Tin Goose Partners

Tin Goose targets lower-middle-market companies, typically with enterprise values below $100 million, in the industrial and business-services sectors. The firm looks for niche manufacturers, value-added distributors, and field-service businesses, often in situations involving family-ownership transitions, corporate carve-outs, or operational complexity. It does not chase growth-stage technology or consumer-facing brands.

The firm relies on proprietary, relationship-based sourcing rather than broad auction processes. Its deal flow comes through regional intermediaries — accountants, attorneys, and commercial bankers in the Midwest and Great Lakes region. This approach allows Tin Goose to negotiate directly with off-market sellers and avoid competing against larger platform funds in intermediated auctions.

Tin Goose operates as a traditional, commingled private equity firm, not a family office. It raises capital from external limited partners to deploy across a portfolio of control and growth-equity investments, though it maintains a very low public profile regarding its investor base and specific fund sizes.

The firm structures transactions as either control buyouts — often acquiring a majority stake in a founder- or family-owned business — or minority growth-equity investments with strong governance rights. It is comfortable being the first institutional capital in a business and tailors structures to suit management teams that are new to private-equity partnerships.

Tin Goose concentrates its investments in the US Midwest and Great Lakes region. Its Chicago headquarters provides proximity to a dense, fragmented base of industrial and business-services companies that are often overlooked by coastal private-equity firms, reinforcing its strategy of sourcing deals through long-standing local relationships.