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Tin Goose Partners
Tin Goose Partners is a Chicago private equity firm focused on control and growth investments in lower-middle-market industrial companies.
Tin Goose Partners
Tin Goose Partners is a Chicago-based private equity firm focused on the lower middle market. The firm pursues control buyouts and growth-equity investments, typically in industrial and business-services companies. Its strategy centers on situations that larger institutional funds avoid — corporate carve-outs, family-founder transitions, and complex operational turnarounds where deal size does not attract auction processes. The firm targets companies with enterprise values generally below $100 million. It leans heavily into the industrial economy — niche manufacturing, value-added distribution, and field services — where fragmented ownership structures still exist. Tin Goose structures transactions as control buyouts or minority growth investments with strong governance rights. The firm is willing to act as the first institutional capital in a business, often partnering with management teams that have never navigated a private-equity partnership before. Its geographic focus is the US Midwest and Great Lakes region, leveraging its Chicago base for proximity to a dense industrial base that coastal firms rarely mine for platform acquisitions. Team size and total capital deployed are not publicly disclosed. The firm maintains a low public profile, consistent with its focus on proprietary, intermediated deal flow rather than marketed processes. Its limited partners are not publicly named, and it does not maintain visible affiliations with broader GP networks, philanthropic arms, or co-investment clubs. Tin Goose's structural differentiator is its deliberate avoidance of the sponsor-driven auction circuit. By operating below the radar of business-development teams at larger private-equity firms, it can negotiate directly with off-market sellers and secure deals on terms that reflect complexity discounts rather than competitive tension. This requires deep regional relationships — with accountants, attorneys, and commercial bankers in the industrial Midwest — that are built over years and are not easily replicated by firms parachuting in for a deal.
General information
Firm type
Private Equity
Year founded
—
AUM
Undisclosed
Location
Region
North America
Country
United States
City
Chicago
Corporate office
Chicago, IL, United States
Frequently asked questions
What type of companies does Tin Goose Partners invest in?
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.
How does Tin Goose source its deals?
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.
Is Tin Goose Partners a single-family office or a traditional private equity fund?
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.
What investment structures does Tin Goose Partners use?
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.
Which geographies does Tin Goose invest in?
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.
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