What we do,
plainly.
No forty-slide deck. Here is exactly what Salt Creek does, who we do it for, and the one-page version you can download and keep.
One page · PDF · No email requiredWho we are.
Two brothers, one firm, no outside investors telling us how to run it. We started Salt Creek in Chicago because we wanted to build something ourselves the old way: pick up the phone, do the work, and stand behind it. We are not trying to look like every other private equity shop with a stock photo of a handshake on the homepage. We would rather just tell you what we do.
What we do.
Five things, and we are honest with you about which ones actually apply to your situation on the first call.
Sell-Side Advisory
Positioning and execution for owners who are ready, or getting ready, to sell.
Buy-Side Sourcing
Target sourcing and outreach for private equity firms and strategic acquirers.
Proprietary Deal Flow
Off-market opportunities surfaced through our own network, not a mass email blast.
Valuation
Market perspective and business valuation support, explained in plain English.
AI Audits
AI and workflow assessments for business owners who want an honest read on where they stand.
Who we work best with.
We turn down more conversations than you would think, because a bad fit wastes everyone's time. Here is what a good fit usually looks like:
- Founder-owned and family-owned businesses. If your name, or your family's name, is on the door, we understand what that means to you.
- $5M to $75M in revenue. Big enough to matter, small enough that you still know every employee's name.
- $1M to $5M in EBITDA, with flexibility for larger deals and select smaller opportunities that are the right fit.
- On-market and off-market opportunities. Some owners are ready to run a full process. Others just want a real conversation with one serious buyer.
- Owners evaluating a sale, a recapitalization, or a growth partner. You do not need to have decided yet. That is often what the first call is for.
Sectors we focus on.
We spend most of our time in three places: early childhood education, business services, and industrials. We know these industries well enough to ask the right questions in the first meeting, not the fifth. See our full sector page for the detail, including where our team has spent the most time.
Why Salt Creek.
We are not the biggest name in the lower middle market, and we are not pretending to be. Here is what we offer instead:
- Two brothers on every engagement. Not a rotating cast of associates. Us, on the calls, from the first one to the last.
- AI-driven sourcing and research, built by us to find opportunities and answers faster than the old way of doing this work.
- Real-time buyer and valuation perspective, because guessing at a number and then defending it later is not a plan.
- Selective, responsive, relationship-driven. We take on fewer engagements than a bigger firm would, so the ones we take get our full attention.