We buy exceptional businesses from retiring owners looking for a straightforward exit.
Our philosophy
01 - Keep it simple
You won’t need a Mensa membership to negotiate with us. Selling your business doesn’t need to be stressful or complicated.
02 - No a**holes
Life is too short to spend it with undesirables. We make sure everyone in our ecosystem shares the same values as us.
03 - Grow, but the right way
We have no interest in growing profits at the expense of the employees that generate them. We seek long-term sustainable growth over short-term sugar hits.
04 - Trenches over towers
Unlike other investors, we are hands-on because you can’t understand a business from an ivory tower. We seek to collaborate with our management, not dictate from a distance.
Our difference
Our Offering
Targeted due diligence
Simple structures
Preference to promote existing staff
No predefined ownership period
The Alternatives
Private Equity
Long diligence process
Management replaced
Culture changes
Complicated structures
Short-term Owners
Competitors
Legacy disappears
Roles are consolidated
Management replaced
Risk of tyre kicking
Uncertainty for employees
Our process
Businesses we love
Size & margins.
EBITDA $1.5m - $5.0m Profit margins above 15%.
Competitive advantage.
What the business does that is hard to compete with.
High quality team.
Great team with a positive culture.
Simpler the better.
A simple business model you can explain to kids.
Industry agnostic.
Non-cyclical or capital intensive.
No existential threats.
Is the industry at risk of obsolescence?
Limited concentration.
Diverse and loyal customer/supplier base.
Team
DIRECTOR
Josh has 25 years’ experience investing in capital markets and private companies
Commenced his career in 2001 as an office junior in the mail room for a boutique stockbrokerage and by 2008 was advising global hedge funds
Co-founded hedge fund manager KIS Capital Partners in 2009 as Chief Investment Officer and over 10 years built the firm to $300m in assets. IS Capital Partners focussed solely on listed companies in Australia, China and SEA.
Josh personally has been investing in private companies for 20 years, totalling around 40 investments.
Josh was the first non-staff investor in Kelly Partners in 2007 which has given him unique insights to the succession planning issues in Australia.
Josh Best
DIRECTOR
Hands-on investor who enjoys working with management teams to devise and implement growth strategies.
Cofounded Curtain Hardware Australia (CHA) through the acquisition of four SMEs in the window furnishings sector, creating the largest player nationally.
Former Investment Manager of Venture Growth Partners, a lower mid-market investment firm.
Commenced his career in Morgan Stanley’s Mergers & Acquisitions team, where he advised on transactions from $200m to $2.5Bn across a variety of geographies and sectors.
Holds a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Melbourne (First Class Honours).