Intro: Self-funded UCLA Alum in Orange County

Hi All! My name is Carter Brutschy and I recently partnered with two friends I have known for 20+ years to search for a business to acquire. Despite going our separate ways in college and professionally, we’ve stayed in close contact, often discussing putting our heads together. We all have different backgrounds (including tech, real estate, and private equity), which allows us each to bring different skill sets and strengths to the partnership. Our conversations and thoughts over the last year have led us to form Valpo Holdings with the intention of buying businesses and keeping them forever. We are looking to take an executive board role in our acquisition(s) and intend to promote leadership from within or bring in a new CEO to handle the day to day operations

Though we are self-funding our search and acquisition we would love to connect with investors, searchers, brokers, interns, CEO candidates, and other like-minded folks in the community.

My Background

(2019-Present) JCJ Capital LLC Angel fund primarily investing opportunistically within our network. Partnered with the two founders of Tripping International.

(###-###-#### Director of Finance & Controller, Tripping International, Inc.

-After founders were bought out, helped lead the company through transition and acquisition by the largest competitor.

-Established and managed accounting practices, annual audit procedures, cap table, HRIS, and other software/systems while reporting to CEO.

-Implemented $20M annual budget.

-Helped aid MRR growth over 17,000% in 3 years.

-Managed financial, legal, and employee-related diligence for Series A, B, and C rounds.

(###-###-#### Finance and Operations at various start-ups and small businesses

(###-###-#### Credit Analyst, Union Bank Performed underwriting and risk analysis for 50 corporate and 150 middle-market clients, whose revenue ranged from $5M to $2B

Education: UCLA, B.A. in Economics (2008), NCAA Water Polo national champion (2004)

One of my partners has primarily focused on the public equity market and real estate investments. The other partner has primarily worked in private equity and also runs a rare-disease non-profit.

OUR SEARCH

Type of Search

-Self-funded

-Broker and proprietary

-Geographically agnostic

Criteria

-B2B or B2C services

-Recurring revenue component

-$500K+ in free cash flow

-A business that will be around for 30+ years

Geographies

As we don’t anticipate being involved in the day-to-day operations of the portfolio company, we are generally geographically agnostic across the USA. We are all based in California and naturally, the strength of our networks is on the west coast.