Today’s guest is Marshall Lockton. Marshall spent 15 years in sales, sales strategy and sales training roles within his family’s storied private insurance brokerage business (Lockton) before leaving to acquire his first business. In October 2023, he acquired Knight Agency, a specialized consultancy that helps organizations unlock performance by uniquely connecting a company’s purpose, story, values, people and products.

Marshall’s journey as an acquirer is just beginning, but his prior career building sales and sales training programs inside one of the most successful private insurance brokerage companies gives him a mid-career operator’s advantage over many newly minted MBAs pursuing EtA.

Marshall discusses his experiences in the family business, the personal considerations he had to weigh by joining the business, the value of establishing purpose before investing, and the lessons learned at Lockton around culture, autonomy, and nailing sales incentives.

The conversation concludes with Marshall getting into the details of the Knight Agency acquisition, highlighting the strategic importance of long-term vision, building relationships, and shared focus on people and purpose-driven work.

Discussion Points:

• Marshall’s decision to join the family-owned insurance brokerage
• Family business dynamics, honest feedback, growth, and community
• Establishing your personal core and opus ~ identity, values, principles, and vision
• Marshall's purpose-driven approach in starting Meraki Investments
• How Private Equity misses the opportunity to unlock purpose after the acquisition
• Impact of connecting culture, purpose and employees to create business success

Masters in Small Business M&A (sign up for podcast drops here) is produced by the team at Axial (www.axial.com). Axial makes it easy for small business owners to confidentially discover, research and connect with top-ranked M&A advisors and professional capital partners. In every episode, we explore the dynamic world of small business M&A, interviewing a mix of proven and emerging owners, operators, acquirers, and M&A advisors whose strategies and methods are being put to the test.

If you’d like to go deeper, head to Axial.com, where we make available the Axial member directories, downloadable tools for dealmakers, the Axial quarterly lower middle market investment banking league-table rankings, the SMB M&A pipeline report, and other useful information. If you’re a business owner, professional acquirer, or M&A advisor, you can start using Axial for free at Axial.com.

Resources:

Today’s guest is Rafael "Rafa" Quinn, co-founder and President of Alternative Holdings, a diversified holding company with subsidiaries in food services, retail, industrial sales, and business process outsourcing.

Rafa’s origin story has already been covered in other podcasts, so we instead begin in 2011 with his first deal, an industrial sales distribution company in Panama. Rafa shares how that first deal helped shape his long-term philosophy on evaluating companies, including the two recent water business acquisitions.

We then proceed to cover topics such as the horizontal Holdco model, advantages of vertical integration, and playing to your strengths as an investor. We close out the conversation with Rafa emphasizing how his strong partnership with his business partner has been critical in both overcoming obstacles and sustaining his ongoing passion and dedication to a career as an investor.

Discussion points:

• Rafael’s first deal and establishing HQ in Panama
• Adapting to market changes in energy sources
• Inventory consignment vs distribution model
• Horizontal holding companies vs. vertical integration
• Warren Buffett’s approach to post-acquisition incentive alignment
• The practical application of zero-cost budgeting
• Adding value without being needed in the day-to-day
• Rafael’s philosophy on long-term growth strategies and investment
• Intangible qualities of good business brokers
• Benefits of finding the right business partner

Masters in Small Business M&A (Subscribe to Masters in Small Business M&A) is produced by the team at Axial (www.axial.com). Axial makes it easy for small business owners to confidentially discover, research and connect with top-ranked M&A advisors and professional capital partners. In every episode, we explore the dynamic world of small business M&A, interviewing a mix of proven and emerging owners, operators, acquirers, and M&A advisors whose strategies and methods are being put to the test.

If you’d like to go deeper, head to Axial.com, where we make available the Axial member directories, downloadable tools for dealmakers, the Axial quarterly lower middle market investment banking league-table rankings, the SMB M&A pipeline report, and other useful information. If you’re a busine

Today’s guest is Matt Plooster, founder and CEO of Bridgepoint, a boutique investment bank based in Omaha, Nebraska. We start the conversation with a background on private credit and its origins. From there we proceed to cover its growth, its arrival in the lower middle market, and how business owners can think about its features, risks, utility and applicability. We close out the conversation by getting into specific lower middle market transactions where private credit has been central to the outcome.

Discussion points:

• The rise of private credit in the private market
• How non-bank financing has evolved post-2008 crisis
• Mezzanine vs. unitranche debt
• Comparing private credit to traditional bank lending
• Non-control transaction success with private capital