Ridgeview Capital

Co-founders Burton Stohl and Greg Larson jointly lead the firm and sit on the boards of all portfolio companies. Stohl brings more than 40 years of investment experience from Dean Witter and his own advisory firm; Larson spent his early career at two large private equity firms and a mid-sized family office. All investment decisions run through this co-founder partnership.

No — Ridgeview does not advertise a committed blind-pool fund structure. The firm invests on a deal-by-deal basis using what appears to be permanent or long-duration capital, which allows it to hold investments beyond the typical five-to-seven-year private equity window. The firm explicitly states it maintains longer-than-average investment periods.

Ridgeview targets lower-middle-market companies with EBITDA between $2 million and $8 million. It prefers control positions but will consider minority stakes. The firm sources exclusively within the western United States, where its partners live and operate.

The firm does not detail its origination channels publicly, but its website emphasizes the centrality of Burton Stohl's four-decade network in the Mountain West and Southern California, as well as the firm's stated preference for doing business face-to-face with management teams in its home region. Co-founder Greg Larson also draws on relationships formed across two prior private equity firms and a technology-company CEO role.

Ridgeview has disclosed two exits on its website. Intermountain Plantings, a commercial landscaper acquired in 2016, was sold to BrightView Holdings (NYSE: BV) in 2023 after revenue grew more than 400% under Ridgeview's ownership. Uintah Engineering & Land Surveying was sold to Moelis Capital Partners after an expansion that made it one of the largest survey-and-engineering providers to the US energy market.

Ridgeview's stated target industries are business services, niche manufacturing, consumer products and services, niche financial services, and building products and services. The firm does not list technology, healthcare, or energy-transition sectors, and its disclosed portfolio reflects an industrial, consumer, and building-products focus. There is no public indication it competes in venture capital or growth-equity tech deals.

Ridgeview describes itself as a private equity firm, not a family office. Its capital base is not publicly disclosed, but the firm's investment approach — patient, regionally concentrated, flexible on timing — shares some characteristics with family-office direct investing, particularly in its ability to hold companies beyond typical fund lives.