Nth Venture

Sam Sawhook is the named Co-Founder leading investment activity and writing the annual letters. The firm operates with five co-founders — Sam Johnston, Michael Shamoun, Nathan Deily, and Jillian Palash — and an advisory board that includes Neil Wolfson and Jay Heller. Final investment authority rests with the co-founders, who all invest in the Co-Owner Fund on the same terms as limited partners, per the firm.

Nth Venture sources acquisitions through its own portfolio companies, which it built from scratch. Each platform serves as a natural landing pad for bolt-on acquisitions in adjacent services or shared customer bases. The firm says it sees deals others never access because it is already operating inside the space, not running a traditional deal-hunting process.

Nth Venture is a private equity firm, but it defies conventional PE structure. It operates a venture studio that incubates companies, then uses them as platforms for micro-cap acquisitions within a Texas limited partnership seeded with founder equity. The Co-Owner Fund charges no management fee and defers carried interest until a 6% hurdle is cleared — a departure from standard 2/20 economics.

The firm makes direct acquisitions of small businesses through the Co-Owner Fund LP, and it builds companies organically inside its studio. It does not publicly report acting as a limited partner in external funds. Its model is anchored on wholly-owned operating companies rather than minority stakes or fund-of-funds positions.

Nth Venture targets mature, cash-flowing small businesses rather than early-stage venture rounds. Its acquisition principles call for straightforward models with recurring revenue, acquired at small-business multiples of 3–5× earnings. The firm explicitly avoids moonshots or businesses dependent on a single customer or contract.

The firm was seeded with a $10,000 check from its founders, not from a single-family fortune. The Co-Owner Fund LP's initial equity was transferred by the founder for $1. Nth Venture does not publicize a founding wealth source tied to a prior operating business or inheritance, positioning itself as a bootstrapped manager.

Nth Venture has not disclosed a co-investment program with external general partners. Its model emphasizes full control of acquired companies and built-in employee-ownership frameworks. The firm absorbs struggling businesses directly rather than participating in syndicated rounds led by other sponsors.