A Different Road Taken
Our Approach

A team of business owners and investment banking experts

River Road invests our own money in great companies run by great people. Our goal is to provide the resources necessary to grow your business to new heights with a mandate to respect and engage the employees who have helped you become a profitable and successful company.

We don’t look for quick money plays; instead, we look to build on your accomplishments and accelerate growth.

River Road sees challenges as opportunities and looks to help companies navigate and solve those challenges.

Are we a fit FOR YOU?

River Road is a small group of experienced founders, operators and M&A experts.

You are a successful family or management-owned business interested in exploring the sale of your business.

We understand you want to achieve your goal of financial reward AND find a new owner who understands the company's culture must be preserved and respected.

River Road has hands-on experience bringing new ideas, modern management techniques and growth capital to privately held companies.

Unlike most financial buyers today, our group does not look for a quick flip or cost takeouts. We make decisions with long-term perspective and are focused on growing the business while also taking care of both employees and customers.

By partnering with River Road, you will share in our expertise, network and capital base. We, together with your dedicated employees, will take your company to the next level of its evolution.

Not like everyone else

River Road is Unique

  • Our integrity is high in negotiations and with our partners. We believe in aligned, easy-to-understand incentives. We are transparent, honest and fair.

  • We invest our private money – we are not a fund. This approach creates ultimate alignment and gives us the strength, flexibility and conviction to invest for the long-term.

  • Through our diverse experience in ownership, we have expertise in bringing new sales and marketing strategies, operating efficiencies and management structures to companies looking to accelerate organic- and acquisition-related growth.

  • Excellent culture makes great companies, and remarkable people make excellent culture. More than words, it takes purposeful action to demonstrate people matter.

  • We can make decisions quickly and efficiently, without the bureaucratic processes that come with larger companies or firms with institutional investors.

ARE YOU A FIT FOR US?

Here are the characteristics of companies with whom we want to partner and invest.

  • Well-run, profitable companies.

  • Management teams that may want to become owners through the purchase of their business from the current family or founders/owners.

  • Great companies that need help with succession planning upon a founder's exit or retirement.

  • Businesses that need capital to accelerate organic growth or facilitate add-on acquisitions.

  • Founders looking to monetize their life’s work while finding a new owner who will protect the culture that has made the company successful.

A NEW APPROACH TO INVESTING

Our Team

The four partners of River Road came together after years of talking about bringing a new approach to investing in companies like yours.

We understand your successful company is comprised of an intricate balance of employee, customer and supplier relationships. Your company's future success can’t be boiled down to a spreadsheet.

Instead, we believe our diverse experiences over the last thirty years in founding, leading and financing companies gives you the best possible partner for the next chapter of your company’s future.

  • Carter has worked as an advisor to or investor in private companies across the industrial, healthcare, and consumer industries.

    As an M&A advisor, he has helped business owners find the right partner for continued growth or in other cases, helped owners transition out of the day-to-day and into retirement.

    As an investor, he has partnered with owners and management teams to drive growth through M&A or through organic strategies focused on customer needs and solutions.

    Throughout his career, Carter has remained focused on working with companies in the lower middle market. He is committed to helping owners and management teams achieve their growth goals while creating and supporting a people-first culture.

    Carter was born and raised in a small town in southern Minnesota called Blue Earth and graduated from Saint John's University in Collegeville, Minnesota. He calls the Twin Cities home.

  • Scott has over 30 years of experience working alongside successful, privately-owned businesses to accomplish their stated goals of value maximization, growth and succession planning.

    He has spent much of his time advising family- and founder-owned businesses as they embark on the process of generating liquidity and transitioning ownership. As a result, he has a deep understanding and appreciation for what really matters to companies during a process of ownership change.

    In addition to being a frequent public speaker on private company mergers and acquisitions, Scott has served as a past judge for Ernest & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year Awards.

    Scott graduated from the University of Texas and is a long-time Twin Cities resident.

  • David has 30+ years of experience in helping industry leading retail brands partner with key channel partners and major retailers like Target.

    David led a team in developing a business model that cultivated a great culture, invested in people and systems, and built transformable relationships with its customers.

    Over his 30+ years in leadership, he and his team grew sales from $150 million in shipped sales to over $1 billion.

    David was born and raised in St. Paul, Minnesota and graduated from Saint John’s University in Collegeville, Minnesota. He calls the Twin Cities home.

  • Tom has founded and led businesses in the direct marketing, commercial printing and healthcare tech services industries.

    Tom’s experiences have ranged across various stages of growth – from "employee #1 start-ups" to growing mid-sized businesses from $70 million to $450 million in revenue. In all cases, his companies had successful exit events for shareholders, management and employees.

    His strengths are building cultures of accountability and risk-taking while creating space for failures and adjustments on the path to long-term success. Tom believes in having fun and building great culture while growing a company through both good and challenging times.

    Tom was born and raised in St. Paul, Minnesota and graduated from Saint John's University in Collegeville, Minnesota. He calls the Twin Cities home.

Don’t take our word for it, ask others.

We encourage you to email us asking for a list of references.