⸻ WHO IT’S FOR
The work isn’t for every owner.
What I do takes presence — five or six days a month on site, alongside the owner and senior team, twelve to twenty-four months. That kind of partnership only works when a handful of companies have my full attention. Here’s who I work with best, and who I don’t.
⸻ THE RIGHT BUSINESS
The right business looks something like this.
These are often companies that have been built quietly, over decades, without much outside attention. They are exactly the kind of company I believe in most.
60-200 employees, $20-75M revenue
Owner-led — founder still active, or recently transitioned to PE/family-office/search-fund ownership in active value-creation
A non-founder CFO or COO already in seat
Three to seven years from a planned transition (sale, gift, ESOP, or generational handoff)
Located within the Ohio Valley — whether it be an anchor city, small town, or off a state route
Industry: defense and aerospace supply chain, aviation services, public safety equipment, or specialty industrial manufacturing
The Companies I Work With
60-200
EMPLOYEES
$20-75M
REVENUE
Ohio Valley
GEOGRAPHY
Service & Mfg
INDUSTRY FOCUS
These are guidelines, not requirements. If you are close, reach out.
⸻ THE RIGHT OWNER
And the right owner sounds something like this.
You built it. From scratch, mostly without outside capital. You know your industry, your customers, and your people.
A buyer has already knocked. A strategic or PE buyer approached in the last eighteen months — and you turned them down. The offer wasn't the right one, the timing wasn't, or the company wasn't yet what you wanted it to be valued for.
A CFO or COO you trust. Not a family member. Not a college roommate. Someone you hired because they were the right fit, who's ready for more responsibility than they currently have — and who the company will need to lean on when you start to step back.
You built it. First-generation. From scratch. Mostly without outside capital. You know your industry, your customers, and your people — because you assembled all of it.
The next chapter is on your mind. You don't have a plan locked in yet. But you know that the work to get the company ready for whatever comes next — sale, gift, ESOP, or generational handoff — is the kind of work you should already be doing.
If any of that sounds familiar, you are exactly who I built this for.
⸻ WHAT THIS IS NOT
A word on what this is not.
There's no shortage of people who sell help to owner-led companies. Coaches, consultants, fractional executives, bankers. Each of them does something useful for somebody, and most of them do it well. None of them do this. The categories owners most often confuse the work with are below — with the difference spelled out plainly, so you can decide for yourself.
✗ NOT THIS
Not a CEO coach
✓ THIS INSTEAD
Operating partnership — built for the years before transition
✗ NOT THIS
Not a fractional COO
✓ THIS INSTEAD
I don’t embed indefinitely. I build capability and leave when the company runs without me
✗ NOT THIS
Not a traditional consultant
✓ THIS INSTEAD
Real implementation — work that compounds into a higher multiple at exit
✗ NOT THIS
Not an M&A advisor
✓ THIS INSTEAD
I do the upstream work that makes the company sellable — in the years before a banker shows up
“
I show up. I work alongside you. And I stay until it is right.
— Matt Gillespie
⸻ WHERE I WORK
A note on where I work.
Cincinnati is home. I work in person across the Ohio Valley and adjacent regions — often within 150 miles of Cincinnati. That covers Cincinnati, Dayton, Columbus, Louisville, Lexington, Richmond, Portsmouth, Bowling Green, Chillicothe, Ashland, Huntington, and the manufacturing corridor in between.
If you're outside that radius and the fit is unusually strong, we can talk about how to make it work. The constraint is being able to be on site five or six days a month.
Within the region, I focus particularly on defense and aerospace supply chain, aviation services, public safety equipment, and specialty industrial manufacturing — the companies that build, supply, and serve the people who keep this country running.
I fly myself to you. Distance is not a barrier — it is part of the commitment.
Ohio Valley
FROM INDIANAPOLIS, IN TO NASHVILLE, TN TO CHARLESTON, WV TO PITTSBURGH, PA
⸻
AND EVERYWHERE IN BETWEEN
⸻
In-person by default. Matt comes to you.
⸻ READY WHEN YOU ARE ⸻
Let’s find out if this is the right fit.
The first conversation is simple, direct, and free. If what you have read here resonates — reach out. I will call you back personally.