Silow Ventures is a private holding company. We acquire majority stakes in profitable service businesses across the United States and select international markets, keep the name on the door, and hold them for decades — not for a five-year exit window.
Updated September 2026
Most buyers in the lower middle market are renting. They borrow against your cash flow, cut what they don't understand, and sell you again in four years. We are not built that way. Silow is funded by the operating profits of the companies we already own, which means we can be patient, and we can be honest about what we will and won't change.
The brand you built has equity with your customers and your crew. We don't roll it into a faceless parent. Your team keeps their jobs, their pay, and in most cases their manager.
We underwrite to what a business earns today, not to a growth story we need a future buyer to believe. That keeps our offers honest and our leverage low.
Our principals sit inside the companies we own — on the schedule, the payroll, the insurance renewal. When we talk about how your week actually runs, it isn't from a slide.
No re-trading after diligence. If something material turns up, we say so early and explain exactly how it changes the number.
The portfolio is built around businesses that get paid for work people can't postpone. Different industries, different countries, one rule: each company keeps its own name, its own team, and its own P&L.
Licensed instruction, certification, and testing
Regulated training businesses with real barriers to entry — licensing, fleets, credentialed staff. Demand is set by law and life stage rather than by the economy, which makes revenue unusually steady.
Warehousing, third-party logistics, last-mile support
Operations that sit between a brand and its customer: pick and pack, storage, returns, and freight coordination. We look for sticky accounts, honest inventory counts, and a building that isn't running at the edge of its capacity.
Contracted, route-based work for commercial property
Cleaning, maintenance, and building services sold on renewing contracts rather than one-off jobs. Unglamorous, fragmented, and exactly the kind of market where a patient owner can consolidate without overpaying.
Direct-to-consumer goods and e-commerce
Product businesses with a defined customer and a repeatable acquisition channel. This is also where we test creative, pricing, and merchandising at low cost — and push what works back into the rest of the group.
Small-run manufacturing and skilled trade services
Owner-operated shops with equipment, technical staff, and customers who have bought from them for years. Usually a succession problem rather than a performance problem — which is the situation we are built for.
Our operating companies serve their own customers under their own brands, and we don't think their staff or their clients benefit from reading about ownership on a website. Sellers, lenders, and advisers we are actively working with receive the full portfolio, references from owners who have already sold to us, and proof of funds — under NDA, on the first substantive call.
We look at a narrow band on purpose. If your business fits this shape, we can usually tell you within a week whether we're a real buyer.
Not a fit: pre-revenue startups, businesses that lose money without a clear reason, restaurants, single-client agencies, and anything requiring a license we can't legally hold. We'd rather tell you no in one call than waste three months of yours.
Five stages. You'll always know which one you're in and what happens next.
Thirty minutes on the phone. You tell us what the business does and why you're thinking about selling. Nothing in writing yet.
P&Ls and tax returns under NDA. We do our own recast and come back with a range, not a single number designed to anchor you.
Price, structure, your role after close, and what happens to your people — all written down before we spend money on diligence.
Thirty to forty-five days. Books, contracts, licensing, insurance, and a few days on site. Your staff doesn't have to know yet.
Funds wire, we hold an all-hands the same week, and you stay on for whatever handoff period we agreed to — sometimes two weeks, sometimes a year.
Whether you're ready to sell this quarter or just want a realistic number in your head for three years from now, the first call costs you nothing and stays between us.