About
We built the fixing capability first.
Thesis
Plenty of capital can identify an operationally broken business. Almost none can fix one.
Most buyers look at a fragmented storage operator running on paper ledgers and a shared inbox and mark it down as too messy to underwrite. We look at the same business and see something we already know how to install.
That gap is the entire company. Because we can do the work ourselves, we can buy businesses other people pass on, back founders whose constraint is distribution rather than product, and occasionally rent the team out to operators who need it. The capability came first. The capital is how we scale it.
On the name
The businesses we like fail someone else's screener. Too small for the fund. Too quiet for the deck. Too operationally messy for a buyer who only knows how to read a P&L.
Disqualified isn't self-deprecating — it's the filter. Nearly everything we own or back was screened out by someone who couldn't fix what we can.
Three arms
Venture
Small, high-involvement checks into technical founders. We look for teams whose product is further along than their distribution, because that gap is the one we can close ourselves.
- Stage
- Pre-seed / Seed
- Check size
- $100–500k
- Our role
- GTM, pricing, first sales hires
Holdings
Control acquisitions of profitable, under-optimized businesses in fragmented categories. We buy from retiring owners, keep the crews, and replace the spreadsheets. We are not looking for an exit.
- Structure
- Majority or full control
- Hold period
- Permanent
- Categories
- Self-storage, trades, managed IT
Studio
The engineers and operators behind the other two. The studio works on our own holdings first. What capacity is left goes to a small number of outside operators and co-investors.
- Capacity
- Strategically aligned
- Priority
- Portfolio, then partners, then clients
- Scope
- GTM, RevOps, data, internal tooling
How they compound
Three arms, one motion. Each one feeds the next, which is the only honest reason to run them together.
- 01The studio builds and sharpens the capability.
- 02Capability lets us underwrite holdings other buyers can't.
- 03Holdings generate cash and, more usefully, proof.
- 04Proof brings venture dealflow and co-investors.
- 05Co-investors need capability — back to the studio.
Principles
Own the outcome.
Where we can, we take equity or tie fees to something that moves. We would rather be paid for the result than the hours.
Buy to keep.
No flip timeline. We underwrite on cash flow and durability, which means we can pay fairly and move quickly.
Ship, don't slide.
The deliverable is a working system. Decks are the residue of thinking, not the thinking itself.
Build for the next operator.
Everything assumes we'll hand it off. If the next hire can't run it inside a week, it isn't finished.
Writing
- 2026.07.14Essay → System debt is the new tech debt
- 2026.04.02Podcast → Everyday Operator (S3E12)
- 2026.02.19Interview → The Operators Room
- 2025.11.05Essay → Why we buy what funds screen out