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WORKING KNOWLEDGE IS A PRIVATE EQUITY FIRM CREATED BY THREE SUCCESSFUL ENTREPRENEURS FOCUSED ON THE ACQUISITION OF NORTHWEST BUSINESSES
INTRODUCTION
Working Knowledge is a unique private equity firm. Our charter is to invest in or outright acquire Northwest business and then grow them via additional leadership, proven business process, and ferocious adherence to metrics. Sales, business operations, and technology are three key areas of initial review and focus in any of our acquisitions.
PURPOSE
Purpose is the glue that holds our group together. It is a topic we visit frequently to ensure team alignment, maintain strong partnerships, and objectively review our performance. Our mission is to learn and grow together while using our skills and experience to help create positive change in the companies we invest in or purchase. Our group relishes the opportunity to coach and mentor our partners and we firmly believe that results are a function of strong leadership at all levels of our organizations.
what we look for
Our interests are broad, but we’re looking first and foremost for serious sellers who either want to move on, or take some chips off the table and dramatically change the growth trajectory of their company.
- The majority of our acquisitions or investments meet the following criteria:
- Diverse and stable customer base
- Strong history of profitable returns
- Niche position in the market is clear and defensible
- Headquartered in the Northwest
- Terms result in actual or effective control of the company
- Areas of Particular Interest: Services, Manufacturing, Medical, SAAS-based, Route-based
In addition to constantly looking at new opportunities, WK is actively seeking out acquisition candidates to further expand our Home Services and Food Manufacturing funds. From HVAC to plumbing to electrical, if it’s in the Northwest, we’re interested. In Food Manufacturing, we’re looking all across the US for additional acquisition candidates that serve commercial grade food manufacturers, be it in software, hardware or services.
investments
ParityFactory
ParityFactory’s warehouse management systems seamlessly handles co-products and byproducts, in both one-to-many and many-to-many processes, delivering accurate inventory control with your current ERP. Parity's software is designed specifically for food and beverage manufacturers.
jLAN Mobile
jLAN Mobile provides route accounting, mobile sales, direct store delivery and full-service sales software for field agents. Our first and only mission is to empower businesses and their field sales teams. www.jlanmobile.com
Send A Cake
Send A Cake is an online cake delivery store, specializing in unique, fun and personalized alternatives to a regular cake for birthdays, holidays and events. Its mission is to create wonderful moments and experiences that their customers want to send their loved ones.
Spectrum ESG
AI-Powered ESG Benchmarking and Stakeholder Engagement - Spectrum ESG automates how companies and asset managers attract ESG capital by leveraging proprietary AI algorithms and an industry-first ESG Knowledge Graph.
Guillermo Bravo
Seattle based sustainable sneaker and apparel brand. Everyone has something to say—fashion is language.
Meet Our team of experts
Sean Clemmons
Sean is a serial entrepreneur and investor who most recently exited his business intelligence consulting firm, Piraeus consulting. Sean’s passion is in professional services, business processes and the way in which business intelligence makes better employees. his m&a focus is on identifying existing businesses where rigor around data, process, and metrics can have an outsized impact on growth. while he has a particular affinity for businesses with rich data, most often the verticals that benefit most immediately from this rigor are those on the lower-tech end of the spectrum.
Mark Sims
Mark is founder & CEO of Fikes, a well-known B2B facility services and products distribution company with locations throughout the west coast; all starting from his humble beginnings out of a 10 X 10 storage unit.
Marks is a true entrepreneur and investor at heart with his primary passions surrounding sales, customer experience innovations and all things related to the growth of people! He credits much of his success to the broad entrepreneurial and investor network he’s built as well as his ongoing involvement with EO Seattle. where he’s a board member and Past President.
Long before business he was all-conference Division 1 Defensive Football standout where he still applies that same relentless philosophy & commitment in all he does today. He is married to his wife Susie living happily with their two sons, Brayden & Ryder. His personal pursuits involve traveling and spending quality time with his family and dear friends. He also loves a variety of immersive outdoor experiences such as fly fishing, mountain climbing, & scuba diving.
Aaron Song
Aaron is the founder and ceo of several tech companies, including Song Technologies. Song Technologies is a data-driven company providing information services to the live entertainment and ticketing industry. His companies have evolved and grown dramatically since their original inception in 2006. Aaron’s passion is people first and technology second. He invests in a broad set of industries and believes strongly in having only great people on his team. He believes in transparency at all levels and enjoys aggressively pursuing new opportunities for growth.
