Investment Philosophy

Watchtower is Different

While we built our careers at leading private equity firms, we came to realize the industry had matured and it was time for a new generation of leadership and a new approach. We left our suits and egos in New York. We value personal relationships, entrepreneurial spirit, having fun, and a “roll-up-your sleeves” attitude above bureaucracy and “doing things the way they’ve always been done”. For high-achieving entrepreneurs and family business owners, Watchtower offers a differentiated path to take your business to a new level.

Style and Portfolio Construction

Operationally Hands-On

Watchtower’s principals were trained by some of the best operationally “hands-on” investors in the history of private equity investing. We believe this style of investing is the best strategy to generate outsized returns.

Highly Selective

Watchtower is highly selective in the opportunities we pursue. We invest in companies that we believe have high potential for outsized growth. We choose only to partner with founders and families with which we have mutual respect and a shared vision.

Detail-Oriented

Hands-on investing is time intensive as each investment requires a significant amount of attention. The Watchtower team seeks to understand every aspect of a business, not just the dollars and cents.

Concentrated Portfolio

Watchtower prefers fewer eggs in our basket and we monitor them closely, providing partner-level attention to ensure every investment is a winner. We firmly believe this philosophy will result in superior outcomes for Watchtower, our investors, and the businesses we partner with.

We believe that good things happen to good people

Upholding the highest standards of integrity and developing long-lasting relationships with entrepreneurs, our portfolio companies, and business partners is far more important to Watchtower than closing the next transaction.

Partnership with Sellers

Watchtower’s principals pride themselves on being reasonable and flexible partners, during the acquisition and on a day-to-day basis post-investment.

We value your expertise and experience and will seek your guidance throughout our partnership.

Every seller is looking to achieve something different and we understand that is a personal decision. We are highly experienced in developing compensation plans, transition plans and everything in-between. We are here to help as your partner.

We strongly encourage seller-owners to invest alongside Watchtower. We believe in the power of incentive alignment created by a broad pool of shareholders.

Fair Treatment of Employees

Watchtower retains all existing personnel post-transaction. As our mandate is to accelerate the growth of good companies, we will generally hire a material number of employees in newly created positions at each portfolio company during our ownership.

We offer attractive career paths and compensation packages for portfolio company employees. A large portion of employees at our portfolio companies have received increased compensation within the first 12 months of our ownership. We benchmark compensation, benefits and insurance across companies of similar size and within similar industries.