Elan Growth Partners

Founder and Managing Partner Craig Dupper leads all elements of the investment process and sets the firm's strategic direction. Partner Max Young is responsible for identifying, evaluating, and executing investment opportunities and supporting portfolio companies. The firm's operating partners and advisors do not appear to sit on an investment committee but contribute domain expertise during due diligence and post-close value creation, per Elan's website.

Elan targets control-oriented equity investments of $5 million to $25 million in profitable lower-middle-market companies generating $1 million to $7 million in EBITDA. The firm focuses on engineered products, niche software, specialty services, and food companies across the Western United States. Post-close, Elan embeds operating partners to automate processes, integrate technology, and execute bolt-on acquisitions.

Elan portfolio companies Resolve Systems, an IT security automation platform, was sold to Insight Venture Partners in May 2017. Miro Technologies, an aerospace MRO software company, was sold to The Boeing Company in October 2012. Both exits trace back to the firm's predecessor platform at Solis Capital Partners, where Dupper was a partner.

Elan Growth Partners does not publicly disclose a committed fund structure. Its website emphasizes flexible partnership structures and aligned incentives, and the firm's deal-by-deal posture — listing discrete portfolio companies without reference to a current fund vintage — suggests it may operate on a deal-by-deal or independent-sponsor model rather than a blind-pool fund.

Elan does not publish an explicit avoidance list, but its portfolio and stated focus on engineered products, niche software, specialty services, and food suggest the firm does not pursue biotech, hardtech infrastructure, or consumer internet businesses. The firm's EBITDA threshold also implies it does not invest in pre-revenue or venture-stage companies.

Elan's website does not describe a proprietary sourcing engine. Dupper's membership in YPO Park City and his former role as Chapter Chair of YPO San Diego, combined with the firm's participation in the Association for Corporate Growth and the Alliance of Merger & Acquisition Advisors, suggests a relationship-driven origination model common among lower-middle-market firms targeting founder-owned businesses.

Craig Dupper spent 16 years as one of two partners at Solis Capital Partners, a lower-middle-market private equity firm that deployed more than $122 million through two funds, co-investments, and standalone deals. Elan Growth Partners represents Dupper's continuation of the same strategy under his own brand, with Partner Max Young — who previously worked alongside Dupper at Solis — joining him in the new firm.