Stirling Heights

Investment decisions are led by co-founders Danny Payne and Matt Jacobs. Payne’s background includes co-founding Northrim Horizon, a lower-middle-market buy-and-build platform, and an earlier role at The Cynosure Group, an asset manager for the Eccles family. Jacobs co-founded a Lindsay Goldberg-backed car wash platform and previously covered multi-unit retail as a portfolio manager at J. Goldman & Co.

The firm pursues direct-to-owner transactions outside standard auction processes. Its co-founders' prior experience — Jacobs closing six direct-to-seller deals at Ultra Clean Express, Payne executing buy-and-build strategies at Northrim — suggests a reliance on proprietary origination networks rather than intermediated auctions.

Stirling Heights operates as a permanent-capital acquirer using deal-by-deal committed capital, not a blind-pool fund. The firm states it has no predetermined exit timeline, which functionally positions it as a long-hold holding company rather than a traditional private equity fund managing a vehicle with a fixed maturity.

The firm buys consumer and business service companies generating $1–5 million in EBITDA. Current portfolio exposures include early childhood education (Great Beginnings Academy) and commercial exterior services (Alliance Exterior Solutions). Sectors previously executed by the co-founders include apartment services, commercial landscaping, commercial pool services, and express car washes.

The firm raises committed deal-by-deal capital rather than operating a blind-pool fund, a structure that gives co-investors visibility into each acquisition and removes the deployment pressure associated with a traditional drawdown vehicle.

Stirling Heights has no mandated holding period and explicitly states it builds businesses over decades, not years. The firm views long-duration partnerships as a structural advantage for owner-operators seeking a permanent capital partner rather than a sponsor with a fixed exit clock.

Senior Operating Partner Curtis Oscarson co-founded a boutique corporate law firm and has chaired or served on boards of companies later acquired by Blackstone, Vista Equity Partners, and Summit Partners. Operating Partner Casey Hubbell is a former Bain & Company manager and Lockheed Martin engineer who led commercial due diligence and post-acquisition value creation for industrial and service clients across North America.