While Rich is a valued member of the sales team at Acquira, he considers himself more of a financial advisor, helping to guide Acquisition Entrepreneurs while they look for businesses.
“I spend a lot of time on partner interactions,” he explains. “Working with partners every day on issues beyond just the sales capacity, working with our AE partners on pre-due diligence and help them determine whether a deal looks like it may be worth pursuing or not.”
For people in the Acquira community, Rich is also a familiar face at our regular investment committee meetings, ensuring that Acquisition Entrepreneurs have done their due diligence before bringing deals to the Investment Committee. In that capacity, he will often offer feedback on their deal decks, financial models, investment theses, and more.
It’s a good fit for Rich, whose background spans many corners of the financial world. He began his professional career as an auditor at a public accounting firm. He then worked as an investment banker and later at a private equity firm as an analyst of emerging technology companies.
“And through all those roles, I've worked on acquisitions, “ he says.
Rich was an accomplished football player, with an opportunity to play professional football after college.
“I didn't have a career,” he laughs. “If you went to the bathroom while I was playing, you would have missed my entire career.”
His experience also reaches into roll-ups and IPOs, having worked on the sale of a number of businesses and helping to take one company public. But perhaps most importantly, Rich is an Acquisition Entrepreneur in his own right, having bought and sold a handful of his own small businesses.
Rich brings a systematic approach to acquisitions, a strong personal emphasis on analytics, and a deep knowledge of accounting.
“I can basically look at a few financial statements and hone in on any problem areas right off the bat, just because of that background,” he says, “I can be handed a CIM (Confidential Information Memorandum) and literally in 15 minutes, I can break a deal down and tell them where the issues are and what questions they need to ask. Part of that comes just from the rote training that I got from working at a large wirehouse and working 80 hours a week on deals.”
“I can spot a fraud from a mile away, too,” he jokes.