M2O, Inc.

M2O, Inc.

M2O, Inc. was founded in 1992 by Michael F. O'Connell after a career leading Los Angeles-based investment manager Anhalt, O'Connell & Steffanci. The office's first direct investment was the National Lines Bureau, a ship-mooring company operating at the Los Angeles and Long Beach harbors. O'Connell personally managed the turnaround, generating what the firm describes as a 100% annual return on invested capital by the time of its sale in 1997. That same year, M2O made its first commitment to a search fund — a then-novel concept championed by a small group of academics and private investors — and the model now anchors the portfolio. M2O invests across private equity, venture capital, and search funds, with a preference for asset-light, service-oriented growth companies. The firm targets businesses with $5–50 million in revenue and $1–15 million of EBITDA, typically those with recurring revenues and predictable cash flows. Confirmed positions include Veri-Tax, TruMed, Xiltrix, Apex, Origo Commodities Management, ListEngage, Camio, and Recurve. The investment horizon frequently extends beyond ten years, a departure from the typical five-year private equity hold. Geographically, the firm has backed over 200 search funds worldwide and evaluates opportunities in North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, Oceania, and the Middle East. Deal structures include direct co-investments, SPVs, private credit, secondaries, and real estate. M-K O'Connell, the founder's son, leads a seven-person investment team from Los Angeles alongside Shaun Rader, Nicholas Qiu, and Anna Zhang. The firm operates additional real estate holdings, including the mixed-use Powder Mountain project in Utah and 515 S. Figueroa Street in downtown Los Angeles, and maintains a distressed real estate strategy. M-K O'Connell serves on the board of the Search Fund Alliance, reinforcing the office's sourcing network. In 2023, M2O added Anna Zhang to oversee accounting, financial, and tax reporting, and Matthew Rios to support investment team operations. M2O's architecture diverges from a standard family office in its early and sustained commitment to the search-fund ecosystem — a concentrated bet on a talent-acquisition model that few peers made at the same scale in the 1990s. The firm is governed by the O'Connell family trust and supported by the Leonetti O'Connell Family Foundation, which handles the family's philanthropic activities. M-K O'Connell's board seat at the Search Fund Alliance provides proprietary visibility into emerging entrepreneurs globally, creating a sourcing pipeline that institutional allocators cannot easily replicate through fund commitments.