Acquisition criteria
We buy companies one at a time. Here's exactly what we want.
We're an operating and advisory group. Not a fund — no committee, no clock, no obligation to deploy. We already hold minority positions in several companies; what we're looking for now is one to acquire and operate. If what's on your desk fits, you'll have an answer within a week.
EBITDA
$500K–$2M
Sweet spot $600K–$1.2M
Enterprise value
$1.5M–$10M
Revenue $3M–$20M
Geography
Southeast
FL · GA · SC · AL · MS · LA
Timeline
LOI in 30 days
Close in 90
Does it fit?
Eight questions about your business. Answer them honestly and the screener will tell you where you stand, before you spend any time on a conversation. These are the whole of our criteria — there is no second list.
Fit screener
0 of 8 answered
EBITDA between $500K and $2M
Adjusted, and defensible in diligence. The sweet spot is $600K to $1.2M.
Someone other than the owner runs the day-to-day
Our first screen, not a nice-to-have. The test is simple: if the owner is away for two weeks, the business keeps running.
Revenue depends on physical assets or long human relationships
Trucks, licenses, technicians, inventory, or relationships built over decades. A core that can't easily be replaced by AI.
No single customer above 30% of revenue
Concentration is the one thing we won't underwrite around.
You control your own business model
Not a franchise or dealership bound by someone else's agreement, and not a pure real estate holding.
Real cash flow, even if the financials are messy today
The business earns money. We can fix the reporting. We do not buy start-ups or bankruptcies.
The back office is well behind the front office
No CRM or ERP, the accounting close running late, quoting and scheduling done by hand or on spreadsheets. For us this is a feature, not a problem.
A manager wants to stay as you transition out
Someone who will keep running it and welcomes support to augment their skills. Slow growth or light distress is fine, and often the reason we are a good fit.
Answer the eight above and we'll tell you plainly whether your business is one we should be talking about.
What we pass on, for completeness: start-ups and bankruptcies, asset-light consulting or services with no installed base, franchises and dealerships, pure real estate plays, and any business where the owner is the only person who can do the work.
How we pay for it
Senior debt or ABL, sized conservatively.
A seller note. We're comfortable with meaningful seller paper — it means we're aligned.
SBA where the structure fits.
Our own equity, alongside two or three co-investors we've worked with before.
Rollover welcome. We'd rather the person who built it stayed in it.
Equity for the manager who keeps running it.
One thing we're clear about
We also advise owners on selling their companies. That's a real conflict, so here's how we handle it.
If a business fits the criteria on this page, we won't represent it. We'll say so in the first conversation, and you choose: we make an offer as a principal and you get your own representation — we'll pay for an independent valuation — or we refer you to a banker we trust and step back entirely.
What we won't do is wear both hats on the same company.
Send us two years of P&Ls and a balance sheet. Or just call.
We'll tell you within a week whether we're interested — and tell you honestly why if we're not. No teaser required, no process to enter, and we won't shop it.
Direct
813-421-8962Office
Emerge Dynamics
Westshore International Plaza
2202 N Westshore Blvd, Suite 200
Tampa, FL 33607