"We're Not Operators": Bridging Capital & Management
Edwin Burke and Chris Eichmann of Pillsman Partners discuss their deal-by-deal PE model, PowerVac acquisition, and why 11 sellers rolled equity for a bigger second bite.
As early deal-by-deal pioneers, Edwin Burke and Chris Eichmann of Pillsman Partners have have completed 7 platform investments and 23 add-on acquisitions since their founding in 2012. Unlike many PE executives who embrace operations depth as a differentiator, Pillsman's "suits & jeans" model focuses on value creation through partnership, team building, capital access, and strategy.
Minds Capital is an equity fund for independent sponsors. We invest $1-3m of equity per platform and average one commitment per month.
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In this episode, we discuss the 2019 acquisition of PowerVac. Over 6+ years, Edwin and Chris have executed 11 add-on acquisitions to build a dominant infrastructure services provider. In this transactions, every single seller rolled 20-30% equity into the platform, and Edwin stunningly expects each of those 11 sellers to make more $$$ on their "second bite" than they did on their initial sale.
Pillsman's positioning is intentionally blunt. They tell founders upfront they are not operators. Early on, they tried layering in 8-10 operating partners. It backfired. Management teams felt crowded, second guessed. They scrapped it. Today, they back the people in place, step in on M&A and strategy, and stay out of the day to day. It's less interference, more leverage.
Their edge sits at the intersection of technical underwriting and disciplined risk. Edwin points to culture and governance as the real differentiators in founder owned deals. Pillsman targets businesses with >20% margins where complexity (regulatory, engineering, niche execution) acts as a moat. These aren't headline assets. They're the ones everyone else skips because they're harder to understand and harder to scale.
While many independent sponsors treat deal by deal as a stepping stone, Pillsman treats it as the end state. Raising a fund changes the job. Less building, more managing. Less investing, more fundraising. They've chosen proximity to the asset over scale of capital. For those looking to make the jump, Edwin's view is simple: prove it first. At least 2 platforms. A clear strategy. A real track record. The rest follows.
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