What factors inspired the establishment of Salt Creek Partners?

Salt Creek Partners (SCP) was established to fill a void for business leaders in emerging growth and middle markets. From firsthand experience, we realized that companies are underserved when it comes to full-service Investment Banking providers. SCP is committed to changing that reality. Our advisory capabilities are designed to teach clients how to build, grow, and improve their companies and enterprise value to achieve varying exits and other strategic goals.

What were the initial challenges during the establishment of the company? How did Salt Creek Partners overcome these challenges to become one of the most promising companies in the market space?

It’s been an exceptional experience watching the company grow. Our early projects were successfully executed and served as the foundation for the company’s future. The engagements at the time were fairly bootstrapped, but we could get the desired outcome by leaning on previous experience and putting forth the work ethic required. The early projects gave us the validation and credentials to know we could successfully serve our clients’ mandates while helping us identify where we needed to invest internally to increase desirable outcomes.

Since our early days, the two most enjoyable parts of our journey have been around our clients and our employees. Helping an owner find the right long-term partner to continue their company’s legacy, knowing that the owner can achieve a desirable outcome and peace of mind, brings satisfaction day in and day out. Mentoring our employees as they grow in their roles has been highly rewarding. Through it all our priorities have been the same – we are committed to being the premium quality investment bank for the emerging and middle markets.

How would you describe Sal Creek Partners and the wide array of services/solutions offered by the company?

SCP serves business leaders in the emerging growth and middle markets, frequently involving Forbes 100 Fastest Growing Companies, Top 40 Private Equity Groups, and Fortune 1000 Industry Leaders. We work across a diverse range of sectors with a specific focus on clients looking to be acquired (Sell-Side) and companies wanting to make acquisitions (Buy-Side). We work closely with ownership to develop a strategy that optimizes and repositions their company to accomplish two primary objectives for clients looking to be acquired. First, we want to craft a unique and compelling acquisition narrative to ensure the highest valuation possible. Second, we want to narrow the field of buyers to ensure the client can select the right long-term partner to continue their legacy. We also provide extensive buy-side advisory to Private Equity Groups and acquisitive corporations, working closely from thesis development through target engagement. 

In launching this firm, we assembled a team of complementary partners who have proven track records with managing complex financial transactions, providing investment banking services, performing market research and analysis, guiding companies from concept through hyper-growth, and building companies towards varying exits. We keep long-standing relationships with many CXOs/Owners and speak with them regularly. This allows SCP to remain current with the analyses and data that we provide to our clients. 

Although the firm is broadly defined as generalists, we have quickly carved out a niche within environmental, infrastructure, and industrial services. SCP is regarded as one of the leaders in the environmental world, and our consulting services are highly sought after in this current market. Moreover, our advisory capabilities have allowed us to establish and begin to grow specialist capabilities in other industries, particularly healthcare, business services, retail and consumer, and transportation. 

How would you describe the team of Salt Creek Partners? Being at the company’s forefront, how do you enforce a motivating and productive work environment in the office?

Our culture starts with our team – the employees we hire come from a mix of conventional and non-conventional backgrounds such as private equity, buy-side investment banking, and management consulting, which naturally builds a pool of creative and diverse perspectives. As leaders, we emphasize a highly collaborative process internally in how we service our clients and externally in how we partner with our clients.

In your opinion, is customer satisfaction an important attribute of scaling success? With respect to that, what measures does Salt Creek Partners undertake to guide clients to a successful exit and better positioning in a strategic manner? 

Customer satisfaction is vital to our success. We know that earning and keeping our clients’ approval is required at every stage of a partnership, and there is no better way to do that than demonstrating it through the quality of our service. The business environment is constantly changing and the best way to serve the interests of your clients is to be willing to challenge the status quo, reject complacency, and learn from a diverse range of individuals and experiences. Consistently challenging the team to bring creativity and innovation in approaching client solutions while refining processes and workflows results in better outcomes.

M&A deals are an art and a science. Unlike traditional investment banks, we have innovated our processes to adapt to the workflows of private equity and corporate buyers. We execute a custom M&A process tailored to each client. Each engagement is an intellectual exercise requiring creativity and innovation. As opposed to the traditional view focused solely on transaction certainty, which typically results in a lower overall outcome for clients, we focus on creating competitive tension through a market-driven process. 

An effective deal process also involves enhanced preparation while retaining the flexibility to streamline the intensive marketing and due diligence phases without compromising quality. This allows our firm to meet the exact needs of each of our clients and deliver a better outcome of events. We have a demonstrated track record of delivering actionable offers to clients, often far exceeding expectations prior to going to market. Because we recognize the sensitivity and significance of our mandate, our team earns the trust of our clients. 

What’s next for Salt Creek Partners in the coming years?

SCP is on its way to becoming the first full-service investment bank for the emerging and middle markets. Our increasing experience, capabilities, and reputation have expanded our reach. We started with sell-side advisory and have since expanded into buy-side advisory, strategy consulting, valuation, and other services. Our first clients originated out of the Southeast U.S., but as we’ve grown and expanded our services, so has our geographic footprint. 

Currently, we service clients across North America and have expanded into Asia as well. While we are known leaders in the environmental world, our industry focus has expanded deeper into business services, consumer product goods, healthcare, high tech, niche manufacturing, retail, transportation and logistics, and more.