⸻ ABOUT MATT GILLESPIE
The Operator’s Partner
I ran a manufacturing turnaround as COO — made payroll, made the calls, did the work without outside support. Then I spent nearly a decade as CEO of a single-family office overseeing more than a dozen operating companies.
Now I work alongside owner-led companies in the years before a transition. Same work, different seat at the table.
| Operator first. Buyer second.
Former COO — Manufacturing & Services Turnaround
Former CEO — Single-Family Office, 12+ Operating Companies
Engineer by Training
Founder — Rawhide Executive Solutions
Matt Gillespie
Founder & Operator’s Partner
⸻ THE SHORT VERSION
I'm a different kind of consultant. I've spent more of my career running real companies than advising on them — and what I learned in those seats is what I do alongside owners now.
AS COO
I ran a turnaround on the floor — not from a deck. I led the turnaround and rapid scale of a diversified manufacturing and service business. That's where I learned what this work is actually like at this size — making payroll, making the calls, doing the kind of operating that doesn't come with a deck.
Including the 2 a.m. shifts on a forklift when a shipment had to go out and there wasn't anyone else. No team of advisors backing me up. No infrastructure. Just the calls that needed to be made.
AS CEO OF A FAMILY OFFICE
Eight years overseeing more than a dozen operating companies. After that, I spent nearly a decade as CEO of a single-family office overseeing more than a dozen operating companies — manufacturing, services, a national consumer brand, and commercial real estate. Most of that time was spent sitting next to owner-operators, buying, holding, and improving companies the way patient capital builds value across decades, not quarters.
That's the seat where I learned what makes a company buyable, what destroys value before a deal closes, and what an owner-led company needs to be worth what its work has been worth at transition.
AS AN ENGINEER
A way of seeing problems that hasn't left me. I'm an engineer by training. That shapes how I approach every business problem: distill it to its fundamental components, eliminate what's unnecessary, and build off what's already strong.
BY THE NUMBERS
12+
OPERATING COMPANIES LED
Eight Years
AS A FAMILY OFFICE CEO
Two
FULL BUSINESS TURNAROUNDS
Ohio Valley
HOME TERRITORY
⸻ WHY I STARTED RAWHIDE
The same pattern, across more than a dozen companies.
Across more than a dozen operating companies, I kept seeing the same pattern. Owner-led businesses with real fundamentals — companies that build things, employ people, anchor their communities. Owners who built them from nothing, mostly without outside capital.
And then, somewhere in the years before they wanted to step back, the same gap kept showing up: the company had been built around them. That's what made it work. It's also what was going to make it sell for less than what the work had been worth.
I started Rawhide Executive Solutions to do for owner-led companies what a good family office does for the businesses it owns: build the senior layer, the decision architecture, and the financial discipline that lets a company compound value — and lets the owner step out when they choose, on the terms they choose.
“
The best companies are the ones the owner can leave when they choose to. The best lives are the ones the company doesn't take over.
— Matt Gillespie
⸻ HOW I’M DIFFERENT
Let me help put what I do in perspective.
✗
CEO COACH
Meets with you regularly. Asks good questions. Reflects. Sells time.
✗
FRACTIONAL COO
Embeds indefinitely as a part-time C-suite hire. Becomes part of the org chart.
✗
TRADITIONAL CONSULTANT
Hands off a binder. Disappears.
WHAT I ACTUALLY AM
The Operator’s Partner.
An operator who has actually run a company and made payroll — and who then spent a decade on the buyer's side of the table. As comfortable with the welder you've had for thirty years as with the CFO you hired last year. As comfortable in a buyer's diligence room as in your weekly ops meeting.
Operator first. Buyer second.
✓
⸻ HOW I SHOW UP
I come to you.
I am based in Cincinnati and I fly myself across the Ohio Valley to meet with clients in person: in Richmond IN; Portsmouth OH; Bowling Green KY; Chillicothe OH; Louisville KY; Indianapolis IN; Pittsburgh PA; Charleston WV; and throughout the region.
This kind of work cannot be done over video calls alone. Showing up in person, at your facility, around your people, is part of how I do it right.
I like to travel the same way I like to work: directly, efficiently, and always moving forward.
✈
Distance is not a barrier.
It is part of the commitment.
⸻
✓ I come to your location
✓ All travel included in flat-fee
✓ In person by default
“Because your business should serve your life — not consume it.”
— Matt Gillespie, Founder & Operator’s Partner
⸻ IF THE FIT IS RIGHT ⸻
Start with a Working Visit.
Ninety minutes on-site at your facility. No fee. No pitch. You walk away with a one-page Snapshot of where your company scores across the six dimensions — and a direct read on which two or three matter most for your situation. Yours either way.