Alex de Pfyffer and Ross Porter’s Journey from Self-Funded Search to a $220M Committed Fund

Today’s guests are Alex de Pfyffer and Ross Porter, Co-Founders of Heritage Holding, an investment firm that has completed nearly 50 acquisitions across 12 active platform companies.

After graduating from HBS, where they met as classmates and intramural soccer teammates, Alex and Ross partnered up to pursue a self-funded search. They share what gave them the confidence to move forward on their first acquisition, a business many PE investors passed on due to customer concentration and key-person risk.

Alex and Ross explain how an unexpected second acquisition emerged that set them on the path from self-funded search to an independent sponsor and, eventually, to raising a $220M committed fund focused on acquiring and scaling sub-$10M EBITDA businesses. 

The conversation also covers sourcing, founder partnerships, building acquisition platforms, and advice for the next generation of HBS searchers.

Discussion Points:

• Why they chose a self-funded search over a traditional search fund
• Ross’s path from Stanford engineering and a hearing-aid startup into search
• Alex’s investment banking background and what drew him to small business acquisitions
• Underwriting customer concentration risk: how they structured their first acquisition
• Why earning founder trust starts long before the LOI
• The shift from mass email campaigns to a relationship-driven sourcing strategy
• Building acquisition platforms through industry-focused buy-and-build strategies
• Why their earliest investors continued backing each new platform
• The decision to raise a $220 million committed fund in 2024 
• Staying disciplined on deal size: why they target businesses averaging $2 million of EBITDA
• Why “scaling quickly” appears on Heritage Holding’s homepage, and where they deliberately move slowly
• Returning to HBS to share their deal story and share advice for future searchers
• Why the firm is named “Heritage Holding,” not “Heritage Holdings”

Masters in Small Business M&A is produced by its host Peter Lehrman and the team at Axial (www.axial.com). Axial makes it easy for small business owners to confidentially explore growth capital and exit transactions with top-ranked lower middle market M&A advisors and professional capital partners. In every episode, we explore the dynamic world of small business M&A, interviewing a mix of proven and emerging owners, operators, acquirers, and M&A advisors whose strategies and methods are being put to the test.

If you’d like to go deeper, head to Axial.com, where we make available the Axial member directories, downloadable tools for dealmakers, the Axial quarterly lower middle market investment banking league-table rankings, the SMB M&A pipeline report, and other useful information. If you’re a business owner, professional acquirer, or M&A advisor, you can start using Axial for free at Axial.com.

Resources

• Alex de Pfyffer LinkedIn
• Ross Porter LinkedIn
• Heritage Holding Website
• Peter Lehrman LinkedIn
• Axial Website