Calling All Operators
A Ten Creek Letter to Entrepreneurs and Operators
It has never been easier to start a company… but it has also never been harder to build one.
We partner with talented entrepreneurs and operators to acquire and build great companies in growing industries. If you’re reading this, and are in the process of looking for, acquiring, or starting a business where you will be the leader, we want to help.
The future doesn’t happen to you; it happens because of you.
What’s your inflection point?
We’re in the business of changing lives. Pursue your next great opportunity. Be a leader. Take things to the next level. Grow and build value. We’re your partner.
We are firm believers in developing and sharpening your edge. And we want to work with entrepreneurs and operators who spend their time doing the things only they can uniquely do. We are a partner that invests in and supports you, so you can better specialize in being you. We want to be an active part of your journey.
Increase your chances of closing a deal
Sourcing (and closing) investment opportunities.
Industry and transaction assessment.
Due diligence support.
Transaction structuring and support.
Tax, accounting, legal, and other support.
Access to our network of owners, operators, advisors, board members, industry experts, intermediaries, and other helpful resources.
Plug into our third-party provider network, where we have strong relationships with attractive terms across financing sources, legal, QoE, tax, HR/benefits, real estate, marketing, and more.
Strategic planning and roadmapping.
While we are highly-selective and we are not the right partner for everyone, we do what we can to be helpful regardless of whether or not we are involved moving forward.
1+1=3
Make sure your ‘1+1=3’ conversations are in fact rooted in reality. We think about value-add as being bucketed into five components:
Access to new resources – like talent, advisors, networks, financial capital, vendors, and technology.
Commitment to success and support of the team – level of commitment, time horizon, respect for legacy, trustworthiness, and hits the ‘no a**holes rule’.
Ability to influence outcomes and grow business value – through strategy, product/service differentiation, best practices, know-how, and otherwise.
Business continuity and risk management.
See here for an overview of how we really add value as your partner.
Let’s have a conversation about what you’re looking to achieve and what value-add specifically means for you. We can share examples of what we’ve seen work well and the lessons we’ve learned along the way.
Our track-record
We’ve built businesses from less than $1M of earnings to greater than $1B of enterprise value.
About us
Given our track-record and growing businesses from small to large (from <$1M of earnings to an enterprise value over $1B), we are often the first call for owners, entrepreneurs, and operators looking to explore their possibilities. And because we focus exclusively on businesses with up to $10M of annual earnings, we can bring high-firepower expertise and resources to our partners and add value immediately. We bring our playbook of transforming from a “business” into a “platform” to accelerate outcomes, add durability, reduce risk, and increase growth prospects to grow the value of our partner companies. We do things simply, effectively, and take the long view (hence our name).
To do this, we have a dedicated source of capital (our own) and have structured Ten Creek without constraints around holding period (we can hold forever), structure of partnerships, or outside decision-making authority. We focus on building great companies with our partners, without obligations to outside, passive investor groups who aren’t actively involved in building the business (and therefore really understanding the business). We also limit the number of partner companies we invest in, so we can dedicate the time and resources necessary to be a value-add partner and influence meaningful outcomes.
We’re fortunate to have the existing resources and capital to build Ten Creek in a way we wanted to see it as entrepreneurs and operators ourselves. We focus on what really matters, and we’ve simplified the process to make it easier to partner with us – by making things simple and more transparent. Our mission is to selectively partner with great teams and companies to take things to the next level. Let’s talk about being partners.
How we’re different
We are flexible partners with a proven track-record. We’ve built businesses from less than $1M of earnings to greater than $1B of enterprise value.
We only invest our own money and have the existing resources (our own) to grow with our partners to meaningful scale.
We structure deals to meet your unique needs. We don’t have artificial constraints on size, structure, or holding periods like other investment firms.
We work on fewer transactions allowing us to be a more valuable resource to our partners.
We are transparent… our goal isn’t to “flip your business” in 3-5 years. We’re focused on growing the business (i.e., team) and understand what it means to preserve owner legacies.
We keep things simple and we understand what is important and what isn’t. We’re not here to waste time.
We’re efficient and decisive. We can make an offer within a few weeks and close within 3 months.
For more information on how our process is different (i.e., less painful for owners and focused on the things that actually matter), go here.
Calling all entrepreneurs and operators
Let’s connect. We’re interested in partnering with those who share similar values and want to achieve the next phase of growth or transition ownership.
We’re focused on building long-term relationships… since we are going to be building Ten Creek with our partners for the next 50+ years. There is no obligation or any pressure whatsoever to reach out and start a conversation. Let us know if you want to connect.
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