Views From the Market

In this episode, Mario is joined by Scott Stirrett of Venture for Canada, a registered charitable organization that provides training to budding entrepreneurs. Scott and Mario discuss the growing demand for entrepreneurship through acquisition (ETA) training in Canada and the challenges that young entrepreneurs face, notably in accessing debt financing. While Scott is optimistic about the future o...

In this edition of the podcast, Mario Nigro interviews Richter LLP’s Michael Black and Brett Miller about value creation services that can help midmarket businesses achieve their growth and transaction objectives. As Brett and Michael discuss, value creation can involve enhancing board design, optimizing processes, systems and technology and focusing the customer and product mix. Whether implement...

Our guest on this podcast episode is Paul Langley of Capital West Partners, a Vancouver-based midmarket M&A advisory firm. As Paul relates, British Columbia’s diverse economy is dominated by midmarket businesses, accounting for 25% of all midmarket transactions in Canada. While it was somewhat isolated in the past, B.C. is now squarely on the radar of U.S. and eastern Canadian buyers – one reason...

Mario’s guest for this podcast is Jill Chua, Managing Director at Raymond James Canada. Jill and Mario discuss midmarket M&A, with a focus on growth equity, one of Jill’s specialties. Growth equity is a niche area of investment that targets companies that have outgrown the venture capital stage but are not ready for traditional private equity. Growth equity firms provide capital and partnership to...

Mario is joined by Brent Timmerman and Jody Law, Co-CEOs of Pacific West Mechanical Limited, and Mike McIsaac, CEO and Managing Director at Baker Tilly Corporate Finance in Vancouver. They discuss how Brent and Jody, as search fund operators, found and acquired Pacific West, a plumbing and HVAC service and maintenance company in Vancouver, with the help of Mike and his team, who acted as the sell-...

Our guest on this episode is Robert Bezede of Norton McMullen Corporate Finance, specialists in selling Ontario-based private businesses. Robert notes that activity in the lower midmarket is insulated from the current market headwinds because aging owners are highly motivated to sell. In addition, the pool of prospective buyers has grown, with more financial groups, high net worth individuals, sea...

Mike Karran of the Mintz Group speaks with Mario Nigro about Mintz’ global due diligence and investigations practice, particularly as it relates to vetting investment targets and their executives. Mike describes what Mintz’ investigations look for and gives examples of how the results can change the risk dynamics of a proposed transaction. As investors become more discerning and data-driven, inves...

Today’s guests are founders of Toronto-based Alpha40 Capital, a self-funded search fund that is emerging as a significant force in the lower midmarket. Mohsen Manzari and Ash Buckle discuss how they became interested in entrepreneurship, honed their skills in business school, and developed a successful search fund during and after the pandemic. Anyone interested in the search fund model will be in...

Our guest on today’s podcast is Vimal Kotecha, a senior transactional advisor at Richter LLP with special expertise in business valuations and disputes. In the wake of the deal euphoria of 2021-22, many acquired businesses are not tracking projections, leading to a rising tide of post-purchase price disputes. Join Vimal and Mario for a wide-ranging discussion of what’s triggering these disputes, w...

In this episode, Mario Nigro speaks with Andy Love of Dallas-based Aspect Investors. Andy has been involved in the search space for about 25 years. Aspect, which he founded in 2012, has made over 200 investments, including more than 20 here in Canada. He and Mario discuss trends in the industry – both long-term and recent – and look ahead to what Andy sees as a period of continued growth over the...

Mario’s guest for this podcast is Greg Duggan of Alcorn Partners. Alcorn’s investment strategy is aimed at profitable lower midmarket businesses – often family-owned enterprises – that are ready to take the next step toward professionalized management. Investments are long-term in the truest sense – up to 20 years or more – and portfolio companies can be in any industry in Canada or the U.S. As Gr...

In this episode, Mario speaks with Lars Hamkens and Jamie Pridham of Toronto-based Quadrivium Capital Partners. Quadrivium, an investment firm that works with executives and serial entrepreneurs in lower midmarket acquisitions, currently has a portfolio of 11 successful companies funded by groups of individual investors and generally held for the long term. The typical Quadrivium deal begins with...

In this podcast, Bakari Akil of Graves Hall Capital shares his experiences in Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition (“ETA”), a type of entrepreneurship that begins with the acquisition of an existing business using primarily third-party capital. While it is beginning to make its mark in Canada, ETA is mainly a U.S. phenomenon, thanks to the extraordinary availability of capital south of the border....

In this edition, Mario Nigro speaks with Josh Axler of Flow Capital, a publicly-traded alternative finance firm that works with high-growth businesses in Canada, the U.S. and the U.K. Josh discusses Flow’s investment criteria, which include 25% year-over-year growth and $2.5 million recurring revenue (or $4 million non-recurring) and how it structures its involvement to be minimally dilutive and n...

In this episode, Patricia Riopel and Enrico Magnani of Montréal-based Magnum Capital Partners share their unique journey through the search fund model, from the challenges of finding a business to acquire to their successful exit from Scribendi, an Ontario company that develops text-editing software. They also discuss their experiences as a married couple navigating this path, Patricia's perspecti...

Today’s podcast takes us to British Columbia, where Erica McGuinness has built a sell-side advisory practice with one of Western Canada’s leading firms, Sequeira Partners. Mario and Erica discuss Alberta and B.C.’s strong deal market, with emphasis on insurance M&A, where valuations are increasing as PE firms seek out brokerage consolidation possibilities. Other sectors with strong deal flow inclu...

Today’s guests, Dan Chetrit and Liroy Haddad, are co-founders of Snowdon Partners. Snowdon invests in lower midmarket businesses, both directly and as a search funder. Liroy and Dan are flexible about the level of ownership Snowdon assumes, but their philosophy is to be active, long-term partners to their portfolio companies. While its investments span Canada and the U.S., Montréal-based Snowdon i...

Mario’s guest is Kalle Kilpi, Founder and CEO of DealMap. Ai, a Boston-based business that tailors large language model (LLM) M&A solutions for active acquirors. LLMs like Chat GPT have potential applications to nearly every aspect of a transaction, from drafting, due diligence and routine correspondence to target discovery and strategic analysis. Please join Mario and Kalle for a fascinating and...

Mario’s guest, Ed Bryant, is the driving force behind Sampford Advisors Inc., a tech-sector sell-side advisor. He and Mario discuss the post-pandemic market, noting that buyers will still pay a good price for quality businesses but are less interested in those that are cash-flow negative. In contrast with 2020-21, growth is no longer enough: the “Rule of 40” is being more strictly applied. Among t...

Today’s guest is Sebastien Koechli of Helia Capital, a family office that provides “patient capital” to businesses transitioning out of their entrepreneurial phase. As a purpose-driven investor, Helia looks beyond short-term profit, making minority or majority investments (as appropriate) in businesses with long-term potential and aligned social values. While current market conditions are challeng...

In this podcast, Mario speaks with Matthew Hooper, CEO of Hometurf Lawn Care, about his journey from searcher to owner to seller and now CEO of a mid-sized regional home services business. Matthew talks about the search process, about entering a sector that was new to him (in which a strong relationship with the seller was critical) and about his subsequent decision to sell the business and contin...

Mario’s guest today is Grant Wallace of Vancouver-based Relay Transition Partners, an advisory firm serving midmarket businesses in western Canada. Grant shares his insights into the British Columbia and Alberta markets, in which deals tend on average to be slightly smaller than is typical in Ontario and Quebec. Investors that are comfortable in the $5-30 million market niche will find many outsta...

Mario’s guests, Brent Timmerman and Jody Law, are co-CEOs of Pacific West Mechanical, a British Columbia company that provides HVAC and plumbing maintenance services to high-rise buildings, including condominium towers. Through their investment business, Gazelle Capital, Jody and Brent acquired Pacific West after a year-long partnered search and are now in their second year of operating the busine...

Joining Mario today is Brian Davey, CEO of NADF (Nishnawbe Aski Development Fund), a lender to Indigenous entrepreneurs across Northern Ontario. With over $50 million successfully disbursed to date, NADF is planning to take the next step: creating an investment fund that will leverage its deep understanding of Indigenous communities and their needs. In Brian’s view, infrastructure – particularly r...

Mario’s guest on this edition of the podcast, Brandon Lalonde of FrontWell Capital Partners, discusses FrontWell’s emergence as a key facilitator of private debt. Equally able to participate alone or in a syndicate, FrontWell lends against assets or cash flow in transition situations where a fundamentally strong business is in a capital-intensive growth phase or re-positioning after an adverse eve...