive.

A Firm We Would Partner With

We knew if we didn’t like what we had to offer, no one else would. The following items are foundational pieces of how we operate:

Partnership

 

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Like-Minded

 

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Experience

 

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Partnership

We seek to be the partner of choice for management teams that are at an inflection point and looking for a thoughtful partner to accelerate growth and drive long-term value.

Like-Minded

Our primary mission is to partner with like-minded owners and management teams to build great companies. We enjoy developing relationships with owners and management teams and collaborating on creating their futures. We know that building great companies begins and ends with great management.

Experience

Our 25 years in the Services sector has given us deep domain expertise and a proven track-record. We have evaluated hundreds of companies and business models, counseled countless management teams and have had a “courtside” seat to various industry trends. We come into every situation with an appreciation of what it means to operate in the Services economy.

Operator’s Mindset

 

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Growth Focus

 

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Economic Alignment

 

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Operator’s Mindset

Our executive partners have operating experiences as CEOs, CFOs, Division Presidents, and Board Members in private and publicly traded companies. We know the issues facing management teams and are comfortable rolling up our sleeves and utilizing our expertise to help solve problems and grow business.

Growth Focus

Profitable growth is an important driver of financial returns and where we focus our attention. We believe growth in a service company requires a strong commitment to employees, an intense focus on the delivering a superior customer experience, a solid plan defining future success, and a drive to execute and continuously improve.

Economic Alignment

We seek to provide equity ownership opportunities deep into an organization. We’ve seen broad-based employee ownership create meaningful wealth-building opportunities for employees, uplift families, reinvigorate corporate cultures, and improve business performance. Providing all employees with a stake in the value they help create is not just better business and smarter investing, it’s also the right thing to do.

How We Help You Grow

Industry Expertise

 

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Strategy Setting

 

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Talent Assessment

 

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Industry Expertise

With 25 years of intimate familiarity with service business models, we have evaluated hundreds of companies, counseled countless management teams, and observed both macro and micro trends that are hard to replicate. Our extensive experience spans both large public and private companies, where we’ve been in boardrooms addressing a variety of operational and financial issues. We have had the privilege of serving as thought partners, always operating with the mindset that we are “only as good as our last piece of advice.”

Our executive partners are invaluable resources, bringing a wealth of experience from running C-Suite functions in Fortune 500 companies. You will meet and interact with our executive partners upfront, beginning the collaboration and idea generation process early on. We understand the importance of leveraging the expertise of those smarter than us.

In a market filled with “noise”, we believe our experience speaks for itself.

Strategy Setting

Aligning upfront on our vision for “what we want to be when we grow up” is critical to our process. We enjoy brainstorming and exploring every idea, creating a massive funnel of opportunities. This approach helps us determine what is feasible today, what investments are needed for tomorrow, and what should be avoided.

Once we have a clear understanding, we design an actionable framework and roadmap for our new partnership. While all great plans may encounter twists and turns, having explored all options allows us to remain nimble and pivot based on the facts on the ground.

Now that you don’t have to do it alone, it’s actually a really fun process.

Talent Assessment

We invest in people. The best plan is worthless without a strong team to execute it. In many family and owner-operated businesses, too few people are wearing too many hats. This can be exhausting and holds the business back from reaching its full potential.

Our process begins with an assessment of current talent to optimize their skills and position them for growth and development. Ongoing education, up-skilling, and career advancement are essential; it’s foolish not to invest in the people you already know and trust. We also assess gaps and leverage our external network to bring in additional talent, ensuring seamless integration without “organ rejection.”

Equity ownership is critical, and we strive to push equity deep into organizations. We’ve seen broad-based employee ownership create meaningful wealth-building opportunities for employees, uplift families, reinvigorate corporate cultures, and improve business performance. Providing employees with a stake in the value they help create is not just good business and smart investing; it’s also the right thing to do.

Without great talent, the nice looking powerpoint presentations are useless.

Performance Management

 

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Organic and M&A Growth

 

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All the Other Stuff

 

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Performance Management

We believe it’s critical for companies to establish the right metrics and KPIs to track their performance. Our approach involves two key procedures: first, developing the appropriate KPIs, and second, ensuring those metrics are interpreted and used effectively. Without both, you risk using data in a vacuum or making decisions based on gut feelings and intuition, both of which can lead to disappointing outcomes.

One of our all-time favorite movies is Moneyball – The Art of Winning an Unfair Game. It’s easy to be awed by the power of data and analytics but the movie sub-title truly resonates with our philosophy on performance management. The “unfair game” refers to the lack of resources and capital  that many small businesses face compared to larger companies. The “art” reminds us how critical it is for management to not only understand their KPI’s but combine it with their years of operating experience to drive successful outcomes.

It’s not people or data, it’s people AND data.

Organic and M&A Growth

We like talking about growth.  We really like taking about profitable growth.

Often, companies need incremental capital or additional labor to accelerate growth in their core business. Other times, growth discussions arise from the need to mitigate risks, such as customer, end-market, or product line concentration. Pursuing new growth opportunities can address these challenges.

We excel at identifying multiple organic and acquisition-driven growth levers, and we prioritize pinpointing these opportunities early in our partnerships.

If you are not growing, you are dying.

All the Other Stuff

Most business owners we talk with tell us “I have my day job and then I have to deal with [insert a long list of non-value added, time draining tasks].” We want our management teams to focus on operating the business—there’s plenty of work there without the burden of handling the “other stuff.”

We serve as your outsourced financing, capital markets, and M&A function. With our extensive experience, you can confidently cross these tasks off your list.

Additionally, we have a deep network of professional service firms to assist with various needs, including legal issues, HR matters, tax items, employee benefits, and more. If you can dream it, we “got a guy or gal” for you.

We pair “big firm resources” with a massive dose of humility and a strong bias toward laughing and having fun.

Investment Size

Revenue:  $5 – $100 million

EBITDA:  $2 – $20 million

Ownership & Management

Flexible on majority or minority equity investments

Partner with existing management or facilitate transitions

Prefer to be first institutional capital

Headquarters in U.S. or Canada

Transaction Types

Founder / shareholder transition events

Owner or management-led buyouts

Recapitalizations

Corporate partnerships