Built by Owners, for Owners: We are Open for Business

OwnerCo is a new kind of network for business owners — built by owners, for owners. Over the past few months, we’ve been quietly bringing it to life, taking it from an idea at a coffee shop table to a real company that’s ready to launch. It’s a joint venture created by a group of business owners who’ve each built and led companies of their own.

Like many business owners before us, we’re hanging our “Open for Business” sign on the door and starting an entrepreneurial endeavor that will undoubtedly be even harder than we expect. There will be early mornings and late nights. There will be good times and bad times ahead, along with many tough decisions, doubts, successes, and failures.

We know what it’s like to build a business because we are a company founded by former business owners.  Each of our founders has started, grown, and sold a business prior to starting OwnerCo. We know what you're going through: the weight of every decision, the isolation at the top, the constant search for trusted advisors.  Which is why we might be a little crazy to be doing it all over again, knowing what we know.  Here’s the thing though: we love being business owners.

We love the possibilities, the drive, the grit, the optimism, the people who become like family, the feeling of landing a big deal, of seeing an idea come to life, of testing and pivoting, of taking ownership, and building something with our own hands.  This love of business ownership - and of business owners - is what led to us starting OwnerCo in the first place.  

We want to take this moment to memorialize OwnerCo’s mission - and to give you a preview of where we’re going and how you can work with us, whether you're looking to grow, borrow, or sell.

The Spark Behind OwnerCo

When I sold my last company to private equity and helped with the acquisition of 12 more companies, I discovered something unexpected: my favorite part wasn't closing deals or getting to $120M in revenue. It was sitting across from business owners, hearing their stories, and sharing the hard-won secrets from my own journey. Those conversations about the real challenges, the sleepless nights, the breakthrough moments revealed a truth: owners desperately crave honest guidance from someone who's actually been there. After one recent deal, a partner in the transaction told me, “You understand the M&A process from a business owner's perspective and know what it takes to get a deal done.” I realized both how much I could help and how much I genuinely loved helping them. That realization became the founding inspiration for OwnerCo.

Our mission

OwnerCo’s mission is to help small and mid-size business owners succeed on their own terms by connecting them to the right resources at the right time. We're building what we wish we had when we were founding our last companies. 

To do this, we will be building a powerful network of expert service providers for business owners.  100% of our energy, innovation, and focus will be dedicated to making business owners more successful through our network.

We're building what we wish we had when we were founding our last companies

What we’re solving for

Simply put, small and mid-size businesses do not have easy access to the expert resources they need - from accounting, lending, marketing, M&A, legal, consulting, technology development, and more.  The service providers that work with SMB’s and middle market companies are fragmented and difficult to discover, especially if you’re looking for someone with specialized industry knowledge or experience with businesses of a specific size.  

We know where the pain-points are for business owners because we’ve been there, and we believe Main Street and Mid-market companies are too often left to figure it out for themselves.  Larger companies can call “name brand firms” like EY for accounting, Mckinsey for consulting, or Goldman Sachs for investment banking.  Smaller businesses are left relying on their personal networks and blind google searches to try to find resources that are the right fit for them given their industry, size, budget, and needs.  We know how frustrating this can be, and how expensive it can be when you make the wrong choice.

Coming off more than a decade of building businesses and being involved in business networking organizations like YPO, we have learned that many business owners have very similar needs.  We want to provide solutions.  Our plan is to leverage our past operational experience to make the business expertise and services traditionally reserved for large companies more accessible.  

Built for Business Owners

Everything we do will be designed to create value for business owners.  To that end, we’ll also be launching educational “bootcamps,” organizing roundtable discussions, hosting networking events, and providing other resources for business owners to learn about critical business topics.

We're building the resource we desperately needed - a go-to community for business owners where they can learn from and help each other.  We know how challenging and sometimes even lonely being a business owner can be, especially when the stakes are high at critical decision points.  We’ve had those sleepless nights.  How nice would it be to be able to call another business owner who has been where you are to get advice?  We want to help make that happen.  There’s no need to re-invent the wheel constantly in each of our own businesses - we should be helping each other overcome obstacles and solve problems.  Business owners don’t have to build their businesses alone.  Our community is here to help.  

What to expect from us 

As we launch, we will be initially focusing on supporting business owners at three critical inflection points for their businesses:

Grow: Get connected to service providers who can help you with marketing, accounting, or technology development, including A.I. implementation.

Borrow: Work with our lending partner to apply for a loan to fuel your growth or help you manage cash flow.

M&A: Talk with our M&A partner about selling your business.

Our current services are designed to have a high impact for business owners at important moments that will shape the future of their businesses.

As we grow OwnerCo over time, we’ll be adding new service lines and partners, all with the goal of connecting business owners to resources they need and building a powerful business ecosystem.  It won’t happen overnight, but eventually our network will become a one-stop shop for business owners providing or connecting them to all the products and services they need to be successful.

Our Partners

We can’t do this by ourselves and we aren’t.  We are a team of former business owners supported by strong personal and professional connections.  We’re building OwnerCo in partnership with leading industry experts, advisors, and service providers.  This includes over ten partner companies who are working to help get our network off the ground.  The list of partner companies is growing every day, and all of us are working hard to move the needle for business owners.

If you provide products or services to business owners, we should talk. We're actively building our network of trusted partners who share our commitment to helping business owners succeed. Reach out to explore partnership opportunities.

Ready to Get Started?

If you're a business owner - get in touch! Whether your goal is just to be your own boss and pay the bills or to build a multi-million dollar, fast-growing enterprise, we are here to help. We are the company for business owners. We know how hard it is to be an owner - that's why we built this.

We look forward to building great businesses together.