We Help Small Businesses Become Middle-Market Companies
We back founders, families and management teams with capital and an in-house team of operating professionals. The goal is the same every time: build a business that graduates into the larger, more efficient middle-market.
Institutional Capabilities, Applied to Small Business
A company with $15M of EBITDA rarely has a CFO organization, a pricing function, an M&A team or an ERP system. That gap is the opportunity — and closing it is what we do.
Founder-Led and Under-Resourced
Strong market position, loyal customers, and a management team stretched across every function at once. Growth is limited by capacity, not demand.
Capital Plus an Operating Team
Equity to fund growth, and dedicated in-house professionals who have built these functions before at leading institutions and large corporates.
A Middle-Market Company
Institutional reporting, professional management, scale through add-on acquisitions — and access to a far deeper universe of buyers and lenders at exit.
The Portfolio Value Optimization Program
Not advice from the sidelines. A structured program our own team runs inside the business, from the first hundred days through exit.
Getting Middle-Market Ready®
Our proprietary program that installs what institutional buyers expect: audited financials, KPI dashboards, budgeting discipline, governance and a real management bench.
A Dedicated In-House Operating Team
Full-time operating professionals with experience at leading financial institutions and major corporates — not a rented consultant roster.
Add-On Acquisition Engine
We source, underwrite and finance strategic add-ons so a single-site business becomes a multi-site platform with real bargaining power.
The Collaborative Ecosystem®
Introductions to customers, executives, lenders and buyers that a company of this size could not reach on its own.
Technology and Data
Custom-built, AI-enabled systems bring benchmarking and reporting rigor usually reserved for far larger companies.
Exit Into a Deeper Market
Companies that graduate into the middle-market command more buyers, more financing options and a structurally different valuation conversation.
Built for Owners Who Are Not Finished Yet
Most of our partners keep building with us. We structure around what you want your role to be.
You built the business. You may want liquidity for the family, a partner to fund the next phase, or a path to step back over time — often all three. We do control and structured-equity deals, so the answer is not limited to selling all of it at once. Employees and culture stay part of the conversation, because Star Mountain believes the plan only works if the people executing it stay.
We back management teams with meaningful equity and give them the resources they have been missing: a real finance function, an acquisition pipeline, industry operators on the board and a partner who has done this in 40+ industries. You run the company. We help you build the machine around it.
| Criteria | Detail |
|---|---|
| Company size | $5–50M EBITDA |
| Position | Control and structured / preferred equity |
| Geography | United States |
| Target industries | Recession-resilient, essential services across 40+ industries |
| Avoided industries | Cyclical and speculative sectors, including oil & gas, retail, real estate, AI / software and cryptocurrency |
| Hold period | Long-hold flexibility; no forced timeline |
| Structures | Commingled vehicles, separate accounts and co-investment |
What Actually Happens After We Invest
Diagnostic
Operating team benchmarks the business against peers across finance, pricing, sales, talent and systems.
Plan
A written value-creation plan with named owners, sequenced priorities and the capital required behind each one.
Build
Reporting, governance and management bench installed through Getting Middle-Market Ready®.
Scale
Organic growth plus a live add-on pipeline, funded and underwritten by us.
Hear It From the Businesses Themselves
Getting Middle-Market Ready®
What institutional buyers and lenders expect, and how a smaller company builds toward it deliberately.
The Case for Smaller Markets®
Why the lower middle-market offers more companies, less competition and more room to add value than the market above it.
Let’s Talk About Your Business
Whether you are an owner exploring options or an investor evaluating the strategy, we would welcome the conversation.
¹ Values are as of 9/30/26.
² Employee ownership includes employee estate planning vehicles.