i
Reinvestment
Equipment, capacity, certifications, and people. We can underwrite capital that pays back over years instead of before a sale, because there is no sale.
Reinforce your legacy through the next generation of ownership.
Reinforcement Partners is a permanent home for founder-owned companies serving the government. We seek to acquire businesses where we can add value while preserving what owners have built over the long-term, negotiating deals that are flexible and fair for everyone involved.
01
Why us
1. We seek to maximize for legacy, not profit.
Given our track records and experience, we could each make substantially more money by staying in the corporate world, but we are choosing to spend our time growing a reputation and business we will be proud of.
2. We will be the true owners and the buck stops with us.
We will maintain over 50% economic interest and control of any business we acquire, with the remainder held by strategic partners and employees. We believe in real skin in the game through investing our own personal capital and own all the decisions we make with no fund or short-term investors to misalign incentives.
3. We have demonstrated experience and loyalty.
Many searchers are newly minted MBAs with little to no deal or operational experience or job hoppers looking for their next project. We have both had over a decade of success in the corporate world through riding the ups and downs with our respective companies. We have also negotiated dozens of deals in the government space, balancing the needs of both buyers and sellers.
4. We have flexible capital.
Most private equity and search funds have stakeholders that need to exit after 5-7 years or limit them to investing in certain ways. Given our capital is simply our personal capital, we can structure the deal in ways that might not be possible for others and invest with a longer-term time horizon in mind.
5. We can utilize a trusted network built over a lifetime.
We are not tourists to the government space. Both of us have family that have worked or still work for companies serving the government. Our personal and professional connections in the ecosystem was built over the years by consistently delivering on what we say we will.
02
What this means for your business
We are not a private equity or search fund. There is no fund life, no exit clock, and no obligation to sell.
What we will do
- Seek to understand how the business operates in depth and why
- Dedicate our time, energy, and focus to growing the business
- Keep the name, the team, and customer relationships intact
- Invest in people, processes, equipment, and certifications that may not pay off within 5 years
- Leverage our networks where it makes sense strategically
- Automate low value busy work so employees can focus on things that actually drive the business forward
What we won't do
- Roll you into a platform and strip out overhead
- Parachute in our own management team and immediately start changing how the business is run
- Lever up the business unsustainably to increase equity returns or hit any hurdle
- Flip the business to a larger sponsor in 3-5 years and create a second sale process for employees to live through
- Relocate the company or offshore the work
03
Holding forever is not standing still
We intend to grow the business prudently and deliberately, funded by the business itself rather than from excessive leverage. Controlled growth compounds over time whereas forced growth breaks things that took decades to build.
ii
Commercial growth
Companies this size are usually excellent at delivery and under-resourced at selling. James has spent twenty years in business-to-business sales and revenue leadership, and closing that gap is the most direct way to grow without changing what the business is.
iii
Modern tooling
Automation applied to quoting, compliance, and back-office work, to take cost and delay out of the parts of the business nobody enjoys.
iv
Add-on acquisitions
In time, and only once the core business is running well — sourced and underwritten by Kevin, who has done exactly this work for a decade. To be clear about the direction: acquisitions come to the company. The company does not get absorbed into someone else's platform.
04
What we look for
- Enterprise value
- $2M – $15M
- Ownership
- Founder or family held
- History
- Profitable with a multi-year operating record
- Our role
- Day-to-day leadership on site
- Hold period
- Permanent
Strong fit
- Recurring or regularly recompeted government revenue
- Documented past performance and incumbency
- Cleared, credentialed, or hard-to-replace technical staff
- Qualifications, tooling, processes, or accreditation that would take years to replicate
- An owner that shares our values without a clear successor or motivation to focus on growth
Not a fit
- Pre-revenue or pre-profit businesses without positive free cash flow
- Sales concentration from a single contract with no renewal history
- Distressed turnarounds where the business is running low on liquidity
- Situations requiring the business to relocate
Where we're looking
Primary Metros
- New York
- Philadelphia
- DC / Baltimore
- Boston
- Toronto
Also active
- Charlotte
- Raleigh
- Richmond
- Norfolk
- Chicago
- South Florida
- Atlanta
- Columbus
- Cleveland
- Montreal
05
Where we focus
Five areas that sell into the government. We chose them because we already know the customer, the contracting mechanics, and the people who buy in each one.
i
Components
Machined, fabricated, electronic, and cast parts feeding defense and federal programs, where qualification and tooling make a supplier genuinely difficult to replace.
ii
Government Services
IT, mission systems, and R&D businesses with established past performance, contract vehicles, and cleared technical staff.
iii
MRO
Maintenance, repair, and overhaul for fleets, facilities, and equipment, where the work is mandated, recurring, and tied to uptime.
iv
Testing & Compliance
Laboratories, inspection, and certification businesses where accreditation and regulatory standing are the barrier to entry.
v
Equipment Finance
Specialty lenders and lessors serving government-adjacent operators.
06
Who we are
Two partners, one business. Split across the two halves of the job: Kevin on finance, strategy, and corporate development; James on sales, business development, and technology. We are looking for the companies we will spend the rest of our careers running.
Kevin Ng
LinkedInPartner — Finance, Strategy & Corporate Development
Kevin spent nine years at Oaktree Capital, most recently as a Senior Vice President in Strategic Credit, where he was the primary analyst for aerospace, defense, transportation, and business service investments. He led underwriting on roughly $3 billion across the capital structure with zero defaults and a realized loss ratio under 0.1%, including through COVID. His work covered the businesses we are now looking to buy: precision components and castings, aftermarket MRO, and government services contractors. He began his career in restructuring and special situations at Macquarie Capital, and holds a master's in information and data science from UC Berkeley and a business degree from Boston University.
James Roth
LinkedInPartner — Sales, Business Development & Technology
James has spent twenty years selling to businesses and building the teams that do it. He spent twelve years at Goldman Sachs in business-to-business sales, ultimately as a Vice President in the Investment Banking Division with lead coverage of corporations across insurance, banking, real estate, hospitality, and gaming, and before that leading institutional coverage of asset managers, pensions, endowments, and insurers — a book in which business he originated himself accounted for roughly 85% of production. He moved into enterprise sales management at Galaxy Digital as Head of Business Development and an Executive Committee member, building two new business lines to more than $25 million in annual revenue and running the six-person team responsible for revenue relationships. Since 2022 he has run his own advisory firm and serves as Chief Revenue Officer of Membrane Labs. He builds and deploys AI agent systems for sourcing and operational automation — capability most businesses this size have no practical way to access. He holds an MBA from Wharton and a BA in economics from Harvard.
Between us we have seen this sector from the capital side and from the commercial side. That is why we are comfortable underwriting companies whose primary customer is the government, why we can move quickly once we understand yours, and why we will know where to invest for the long-term to add value once the deal is done.
07
Get in touch
Owners, brokers, and advisors alike. If you are thinking about a transition, please reach out.