leadeRship
Promise Okeke
Promise is the Managing Analyst of Victoriaside Partners. He grew up interacting with customers and selling merchandise at his parents’ convenience store, where he honed his hunger and tenacity for entrepreneurship. Prior to founding Victoriaside Partners, he worked in operations at Home Chef, a meal kit startup that was sold for up to $700mm. Promise also worked in management consulting at Bain & Co., where he partnered with senior management teams across diverse sectors to address complex strategic issues by conducting analyses, synthesizing and presenting insights, and empowering client teams to execute on solutions.
Promise holds a B.S. in Biology from Augsburg University, Minneapolis, with the highest distinction, and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Select Investors
Victoriaside Partners is backed by institutional and individual investors. Most are former searchers and CEOs, emphasizing their commitment to search fund acquisitions. A select few of them will be joining the board of the acquired business.
Kevin Oxendine
Kevin is a Partner at Pacific Lake Partners where he brings experience as a successful executive and operator. Kevin drives Pacific Lake’s search fund software investment strategy. Kevin is a two-time successful CEO/COO. Over his three years at Wistia, the company grew from $8M to over to $30M in ARR before Kevin executed a PE-backed recapitalization. At Havit, a consulting firm, Kevin grew the firm from $6M to $36M in capitalized billings over three years.
Kevin graduated from the University of Maryland where he received the H.C. Byrd Award and earned an MBA from Stanford’s Graduate School of Business as an Arjay Miller Scholar. Kevin resides just outside of Boston, MA with his wife, Kate, and their two sons, Teddy and Chase.
Max Artz
Max is a Principal at Peterson Partners. Prior to joining Peterson Partners, Max worked as Chief of Staff at Flow Commerce. Prior to joining Flow, Max was the General Manager of China at The Aromatherapy Company, a New Zealand home goods company, based in Shanghai. Max began his career with The Royal Bank of Scotland in the International Banking division. Max received an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and a B.S. from Babson College.
JR De Agostini
JR is a Principal at Peterson Partners. Prior to joining Peterson Partners, JR was an investment banking associate with JP Morgan’s healthcare group in San Francisco. Prior to joining JP Morgan, JR served as a Navy SEAL team leader. JR received an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business and B.A. degrees in Economics from the University of Utah.
Larry Dunn
Larry is an accomplished financial professional with over 30 years of diverse operational and investing experience. In addition to his role at Endurance, Larry is the CFO of NIP Group and partners with Rich in its day to day operations. Prior to joining NIP Group, he was Managing Director at Ally Financial and a Director of M&A and Divisional CFO at AIG. He began his career with KPMG. Larry enjoys working closely with searchers at every stage of their quest to acquire one great company and supporting their goals to build that company while becoming a highly successful CEO. He is committed to lend his expertise to, and generously collaborates with, all members of the search fund community.
Richard Augustyn
Rich is a business builder who has founded, scaled and continues to manage Extensis Group and NIP Group, two market leading business services and insurance companies. Through Endurance Search Partners he has enjoyed partnering with over 100 exceptional search fund entrepreneurs, helping them find, buy and build great companies over the long term.
Rich serves on the board of ABS Warranty, FIMC, Housing Wire, KGHP and World Wide Security.
Jason Pananos
Jason Pananos is a co-founder of The Nashton Company. The Nashton Company is a holding company investing in recurring revenue services businesses. Nashton builds leading companies in niche markets over a very long period of time. Prior to cofounding the firm, Jason served as the President of Vector Disease Acquisition, a holding company that provides vector-borne disease prevention programs and lake management services. Under Jason's leadership, the company made 14 acquisitions and grew at a CAGR of 43%. Vector Disease Acquisition was acquired by Rentokil Initial (FTSE: RTO) in November of 2017.
Jason obtained a Master in Business Administration degree from Harvard Business School and a BBA in finance from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Jay Davis
Jay Davis is a co-founder of The Nashton Company. The Nashton Company is a holding company investing in recurring revenue services businesses. Nashton builds leading companies in niche markets over a very long period of time. Prior to cofounding the firm, Jay served as the CEO of Vector Disease Acquisition, a holding company that provides vector-borne disease prevention programs and lake management services. Under Jay’s leadership, the company made 14 acquisitions and grew at a CAGR of 43%. Vector Disease Acquisition was acquired by Rentokil Initial (FTSE: RTO) in November of 2017.
Jay obtained a Master in Business Administration from Harvard Business School and graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Vanderbilt University with a degree in Economics.
Neal Jacobs
Neal Jacobs is the Managing Partner of Maven Equity Partners. Neal brings a passion for entrepreneurship, a significant investment track record and a deep background in finance to Maven Equity Partners. Prior to founding Maven Equity Partners, Neal was a partner and co-portfolio manager at two public market investment firms, Cambrian Capital and Bodri Capital Management. Neal started his career at Goldman Sachs as a financial analyst and also held a number of operating roles at Jamcracker, Inc.
Neal obtained his BA from Duke University, and MBA from Stanford Business School.
Kent Weaver
Kent is currently Chairman and CEO of Progressive Home Care, a Northern California-based home health care agency purchased using the search fund model. Previously, Mr. Weaver held executive positions in marketing and product management for KnowledgeLINK, a venture-backed technology services company. Prior to this, he served as a regional CFO and business analyst in Pepsico's Pizza Hut Division and as a management consultant with Ernst & Young.
Kent received his MBA from the University of California, Los Angeles and a BS in finance from the University of Southern California.
Mark Egan
Mark Egan is a founder and Managing Partner at Marion Equity Partners, a Boston based investment firm. Prior to Marion, Mark focused on growth equity investments in the technology, healthcare, media, and business services industries at Polaris Venture Partners. Before Polaris, Mark began his career at Alta Communications where he executed investments in the media and telecommunications sectors. Mark also has previous experience with Comcast Corporation in business development.
Mark received a degree in Finance from Fairfield University and an MBA from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
Matt Estep
Matt Estep is the Managing Partner and founder of Bosworth Capital Partners. Matt is responsible for identifying and sourcing target companies, conducting due diligence, deal structuring, negotiating, financing and ultimately working alongside management of the acquired companies. In 2010, upon making the investment in Midwest Supplies, Matt worked with the founders desire to transition out quickly and assumed the role of President. Over the next 2 years, Matt worked at building out a leadership team that could help scale the rapidly growing ecommerce company to over $100M in sales.
Matt holds a Master in Business Administration degree from Harvard Business School and also graduated from Purdue University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering.
Will Thorndike
Will founded Housatonic Partners in Boston in 1994 and has been Managing Director since that time. Prior to founding Housatonic, Will worked with T. Rowe Price Associates and Walker & Company where he was named to the Board of Directors. Will has over two decades of experience investing in recurring service companies across a wide variety of industries. Will is a Director of Carillon Assisted Living, Lincoln Peak Holdings, QMC International, and ZircoDATA. Outside of Housatonic, he is a Director of WGBH, the College of the Atlantic (Chair), as well as a founding partner at FARM, a social impact investing collaborative. He is the author of The Outsiders.
Will holds an A.B. from Harvard College and M.B.A. from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
Bob Dahl
Bob Dahl is a Managing Director and co-founder of WRD Capital, a venture capital firm serving out of Connecticut. Bob was also a founding member of Arrowhawk Capital Partners, an investment management firm which manages a multi-strategy, institutionally-focused fund. Prior to his involvement in Arrowhawk Capital Partners, Bob spent seven years as the head of Global Healthcare for the Carlyle Group, a leading private equity firm with over $50 billion of equity under management, where he was responsible for the firm's investments in the healthcare field.
Bob also served as co-head of healthcare investment banking in North America at Credit Suisse First Boston. Earlier in his career Bob was a CPA for Price Waterhouse. Bob received a B.A. in economics from Middlebury College and later an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.
Andrew Saltoun
Andrew is the Managing Director of Saltoun Capital Partners. He was most recently the CEO of Integra Partners, a healthcare services company acquired in 2011. Prior to acquiring Integra, Andrew held roles at Goldman Sachs as an investment banker and Vestar Capital Partners as an investor for the multi-billion-dollar private equity fund. Andrew is an active investor in entrepreneurial, growth companies including Bonobos, Axial Markets, and numerous search funds and their acquired businesses.
He is a board member of Integra Partners, Light Wave Dental, Datacor, and the Brooklyn Museum. Andrew received a bachelor degree in business administration from Emory University and an MBA from Stanford’s Graduate School of Business.
Paul (Lew) Davis
Mr. Davies founded The Cambria Group in 1996 and is its Managing Principal. He is an experienced private equity investor, having previously been a Principal in the leveraged buyout groups of both Brentwood Associates and The Fremont Group.
Mr. Davies holds a Bachelor’s degree in Industrial Engineering, with distinction, from Stanford University. He also received an MBA from Stanford’s Graduate School of Business, where he was an Arjay Miller Scholar.
Doug Tudor
Mr. Tudor is an active investor with diverse experience in operating, acquiring and scaling high-growth businesses. He is Managing Partner of Ravenscourt Partners, a private investment firm focused on teaming with executives to build leading middle market, technology-enabled service companies. Ravenscourt invests in business opportunities with compelling value propositions, strong growth potential and top management teams. He spent nine years as a senior executive at Asurion, the leading global provider of technology protection services, which grew from $225 million to $4.8 billion in revenue during his tenure. Prior to that, he raised a search fund and was co-founder and President of Clear Creek Environmental. Mr. Tudor received a Bachelor of Arts in History from Brown University and a Masters of Business Administration from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
JT Fitzgerald
Mr. Fitzgerald is founder and Managing Partner of Argo Management Group and in that capacity, Mr. Fitzgerald has had extensive transactional and operating experience in Argo’s portfolio companies. Mr. Fitzgerald is Chairman of Hunter MFG, LLP, and serves on the board of directors of Oak Patch Gifts , Progressive Bronze Products, Atlas Financial Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: AFH), 1347 Capital Corp (NASDAQ: TFSC) and Kingsway Financial Services, Inc. (NYSE: KFS).
Prior to Argo Management Partners, Mr. Fitzgerald was co-founder and managing director of Adirondack Capital, LLC, a financial futures and derivatives trading firm. He was formerly a member and Full seat owner on the Chicago Board of Trade. Mr. Fitzgerald got his MBA from Kellogg School of Management and a BS in finance from Depaul University.
Mark Anderegg
Mark Anderegg was just recently the CEO of Little Sprouts, a Boston-based provider of early education centers, which he led the acquisition of in October 2012. Little Sprouts owns and operates 30 preschools throughout New England. The company employs approximately 800 educators and serves 3,000 families. Earlier in his career, Mark was an investment banker with Goldman Sachs, first in New York and later in Chicago. He subsequently worked as a private equity investor with Chicago Growth Partners, a middle-market buyout fund, where he focused on investments in the education industry.
Mark received his B.A. in Economics, magna cum laude, from Vanderbilt University and his MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.
Rameez Ansari
Rameez is a Director at Synergy Corporation, a family owned business focused on the energy sector in South Asia. Rameez is also a Lecturer in the Finance Department at the University of Toronto. Previously, he was Co-CEO of FieldEdge, a vertically focused SaaS company which he acquired, grew more than 5x in three years, and sold to Advent International. Rameez spent his early career at the Boston Consulting Group where provided corporate strategy and operational guidance to Fortune 500 clients. In 2018, Rameez received an Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year award.
Rameez graduated with a Bachelors in Business Administration with High Distinction from the University of Toronto and earned a Masters in Business Administration from the Graduate School of Business at Stanford.
Steve Lau
Steve is a Partner at Whitecap Venture Partners, a venture capital firm focused on early stage investing. Steve is also a Lecturer in Management at the University of Toronto. Previously, he was Co-CEO of FieldEdge, a vertically focused SaaS company which he acquired, grew more than 5x in three years, and sold to Advent International. Steve spent his early career at CPPIB where he completed $11B in direct private equity transactions and at TD Securities in investment banking. In 2018, Steve received an EY Entrepreneur of the Year award.
Steve graduated with a Bachelors in Business Administration with High Distinction from the University of Toronto and earned a Masters in Business Administration from the Wharton Business School.