Our values
What we stand for
Values aren’t what we say. They’re how we decide what work to take, which businesses to buy and how we treat the people inside them.
Five principles
The values we hold ourselves to
They guide how we advise, how we buy and how we run every business we own. Here’s what each one looks like in practice.
Care: be purpose driven
- In advisory
- We take on work where we can change outcomes for students, families and local economies, and we say no when we can’t.
- In ownership
- We keep the teams that built the business and invest in the neighborhoods our customers live in.
Listen more than you speak
- In advisory
- We start with the people closest to the work, from frontline staff to students and customers, before we offer a single recommendation.
- In ownership
- New owners learn the business from the people who run it. We spend our first months listening before we change anything.
Assume nothing and navigate uncertainty
- In advisory
- Every hypothesis gets tested against the data. When the path isn’t clear, we say so and plan for more than one outcome.
- In ownership
- We buy on verified numbers, not optimism, and keep enough in reserve to stay steady through a slow season.
Be insatiably curious, but precisely productive
- In advisory
- We ask one more question than expected, then turn what we learn into a short list of decisions with owners and dates.
- In ownership
- We study every part of the operation, then focus on the few changes that matter most to customers and margins.
Don’t confuse busy with progress
- In advisory
- We measure our work by the results our clients see, not the hours we bill or the slides we produce.
- In ownership
- We track what counts: customers served, people developed and the health of the business, and we report it honestly.
Our commitments
What we owe the people we work with
The people who work in our businesses
Fair pay, real training and a path to grow. We buy businesses for the people already running them.
Owners who sell to us
Honesty about price and terms from the first conversation, and care for the legacy you spent a career building.
Clients
Candor, even when it’s unwelcome, and results over hours billed. We tell you what we see.
Communities
Local hiring, local vendors and showing up. Our businesses should make their neighborhoods stronger.
Get in touch
Work with people who share your values
Whether you lead an organization facing a hard problem or own a business you’re thinking about selling, we’d like to hear from you.
Prefer a longer conversation? Visit our contact page.