Letters from
the Founder.

Why Blue Haven exists

To the owners, investors and people who will build Blue Haven with us,

Permanent owners owe people an honest account. This is the first of what I intend to be a regular letter: what we are building, what we have done, what went wrong and what we learned from it. It is written for the business owners who may one day trust us with their life’s work, for the investors who may back us, and for the people who will do the work.

A generation of Americans who built machine shops, distributors and service companies is reaching retirement, and many of them have no one lined up to take over. Too often, the buyer who shows up is built to sell the company again in five years. That buyer has every reason to cut the crew, stretch the balance sheet and dress up the numbers for the next owner. I have seen what that does to a business, and to a town.

I did not come up through finance. I started on the floor, and I have done nearly every job I will ever ask someone else to do. Later I ran a company as its president, through good years and a brutal one. The lesson I carried out of it is simple: the gains that last come from running the business better, not from leverage or timing.

Blue Haven is a holding company. We buy a small number of essential, owner-built businesses in manufacturing, distribution and services, and we keep them. Each company keeps its name, its leaders and its way of serving customers. Behind them, we provide capital, systems and a team that has run a plant floor.

What you can hold us to

• We pay what the earnings justify. We would rather walk away from a deal than overpay for one.
• We buy with little or no debt. We will not stack a loan on a company to make the math work.
• We keep the people and the name. The crew is the business, and our plan is always to keep it where it is.
• There is no clock. We do not buy companies to sell them.
• We show our work. Investors are paid from what the companies earn, and they see the real numbers every quarter.

Where we are today

We have not bought our first company yet. We are actively sourcing, and we are being patient on purpose, because the first company sets the tone for everything that follows. When we close, you will read about it here: what we bought, why we bought it and what we are watching.

If you own a business you want to last, or you want your capital working in companies like these, I would welcome a conversation. My door is open.