Odd Lots · Friday, September 18, 2026
Private equity firms are increasingly investing in seemingly unglamorous, founder-owned businesses like plumbing companies and cabinet manufacturers. These firms provide an exit for founders and a path to wealth creation, often by consolidating regional businesses and improving their operations.
“We love this line from your colleague, Matt Levine, who tells this joke, what am I doing after business school? Oh, I'm going to work for a prestigious private equity firm in San Francisco so I can run their plumbing company in Mississippi.”
“And they're going to go in and take it over for the founder who doesn't really want to give it to the kids or doesn't have a kid that wants to take over the plumbing company So private equity portfolios, if you go below the glamorous New York job where you go like where they're actually on site, what are they looking at? It's a mid-market manufacturer making cabinets or it's sort of the shade store or something like that.”
“These regional businesses that they want to grow further, maybe consolidate a few of them. Maybe they can list it or break it up or whatever down the road. But it's transformed finance in a way because a lot of capital is flowing.”