The Situation
Building a lower-middle-market investment firm from scratch meant making decisions with real capital at risk: which businesses to buy, how much to pay, how to finance them, whom to trust, when to intervene and when to recognize that the original thesis was wrong.
What We Did
Stephen founded and led CounterPoint as a control investor, completing nearly two dozen acquisitions over a decade and serving in board, operating and interim executive roles across portfolio companies.
Through Cenergy, Sheila contributed strategic research, technology initiatives, investor communications, branding and portfolio-company projects.
Some investments substantially exceeded expectations. Others didn't.
The Outcome
- CounterPoint generated strong realized investment returns while building a body of experience that can't be replicated through advisory work alone: decisions made with your own capital, reputation and responsibility for the outcome.
Why It Matters
Judgment is shaped as much by the decisions that hurt as the ones that worked.
Cenergy's perspective comes from more than advising people who own businesses. It comes from having owned them.
