In this episode, Keith Caldwell, CEO of H2O Care Partners, and Sarah Longstreet, the company’s Chief Marketing Officer, share the story of building a national water treatment platform. It began in 2021 when Keith met Mark St. Hilaire, founder of H2O Care in Massachusetts, and saw an opportunity to combine doing good with the growth potential of a fragmented, family-run industry. Today the platform spans more than thirty brands across nearly twenty states, supported by a Boston-based resource team of over forty across marketing, finance, hiring, technology, and operations. Keith and Sarah reflect on the network effect that emerges when great local businesses come together, how each new partner brings superpowers that get shared across the platform, and why preserving local brands, community ties, and long-tenured teams is central to how they scale. They also discuss what makes the right partner, from founders approaching retirement to those just getting started, and what’s next as the platform continues to grow.

In this episode, Joe Rice, CEO of CXponent, shares how watching his father run a business sparked a lifelong pull toward entrepreneurship and building something of his own. He describes how CXponent cuts through the overwhelming noise of technology vendors and AI tools to help mid-market companies make better decisions, and why trust, not technology, remains the foundation of every client relationship. Joe reflects on his first company, what he learned from that exit, and what drew him back to build again. He talks candidly about what founders should weigh before joining a platform, the importance of readiness and timing, and why Shore’s focus on stacking talent and investing in organic growth made it the right fit. Throughout the conversation, Joe makes clear that even in a market being reshaped by AI, the work still comes down to people, presence, and being a partner clients can count on.

In this episode, Anderson talks with Ryan Resch, Principal of Operations at Shore Capital Partners. Ryan spent over a decade in basketball, from student manager at Baylor to Chief of Staff with the Phoenix Suns, before joining Shore nine months ago. He shares how first-principle problem-solving became the common thread across every career he has built, why the shift from the zero-sum world of professional sports to private equity changes how teams operate, and how that same builder mindset now drives Shore’s internal AI enablement efforts. Ryan also discusses why AI is a platform-level shift, not just an operational initiative, and what it takes to build something transformational from the ground up.

In this episode, Anderson Williams talks with Cynthia Hiskes, Head of the Human Capital Center of Excellence at Shore Capital Partners. Cynthia brings deep experience building and scaling HR functions across companies of every size, and she shares why aligning your HR investment to the stage and scale of your business is one of the most important decisions a founder or CEO can make. They discuss what human capital looks like in microcap and highly acquisitive companies, why HR belongs at the strategy table from day one, and how the Center of Excellence facilitates learning across the portfolio so leaders don’t have to figure it out alone. Cynthia also walks through how to think about talent assessment, organizational design, and culture during rapid growth and acquisition integration, and why the metrics that matter at exit need to be built into the planting phase.

In this episode, Ryan Burke reflects on his journey from selling roofs in Colorado Springs to founding Bulldog Roofing at 23 and partnering with Shore Capital to help build Skycrest Roof. He shares how frustration with bad actors in the industry and a belief that customers and employees deserved better pushed him to take the leap and start the business out of his living room. Ryan discusses the rapid growth that followed, the chaos that came with it, and the hard lessons of moving from hustle to structure as the business scaled to sixty people and $30M in revenue. He talks candidly about his initial fears around private equity, why protecting his team of family and friends was his top priority, and how meeting the people at Shore shifted his perspective on partnership. Ryan highlights the importance of readiness, the value of building real processes and resilience into a business, and what Skycrest is looking for in the next generation of founders as it continues to grow.

In this episode, I follow up with Ross Koenig, Chief Data Officer at Shore Capital Partners and one of our earliest podcast guests. Ross reflects on how his role has evolved over the past three years, from leading the Data Center of Excellence supporting portfolio companies to focusing on Shore’s own investment process data and cross-portfolio insights. He shares why Shore’s longstanding commitment to process and documentation has become a powerful foundation in the age of AI, and how nearly 1,000 codified executive hires now enable pattern recognition that few firms can match. Ross also discusses why “garbage in, garbage out” matters more than ever, how AI is breaking down walls between executives and data, and why business owners who ignore AI risk being left behind.