DelCam Capital, LLC - Private Equity Redefined: Transparent Investing in American Manufacturing

Andres Sandate: 00:00:01

Welcome everybody, to another edition of atlts. This is your host and creator, Andres Andate. I am excited to bring a special addition to my listeners today.

I am joined by my business partner, Brian Cody, who's the founder and founding advisor of Gramercy Park Wealth Advisors, which is my firm. I'm based here in Atlanta, as you know, with ATL and excited to have Brian join us today.

We are joined today by three individuals who founded a very interesting private equity firm based in New England called Del Cam Capital.

We're going to talk today with Steve, Rich and Stu from Del Cam about this golden era of private equity, but more importantly, the golden era of manufacturing in the US and why they're so convicted about this space. But before we do that, I'd like to give these individuals a chance to share their background. So I'm going to start with you, Steve.

Welcome to ATL Alts. Tell us a little bit about your bracket.

Steve Trotta: 00:01:00

Thanks, Andres, and appreciate you having us on today.

So Steve Trotta, a managing partner and founder of Del Cam Capital, you know, based out of Boston here, did graduate school in Boston, spent the bulk of my career at Fidelity Investments and corporate finance and started raising capital simultaneously while developing some real estate around the area. You know, ultimately pivoting to Del Cam Capital, where we are today. And we'll talk more about that as, as this conversation progresses. But Rich.

Andres Sandate: 00:01:35

Yeah, yeah, let's go. Let's jump over to you, Rich.

Steve Trotta: 00:01:37

All right.

Richard Gibble: 00:01:37

Hey, thanks for the intro.

the great financial crisis of: 2008

stment management industry in: 2013

Andres Sandate: 00:02:20

Awesome. Awesome. And, and finally I'd like to come to, to you, Stu Shannon.

Steve Trotta: 00:02:26

Sure.

Stuart Chanin: 00:02:27

So I, I started my career at Fidelity Investments as well. You know, the, the corporate world is wonderful.

I worked in the corporate finance supporting the, the institutional custody platforms that Fidelity has. But every eight years I decided I knew everything there was to know.

And now I could go off on my own and, and do something more interesting and be more impactful in the world. So, so that's what I did. I joined a hedge fund. I became a partner in a small hedge fund.

You know, we, we Looked at cash flowing companies, we looked at energy and energy related stocks.

I did most of the administration for the fund and four years later I decided I don't want to wake up at 4am every morning and see what the markets are doing because I'm worried about, you know, some manager at some company making a bad decision and it impacting our portfolio.

Andres Sandate: 00:03:21

So, so what you're saying. Sorry to cut you off. Yeah, so I'm going to cut you off there just because we got a lot we want to get through.

But what you're saying is private equity guys don't work as hard as hedge fund guys. I think that's what I heard.

Stuart Chanin: 00:03:36

I was trying to keep that part a secret.

Andres Sandate: 00:03:37

Yeah, yeah, no, we know that's not, we know that's not the case. But still too, I, I, I typically don't, don't like to insert, but I just had, that was the perfect. You teed me up perfectly. Last.

Last but certainly not least, Brian, you know you founded our firm Gramercy Park. We're a duly registered wealth advisor based in Nashville. We're starting to build our presence in Atlanta. I joined the team.

Really delighted to have you join. Let's talk real quickly about why alternative investments and why non traditional strategies. Okay. Are so important to the future at Gramercy Park.

Brian Cote: 00:04:13

A key aspect to that is people are looking for diversification with non market investments. And that was the big thing and it's only grown over time.

Where years ago we wouldn't have had access to a del camp capital, but now the ability is there to do that and the ability is there to start with individual clients making those strategic investments. And we look at it an important part, I know you feel the same way that really up to a third of a portfolio should be in alternative investments.

And with the technology today we have the platform ability to combine multiple ones together all in one portfolio.

Andres Sandate: 00:04:49

Right? Yeah, that's well said.

And I think to add to that, it's not just the diversification opportunities that non traditional strategies and managers offer, but it's also alpha. Right. We're looking for opportunities to generate outside returns or returns above that of the market. Right.

But I think three, it's also an opportunity to capture that illiquidity premium which is certainly the case when you talk about private markets. You know, things like private real estate, private equity, you're gonna tie up capital for a period of time.

But the, the investment, the trade off, if you will, is we're looking for outsized returns.

With that said, a key part of this, for advisors who are listening and for high net worth individuals and for family offices in particular, is manager selection and identifying managers who can have persistence of performance and be durable platforms and hopefully raise successive funds. And to do that, you've got to go look far and wide for that talent.

And so today we're joined by a team here in Del Cam that we believe is doing something quite interesting. They're focusing in manufacturing. And so Steve, I'm going to come to you with this first.

The first and most important question that we start with at due diligence is how does this team, in your case, couple of folks that spend a lot of time in corporate America, corporate intelligence, corporate treasury, custody, and then rich there in the middle with a markets background and hedge funds and commodities and mutual funds. How does this team come together?

And why does the collection of the three of you, right, as a team, why are you the right team to take Dell Cam forward out into the marketplace and to raise capital?

Steve Trotta: 00:06:33

That's a great question, Andres. You know, I think, you know, we have an interesting combination of backgrounds, right. But I think first and foremost it's about just the three.

Three guys who, you know, are hardworking, are innovative.

You know, we have a great understanding of markets and businesses, you know, finance, the importance of cash fl, you know, in the case of manufacturing, you know, physical assets. Right. I spent some time on the real estate side of the house. People love physical assets.

I think the tangibility of manufacturing combined with our backgrounds and you know, our history and our track records of being able to provide, you know, cash flow to investors all comes together and dovetails nicely. You know, we're not folks that are about venture capital or risky technology investments. Right. We believe in what's real.

You know, manufacturing is a big part of what made America America. And we truly believe in kind of the future in the United States for manufacturing.

We, you mentioned the golden area, golden era, which we'll talk about here in a few minutes, I'm sure. But you know, the combination of our backgrounds and you know, our thesis, I think, you know, are compelling.

And you know, thus far we've proven to have success and you know, we're looking forward to what the future has in store.

Andres Sandate: 00:08:06

Sure. Yeah.

Well, I want to give you guys one more opportunity before we jump into this, this notion of manufacturing and why as a private equity platform, you feel like and have compelling examples really that we're going to dive into. But why?

Manufacturing offers not only yourselves, but your LPs, more importantly your, your investors an opportunity to Generate returns in a private equity construct. Right.

Can you point to a milestone or, or anything significant that was a real aha or a real hey, we should really go and do this as a team and build a platform.

Was there something in one of your backgrounds or multiple experiences maybe that you had that helped to take it from a concept and an idea to let's go build a business.

Steve Trotta: 00:08:57

Yeah. Back in: 2019

We just love the idea of, you know, the manufacturing, the physical nature, the cash flowing aspect of these businesses been around for a long time.

And part of the reason is because, you know, I have a family member who owns one of these companies who acquired a manufacturing company from a, you know, a family founder. Right. My brother had owned the business for a long period of time.

Well, at this point it's been 13 years, was around that business quite a bit, helping him out with some things.

So I got exposed to manufacturing at the level where we started and you know, I saw Mike, my brother, who's on our advisory board, quadruple revenue of this small manufacturing company that had been around and in business for 50 years.

So that was sort of the aha moment for us was like, hey, you know, there are ten thousands, multiple thousands of these businesses across the country.

Stuart Chanin: 00:10:08

Right.

Steve Trotta: 00:10:08

Every street corner in every town in America has one of these businesses. They have blue chip customers, they've been around for 40, 50, 60. The longest standing business that we own has been in business for 80 years.

They're cash flowing, they're not distressed, they have loyal customer bases. All of those things that, okay, these are good businesses, right. So why not? Why not?

Andres Sandate: 00:10:34

Right. They may not be growing at, at the, at the venture or growth equity stage.

So therefore I think they probably aren't as attractive clearly to the, the investor that wants that, that high multiple and is looking for that big liquidity event through maybe the public markets. But they have lots of durable qualities which we're going to talk about.

Brian, I want to ask you because we advise a lot of business owners, we advise a lot of people who are building the types of businesses and have built and sold the types of businesses that the guys at Dell Cam are running.

When you're on the other side of the table talking to somebody that's running a manufacturing business, what's going through their mind when the idea of exit planning and beginning to think about what's the next step.

What's maybe just a quick point like what's going through their mind when they are talking to you From a wealth advisory perspective, one of the key things.

Brian Cote: 00:11:28

That most of these business owners are looking for is someone to guide them through that process because they haven't been down this road before, right. And they're so focused on their business and adding values, you know, in quadrupling the revenue like Steve talked about.

But they're needing us to help and stand right beside them, join arm in arm and then start to help them put the pieces in place to make sure that it's a very efficient transition from one to the other.

Andres Sandate: 00:11:53

And a lot of times I think we've heard it's important for a lot of times these sellers that the employees retain their jobs. It's important that they continue to work in those local communities. And I think we'll get into that here in a minute. So let's jump into it.

I've kind of alluded to it and teed it up. We've talked about this notion of manufacturing and this golden era. I said in the pre show. I've heard golden era of private credit.

But I'll be candid with you, the notion of a golden era of manufacturing, I'd love for, for maybe for Rich and Stu to give this perspective, you know why, why Del Cam and manufacturing, you talked about how it, it's got some durable qualities, physical assets, cash flows, long term customers. These business been around for decades, right? But you have to build a thesis around it, right?

You've got to build an investment thesis that matches and how does that align with, with the values and sort of your vision when, when you sort of put those two together, how, how does manufacturing fit in with what you guys are trying to execute on maybe Rich or Stu. I'll leave that one for the two of you guys to address.

Richard Gibble: 00:13:00

Stu, take it.

Andres Sandate: 00:13:02

How about you? Let's hear from you.

Stuart Chanin: 00:13:04

So I think when you're okay, when you're trying to build a investment thesis around manufacturing, two things to look at, right? One, why Del Cam and what they're doing and two, what are the macro tailwinds that are going to help them, right? So macro tailwinds.

I've been through a lot of cycles. I've seen a lot of things in markets. You have boom and bust cycles all the time.

When I was doing energy stocks, it was right before the Ukraine war broke out that energy stocks were beaten down. Nobody wanted them. They were selling at very, very low multiples.

Everybody thought the world was moving towards cleaner energy and energy stocks were being left for dead. Then the Ukraine war broke out, we had an energy crisis Right. They flew and they've been flying ever since. Now we have manufacturing, right?

We just really had a bust cycle. I would say we had Covid it interrupted the whole supply chain. Many, many companies got pretty worried.

up inventory so high that in: 2022

And here we are on the precipice of everybody having worked through those inventories, a new administration coming in where there's going to be other tailwinds that are probably going to help the domestic manufacturing industry. And we could be on the precipice of a boom cycle right here, right now.

Brian Cote: 00:15:01

Right.

Stuart Chanin: 00:15:02

So that's the macro side of it, the del cam specific side. Just really quick, you know, you have family owned businesses that we buy. They are, you know, generally lifestyle businesses.

Gotten to a very nice point right when we come in, it's all about growth.

It's, it's about applying sales process, improving all kinds of operations, investing in technology, investing in automation and really taking these businesses to the next level. We've, we've seen it in our portfolio already. We'll get into a couple of examples later with the space age electronics and gardening shuttle.

But I, I think I, I love the model.

We rely on our people for their technical expertise and we rely on ourselves for our acumen and, and kind of knowing what we need to do for these companies.

Andres Sandate: 00:16:01

You know, Rich, I want to ask you to maybe round out that point that Stu, that Stu made around.

You know, there's the macro and the market side, but then there's also the notion of the operational improvements and implementation of things that maybe the ownership just have delayed investing in or haven't invested in. Things like process improvements and operational efficiencies that cost capital. Right. That takes dollars.

So it would make sense why an owner might delay those things or might wait to do those things until there's a liquidity event. You know, when you look at the values of your firm, right.

We talk about things like, or you talk about things like decisiveness and delegation and discipline, right? Then you go into things like perseverance and teamwork and accountability.

You know, early on in my career I used to look at this stuff and the mission and all this and think, you know, did they really put thought into this type of stuff?

And, and how does that really align with how they're investing because when, you know, when the outside world looks at private markets and alts, they think it's just about making money, it's just about slash and get rid of people. It's not about all these other things. And when you talk about private equity, is it really about local communities?

Is it really about trying to, you know, share profits with employees and this stuff?

So when you put together the values of the organization and you think about how does that align with the way you invest, the types of businesses you want to buy, can you just maybe elaborate a little bit and help us understand that from a, from an investment perspective?

Richard Gibble: 00:17:40

Yeah, absolutely.

So I think one of the things that's important, Stu really sort of teed this up for me is when we're looking at acquisitions, we're looking at not just the business itself, but also the culture of the people at these companies. And the culture really, it can't be overstated in terms of its importance. And we kind of view the culture of each business.

Each company has its own character and we kind of just take that and make it into the values. Right. Like most of these companies don't have a value system that's been explicitly stated. So we really just observe and then write it down.

And on top of that, we are very, we've bought into entrepreneurial operating system as a managerial tool and we use eos at every single one of our portfolio companies. And again, like, I don't think that the value that that brings to the table can be overstated.

A lot of these companies that we come into have not had a, you know, a, a commercialized or an institutional decision making process. A lot of it's been, you know, a dictatorship.

Andres Sandate: 00:18:53

Right. Very founder led. Right?

Richard Gibble: 00:18:55

Yeah, precisely.

Andres Sandate: 00:18:56

Sure.

Richard Gibble: 00:18:56

And you know, as private equity owners, we can't afford to do that.

You know, we, we need to rely on the people that have spent 10, 15, 20, 30 years, their entire lives in these businesses and they'll know the inner workings of these companies better than we ever could. You know, we're generally, you know, pretty smart business guys and we're very happy to lead strategic direction to the firms.

But you know, day to day processes, the people that are actually doing the work need to have a voice at the table. And I think that's one of the things that we do a pretty good job of facilitating.

Andres Sandate: 00:19:30

Yeah, no, we're going to talk about EOs and some of the operational pieces later on in the conversation, but let's talk about EOs. You know, some of the, some of these drivers that could be propelling this renaissance around manufacturing.

So we know that there was obviously a recent election, right. President Elect Trump is going to be back in the White House. He's going to largely have the support of Congress. Right. He's filling the Cabinet now.

We're recording this here in, you know, the 21st of November, 22nd of November, and a lot of these things are taking shape. And you turn on Bloomberg or cnbc, Steve, and everybody's talking about tariffs.

Everybody's talking about, you know, what is, what does this impact of these cabinet choices mean and, and what does that mean for the domestic economy? So I want to throw some things out that you and I talked about in sort of preparing for the conversation, things like tariffs, reshoring.

Stu alluded to that with, you know, what happened post Covid when you just couldn't buy cleaning supplies. Right. You couldn't buy things at the grocery store. You talk about federal initiatives and incentives. Right.

We had a gigantic infrastructure bill passed under Biden several years ago. Obviously, we can't do a conversation around AI without talking about the disruption of AI on manufacturing and other businesses.

And then lastly, I think it was mentioned, like the energy transition that's underway and just this notion of, so there's a lot there.

But what are, what are some of the highlights that we need to be aware of as investors when thinking about the impact of those things on manufacturing, it sounds like as tailwinds for why this space deserves, you know, focused attention.

Steve Trotta: 00:21:18

Yeah. So I'll take a shot at that. Andres. I mean, I think there's, there's a number of things you mentioned.

You hit on a lot of them, but yeah, I think a couple of things that we're focused on, you know, as a result of, you know, a changing administration, you know, things of that nature. I mean, first of all, we're gonna, we're heading into a lower interest rate environment. Right.

Stu mentioned the kind of the down cycle over the last couple of years that directly correlated with a sharp increase in rising interest rates. Right. You know, that was coupled with that excess Covid supply hangover. Right.

And so that, you know, compounded the issues that we've seen over the last couple of years. But we're coming out of that heading into a, you know, a reduced interest rate environment.

You put tariffs on top of that, which there are, you know, there's already tariffs that are out there, but any increases, you know, in theory, you know, at that high macro level should drive more manufacturing work domestically. Now, there's a lot of talk about, oh, this is just a tax on goods and, and this and that.

But, you know, it's supposed to drive more domestic manufacturing, which we believe that will happen. You know, so that's really kind of a second key factor. There's going to be higher tariffs on the already existing tariff program that's in place.

Andres Sandate: 00:22:48

Let's talk about this notion of restoring. Right. And, and everybody talked about that post. Covid.

I just heard, you know, analysts, after analysts say we're gonna, you know, all these companies are gonna bring stuff back to America and they're start manufacturing things back in America, which would, would seemingly be a tailwind for you, but that doesn't happen overnight. Right. So what are we seeing around that?

Steve Trotta: 00:23:09

Yeah, Andres. I mean, there's been a lot of reshoring conversation out there.

I mean, the fact of the matter is there may be work that's moving out of China, but a lot of that is going to India, it's going to Mexico, it's going to Vietnam, it's going to other low cost, you know, production countries right now. Will more of that work accelerate if there's a conflict between China and Taiwan, Will more of that move out of China?

Will more of that move out of Taiwan? Right. We just, we don't know yet.

You know, I think what's really driving some of the reshoring for the folks that we like to work with is, hey, we want to shorten our supply chain. We recognize there was a disruption due to Covid. We believe there's value in working with folks that are close to our business and close to home.

So we see some, you know, tailwinds from that type of an effect. There will be more of that, no doubt, as things move forward. Yeah.

So it is a thing, you know, I think it will accelerate, you know, potentially accelerate even more depending on what happens, you know, geopolitically.

But you combine that with the interest rate, environment, increased tariffs, you know, an AI boom, more data centers being built, this administration Talking about building 10 new cities in this country, you know, more domestic oil production, you know, transportation improvements and enhancements, all of that substantially drives manufacturing. So, yeah, when you combine all those things, just one of those alone can be impactful.

But there are a number of compelling arguments to suggest that that golden era. Yeah, well, I, I, yeah, I, I.

Andres Sandate: 00:25:04

Have said to lots of folks, and I'd love to have you comment on this, Brian. You know, when you look at the number of boomers, baby boomers, and, and those that are turning 65 every day, those that are retiring Right.

Lot, lot of them.

I don't want to speculate on, on the portfolio, but I think a lot of them are in the heart of probably some of the companies that you guys are talking to. So, Brian, when you talk to these aging owners. Right, right.

They're 65, they're 70, they're, they've worked their whole life to build a successful manufacturing business and now they've got to make some decisions like you talked about, around exit planning and thinking about what am I going to do with my business. Are you seeing an uptick in, you've been doing this at Gramercy for some time.

Have you seen an uptick in just the thought process for these owners of these companies to start thinking a year, two, three years out?

Hey, if I'm going to have a liquidity event, sometimes it's tax driven, you know, sometimes it's regulatory, sometimes it's taxes, regulation, you know, and, and estate planning that all come into that.

But give us a sense for the temperature in the room for, for these lower middle market, middle market manufacturing businesses that you, that you support from the wealth management side.

Brian Cote: 00:26:25

So I'll say one thing, everyone knows this. As you said, a record number of baby boomers are turning 65 every day.

One thing that I've noticed, I remind people all the time, when you hit 65, you're about to hit one of the longest stages of your life. People are living longer. Right. So here we have these business owners that want to transition out of a company.

And it's literally I project a three to five year process. And it's, it can be challenging if someone offers to buy their company and they haven't done the planning, that sort of lights my hair on fire.

And I have to act, you know, three times as fast and a lot of times it can't be as smooth. So people are realizing that they need to reach out to professionals early and start the smooth process.

And every one of them I've talked to want to have their employees involved in ownership of the company. We're Talking more about ESOPs now than I ever have before.

Andres Sandate: 00:27:20

Yeah.

And obviously, you know, private equity, not the only buyer of these businesses, but certainly private equity with the amount of capital and the amount of interest. And certainly we're part of educating investors around the merits of looking at deploying a portion of your capital to the private markets.

And private equity is a big part of that, that you want to be behind great operators, you want to be behind great sponsors.

So, so I want to, it's pretty clear to me from this conversation and hopefully to our listeners that you guys are thinking very transformationally and you're very much thinking macro, but also what are the big trends that are going to be tailwinds, you know, and I think that's coming through as far as the macro background, the corporate finance background, the, you know, being being in these bigger enterprises, you can bring a lot of operational efficiencies, but we wouldn't be doing justice to del cam into until we spent the second half of the conversation talking about the investment process, talking about, you know, how do you source, how do you diligence, you know, how do you do, you know, value creation. You alluded to operating, you know, running EOs, but how do you do post acquisition value creation.

So let's hit on some of these things because this is critical in, in looking at private equity platforms. And certainly I want to give you guys a chance to talk. Maybe, maybe I'll come to you first. Rich and just talking about sourcing.

Maybe Stu, you can, you can hop in and talk as well. How do you find companies and what's the methodology for identifying these great manufacturing businesses?

Richard Gibble: 00:28:52

Sure. So we've been fortunate that we've had a number of different acquisition methods or the ways that we've made acquisitions of companies.

So about a third of our acquisitions have been private off market. We've gotten, we have a relationship with a buy side search firm that's looking for us. We have a national search out for potential targets.

We have a number of relationships with local and regional investment banks. We have a lot of business brokers that we work directly with.

And the thing that I'm kind of most proud of, I'd say, is that we have a number of inbound inquiries.

And I really attribute that to the way that we've handled our first set of acquisitions where we're, as you mentioned, these guys, a lot of the people that we buy from, our founder, founders of these companies, they've been in the business for 30 plus years in many cases and they know who their competition is. They know the guy down the street and when they have an exit, you know, it's, it's, it's, it's a big deal for them.

It's kind of the only time they're ever going to do that in their lives. And you know, the, that gets around a little bit. So we've been, and the part that I'm proud of is that I think that we're good buyers.

I think that the, we work well with the sellers, these businesses and and that kind of gets around the grapevine to the point where, you know, we get inbound inquiries now. Hey, the, you know, I know the guy that you bought a business from two years ago.

I'm thinking about buying a business or, sorry, I'm thinking about selling my business. Would you guys like to start a conversation? And you know, that's, that's great all around, right?

It's, it's good to have a, not, not be involved in a competitive process.

Andres Sandate: 00:30:45

Right.

Richard Gibble: 00:30:46

It's less expensive for the seller. It allows us to work directly with the buyer.

It does present its own challenges because sometimes their financials aren't, you know, vetted by or put through a banker. So, you know, we have to do a little bit more work on our end to sort of play cleanup a little bit there. We have to dig a little bit more.

But you know, it's, the private off market stuff is great, right?

Andres Sandate: 00:31:11

Yeah, yeah. I mean, obviously that's, that's the goal if you can see more of those.

But I think to Brian's point, you know, we don't have to repeat it, but you know, preparing to sell a business is a process, right? Not just running the business, but then preparing to sell it to get maximum value is, is a process.

So Stu, you know, we can say manufacturing until we're blue in the face, but that's a very broad term. Right? You guys are looking for niche manufacturers, right?

Can you give, can, can you give a sense for why is there so much, so much promise in these niche manufacturing businesses? And, and I, you mentioned the 30 years, you know, the owner that's been running this, he knows his competition.

He, she knows who her, you know, who her, who her partners are and, and knows the vendors.

When, when you think about niche manufacturing, how important, important are things like relationships and you know, the insights that those owners have or that you can bring to the table or you know, better yet, like, as you grow your business, like sourcing those types of opportunities.

Steve Trotta: 00:32:22

I.

Stuart Chanin: 00:32:23

I, I think that they've done the hard work for us. Right. These owners have made the relationships, they've acquired these customers, they've nurtured them over the years.

And when we, it is extremely important that there's content.

Andres Sandate: 00:32:42

Right?

Stuart Chanin: 00:32:43

We want the people who have been serving these customers to continue to serve them and serve them in the same capacity. It should be like, from the customer's perspective, nothing has happened. Right?

Andres Sandate: 00:32:55

Yeah.

Stuart Chanin: 00:32:55

This is the same company that we've always worked with and it's very important that have a plan in place to make sure. That operating the company not only improves, but also just stays how it was, where the customers know that they can reline.

This company we acquired Space Age Electronics. Now, here's a niche company, right? It's in the fire and light safety industry. They got started in the 60s.

They make their own line of fire life safety equipment. They outfit commercial buildings. It's a very niche space. Right.

If you're not in the building construction world, you're not, you're not going to know who they are. But if you're a fire and light safety integrator and you work for Honeywell or you work for Siemens, you definitely know who Space Age is.

And every building that you install, that you're going to buy the products, Right. So you, you want to be able to rely on them. In many cases, some of their products are the only ones on the market.

So you want to make sure that you're, you're, you're getting the right thing. I think with us, it was very important for some of the family who sold the business to remain in the business. And they, and they are.

One of the sellers has departed, but we made sure there was a very strong team behind them. One of the sellers remains as the chief engineer. Two of their sons are in the business holding key roles.

So I think that that was one of the reasons why they wanted to sell to us. You know, the buyer is very important.

You don't want to change everything and tear the company apart just to create some value and sell it in two, three years. We have a longer holding period. We're really trying to preserve the family legacy.

I think the customers can see it, I know the employees can see it, and I think that's, that's what makes us unique.

Andres Sandate: 00:35:00

Yeah, I think that's a, I think that's definitely a difference. So, so Steve, I'm going to come back to you on, on the other two points I made in sort of framing up this question.

And it kind of goes to due diligence, right.

When you talk about a manufacturing company that's been led by a team of very senior folks, they know their customers, they know their markets, they know the market trends, but they maybe haven't been on the cutting edge of investing in technology and systems, et cetera, it's got to make for. And it's. And if it's a specialist manufacturer, you talk about, you know, life safety as an example. Right.

Like people know it if they're in that world. But you guys got to get up to speed pretty quickly.

And that would Mean a lot of due diligence, I would imagine, and a pretty comprehensive process to make sure, sure you get good quality of earnings and you get, you can, you know, you can really rely on the cash flows and the customer base, etc.

So talk about that comprehensive diligence process and maybe also as a sort of second after the due diligence, talk about sort of uncovering nothing that's hidden but opportunities that maybe you sort of come into, you didn't anticipate on the front end when you get into the weeds of looking at these businesses.

Steve Trotta: 00:36:18

Yeah, no, excellent question. So, you know, we have a rigorous due diligence process.

You know, the three of us can well cover the financial aspect of it, the forecasting, the financial analysis, the look backs, that sort of thing. That said, we have a third party that comes in and will perform a quality of earnings so we can ensure that that deeper level audit is completed.

We leverage a third party that has a thousand employees that performs and helps us out with a market analysis, industry analysis, competitive analysis, swats, Porter Pestle, all of that. Right. A deep dive on products so we can get a greater understanding of what's happening in the marketplace, the competitive landscape, all of that.

So you know, when we acquired Space Age, you know, we have a, a systematic process, this team of third parties and you know, and ourselves come together to, you know, walk through these steps.

You know, one of the interesting things that we uncovered as part of the due diligence process with Space Age, most recently, to answer the second part of your question, we have an audit and tax partner, Whipflie, who handles all of our fund audit, but they came in during the due diligence process to perform all the tax due diligence to ensure that the S Corp. Election of Space Age was all buttoned up and that they had done that appropriately.

And Wipley introduced to us the qualified small business Doc program. You guys should really take a look at acquiring Space Age with qualified small business stock.

There are, you know, phenomenal benefits from a tax perspective for your investors. You know, if you go down this path, here's how you do it, we'll help you comply with it.

And we acquired the business with qualified small business stock. And you know, if we hold the company for five years, 10 times the equity investment will be federally tax free.

So you know, just a byproduct of that process, the due diligence process, you know, led to our investors potentially getting a much enhanced irr, if you will.

Andres Sandate: 00:38:54

Yeah, yeah.

Brian, I want to ask you, you know, when, when you, when you think about private markets and we look at managers, you know, we talked about the importance of, of starting with the people and the team and who are the folks, you know, at the controls because you're talking about long term relationships and multiple, hopefully fun commitments.

When you, when you hear, when you hear folks dig in though to their investment processes, explain if you would, from the wealth advisor's perspective, what does the client ultimately hear?

What does the client, when, when they hear the story of a Dell Cam, for example, how do you present what you're hearing here today in terms of why as an advisor we, we should think about them or another private markets manager as it relates to how they invest and their, their criteria and their diligence, et cetera.

Brian Cote: 00:39:50

I think it's focusing on the dynamics of the investment and truthfully, what I have found, clients are interested in learning the story behind what they're putting their capital into. And I think that's why I like the Del Cam story so much is the approach that they take.

And when I speak to clients, one thing that they talk about is how do they treat the employees of these companies.

And it's interesting because I had a discussion with Richard, Stu and Steve at a recent conference about that and I was very intrigued that they are open minded to making sure those employees are happy, but they have a vested interest in the success of the business. And once I talk to them about that, those investors are thinking. I feel like I'm investing right beside, in line with the Del Cam team.

And that's in essence what they're doing. And I think it gives them an advantage.

Andres Sandate: 00:40:35

Yeah, they're closer to it. Yeah. So Brian, I want to be respectful of your schedule. Do you have a hard stop that you need to, that you need to hop off for today?

Brian Cote: 00:40:43

No, I'm good. We're good.

Andres Sandate: 00:40:45

Okay, great. Let's keep going then because I'm really getting warmed up guys. And now I'm going to hit you with the hard questions.

I, I love to tell people like we'll, we'll be kind for a while, but then we're going to bring the heat at some point in the conversation because let's be honest, right? There's thousands of private equity firms out there. There's, there's thousands of private market strategies and offerings.

And as advisors, our job is to figure out who are the best of the best, who's a good fit, who can be durable. That starts with, again for us, it starts with the people and the, the things we talked about.

But at the end of the day, you got to create value, and it's no longer in private equity. Just about financial engineering.

Meaning you can't just go buy a company, load it up with that, recap it a couple times, and look to sell it to the next firm. That still happens. Probably, though it's moved way down market where I know you're probably not focused, right?

Almost in that entrepreneurship through acquisition, you know, but where you're looking more in that lower middle market, middle market, there's more efficiency, there's more competition, there's more guys looking at businesses. Everybody's executing on a specific platform. So to me, it's about what are you doing to create value after the acquisition? Right.

You make money on the buy, but you know where you really create excess returns for advisors selfishly like us, is what are you doing once you buy the business. Okay, so this one's like popcorn. I don't care who takes it. But talk about the improvement approach that you, you employ. And you alluded to EOs, okay.

On, you know, the EOS system. I'm a big subscriber to that.

Use it in all of my businesses, really think that it can be transformational in terms of a common language, a common set of values, a common process, which just many folks have just not been exposed to, institutionalizing all those things. Right. And taking out a lot of the emotion.

So whether it's eos, whether it's talent, whether it's intellectual capital, innovation, new markets, what are the things you're doing to create value at these businesses?

I know we were going to finish with a couple of examples, but before we do that, I want, I want to give you guys a chance to talk about that, because I think for a lot of folks, when they hear private equity, they, like I said, like Brian said, it's. They still think, oh, they're just buying a business on the cheap, slashing a bunch of costs, loading it up with debt and moving on.

And that's not the case. Right. That's an old reputation that private equity has. So I'd love to hear how you guys are creating value at Dell Cam for your portfolio companies.

And. And I'll leave it to you guys to. Which one wants to take that?

Steve Trotta: 00:43:18

I'll take a stab at it. And then, you know, Rich, we'll start with Steve.

Richard Gibble: 00:43:23

We all want to answer this one.

Andres Sandate: 00:43:24

Yeah, yeah, I know it's a, It's a fun topic. So we'll start with Steve and then we'll go. Go to you, Rich.

Steve Trotta: 00:43:29

Yeah. So for you Know, the first hundred days post acquisition, we want to make sure that we are getting the EOS program off the ground.

If you take a look at the Del CAM values, Andres, you mentioned a few of them earlier. Right. Discipline, decisiveness, delegation, accountability, perseverance. Right.

EOS perfectly aligns with our core values, which were established five years ago. Right. And it's a way for us to know at a high level, get those values pervaded throughout the companies that we're acquiring.

Now, Rich mentioned earlier, each of our portfolio companies may have their own set of values that are represented at the company level, but EOS really kind of embodies Del CAM and what we believe in. So first and foremost, we get EOS off the ground.

That helps provide each of the companies that typically have not had a whole lot of structure or planning or goal setting historically. All of those things come to light, you know, through the EOS program. Leadership teams are established, which typically have not been in place.

You know, we're delegating the management of these businesses for the most part. Right. We are involved in strategy and oversight, of course, but we want the people to take ownership.

We believe that people will drive more value, employees will drive more value if they have more autonomy. And there's a structured leadership team in place and a formal delegation process. So that's the most critical thing that we institute.

Of course, throughout the due diligence process, we're looking at other opportunities. As an example, we were down in North Carolina this week looking at a target company for our second portfolio.

And, you know, we want to get eyes on the company just to understand in person how organized they are and things of that nature. But we also wanted to learn the nature of their systems. Right. What do they have for an ERP system? You know, is that going to need an upgrade?

Are there other things that we need to invest in that will add value as we go forward?

But, you know, the traditional things that you think about, you know, technology, sales and marketing and people are three critical kind of pillars of investment that we look toward.

Andres Sandate: 00:45:55

Right.

Steve Trotta: 00:45:56

I would bucket equipment into that technology category. Right. Obviously, that's important in manufacturing.

So, you know, we look at all those things, assess what's really needed to upgrade these companies, and then create a plan. You know, an EOS is really helpful at governing the approach. Right. The first three months, we're not investing in every single thing.

You know, EOS is a system that helps prioritize what's most important. Right. Because there's that, that saying that, you know, if everything's Important. If everything's the most important, nothing's really important.

So yeah, being able to prioritize what we want to roll out first, it's going to give us our biggest ROI sooner in an accelerated fashion. EOS helps us with that. So I'll stop there and then, you know, Rich and Stu, you know, feel free to round that out.

Andres Sandate: 00:46:47

Yeah, you've got to leave something on the table for Rich to nibble on.

You know, we're getting close to Thanksgiving and I see you're the guy at the, at the table to the next week that grabs all the dark turkey meat at my, at my dinner. It's like you gotta save something for Rich and stew here. So I make turkey. Yeah.

One of the things that, that, that we've talked about is EOS and that, that speaks to people because when you introduce EOs, and I'm not an implementer, but it introduces a, not a culture change, but it introduces a set of things from the standpoint of accountability and, and reporting and things that can be a little bit of a shock to the system. So let's talk about talent and intellectual capital or, or other areas that you think are really hallmarks, you know, at Del Cam.

Richard Gibble: 00:47:29

Yeah, so I, I would argue that EOS does turn things on its head a lot of times. It, because it, it is a, you know, it can be a big change to some of these organizations from a planning and prioritization perspective.

But I think the piece of the talent component that I'd like to touch on relates to our, the way we've organized our long term incentive plan across all of our portfolio companies.

So we last year implemented the ownership works model where we, the three of us, take a slice of the general partnership and, and allocate it to every single employee at each of the portfolio companies. So they, the all of the employees up and down the organization are owners of these businesses. And so they're getting, they're getting a.

Andres Sandate: 00:48:24

Piece of the portfolio as a lp, but they're getting a slice of the general partnership. So they're getting diversification, if you will, for being an employee at Space Age across a portfolio of other manufacturing companies.

That's interesting, correct?

Richard Gibble: 00:48:40

Yeah, exactly correct.

Andres Sandate: 00:48:41

Okay.

Richard Gibble: 00:48:42

So I mean we think that that does a number of things in our favor. Right. It creates loyalty, you know, if an employee, we make awards each at year end each year.

So the longer you stay with the company, the more awards you get. And anytime there's a liquidity event, you'll benefit just the same way the general partnership does. On on any exit event. Yeah.

You know, and also it helps create a mentality of ownership where, you know, instead of just coming to work every day and sort of clipping your coupon, you're thinking more as an owner.

And you know, this, this, we're kind of early in rolling this out, but we're one year in and you know, we answer a lot of questions about how it works. A lot of these people are sort of unfamiliar with the concept of shares or equity ownership.

But you know, we try to do a lot of education, we try and reinforce it at our quarterly all hands meetings, make sure everybody understands what the process is.

But you know, I really think that the bringing ownership to the entire employee base, you know, really creates a mindset of accountability to everybody who works as part of our team.

Andres Sandate: 00:50:04

Yeah, well, they're probably going to become like Brian and I calling the GP soon and saying when am I getting a distribution? Right. Like, you know, we had a realistic expectation here. But Brian, let's keep it real.

I mean, part of, part of the heads up with private markets is, you know, there's that illiquidity premium. Right. We, we are going to give you the opportunity to manage and steward capital for our clients.

And as fiduciaries, we're going to do everything we can to make sure that capital is, is in good hands. Right. With all the checks and balances.

Richard Gibble: 00:50:34

Right.

Andres Sandate: 00:50:34

But at the same time, we know that we are asking a client to tie up some capital for a period of time, you know, three years, five years, seven years in exchange, you know, we are, we are making a calculated bet that this particular team and manager and strategy is going to return something above and beyond what we could otherwise find in something liquid in the, in the marketable securities area, whether it's through a mutual fund or an etf. So all that aside, Stu, you're a markets guy, you spent a lot of time in the markets.

You know, expanding and growing these manufacturing businesses is got to be super important. You talk about sales and new customers at the same time.

We would be heads in the sand if we thought all your portfolio companies at all times are always getting record demand. Right. I mean, it's just the nature of the economy.

There's going to be some businesses in some sectors of the economy due to oversupply or due to tariffs or due to regulation that that's just not hitting, you know, on all cylinders.

So can you talk about some of the technologies or some of the market strategies for that longer term, you know, growth where you're hitting the cyclical trend that you're employing at Del Cam to ensure these businesses over a longer cycle are positioned to be market winners.

Stuart Chanin: 00:52:03

portfolio companies. In: 2022

Sales were an issue. It was production on time, delivery, and getting the work out the door. Our backlogs were, you know, at record highs.

he whole thing on a dime. And: 2023

You have to lay the foundation so that the rebound is that much better for you. So you, we, and we did it in fund one. You go full fledged into sales, right?

We have connected with all kinds of reps in many regions throughout the country as manufacturers reps and invested on our own internal sales process with our sales and engineering folks to really go into the market, really make that push to get new customers in the door, work with our existing clients to understand, hey, what other needs do you have? And by the way, do you need anything that one of our other companies does?

what we were trying to do in: 2023

hat they were experiencing in: 2022

Their demand will come back and it's starting to. We just started to see a couple orders. So now we're in the strong position where, okay, we've just increased our base.

We know there's economic cycles right now. We're gonna really capitalize on the upswing.

Andres Sandate: 00:54:03

So, Brian, I'm gonna give you a chance to weigh in here quickly from the standpoint of market updates, quarterly updates from the, from the general partner, right? We get letters, we get, we get access to data rooms, we get a chance to go on site and meet with the general partners.

A lot of people's perception is that, you know, I don't know if I want to go into private markets because I look at my mutual fund and I know all the stocks that they own. And if I want to, if I want to sell the mutual fund, I can sell the mutual fund.

Same can be Said for an etf, you know, in private markets, like, you know, I don't, I don't know, I'm speaking as an advisor. I don't know all the ins and outs of what's in the portfolio. I don't know how they're making decisions.

I mean, we've heard here today how Del Cam's doing it. We've gotten a chance to hear about some portfolio companies.

But I want to ask you as an advisor, how are you getting comfortable once the investment's made with the updates to the portfolio? What are the mechanisms you've put in place at Gramercy Park?

Brian Cote: 00:55:08

What we try to do is on a quarterly basis, set detailed calls with the manager so they can give us updates. And one thing you have to keep in mind, if you have a portfolio of multiple companies, you can only cover so much ground.

So what we try to do is get highlights from them and those highlights will continue because these are private investments that are going to extend over multiple quarters and years, you know, after that. So we just, I do the best I can at getting a flavor for what's going on.

And believe me, it's positives and negatives just so I can give clients an update on where it stands.

Andres Sandate: 00:55:41

Yeah, but we track it and we have a full due diligence vault. So we're getting updates from managers that are both in the portfolio, but also managers that we're, we're diligencing. Right.

So just, just like you guys at Del Cam have a, have a, have a process, a funnel of sorts where you're looking at businesses, high level initial conversations, all the way down to those where you're obviously putting a term sheet out. Similarly, diligence at a high level. We just had the first conversation. We met him at an event, we just had an initial call all the way down to.

We're going on site, we're really digging through offering materials and whatnot. So as we get ready to finish up, we've talked a little bit about one of the companies, Space Age Electronics. But maybe I'll come back to you, Steve.

I want to give you a chance to talk about another business that's in the portfolio that I think is quite interesting. It's called the Shortening Shuttle.

Can you tell us a little bit about this company, a little bit about why it was an interesting acquisition for the portfolio at Dell Cam and some of the things that maybe you can share about it as a holding and some of the success you've had?

Steve Trotta: 00:56:45

Yeah, absolutely. You know, we love the shortening Shuttle for a number of reasons, but you know, great acquisition, right.

We initially acquired a company that the same sellers owned. The other company was a precision sheet metal fabrication company.

So we acquired that precision sheet metal fab company with an option to purchase the shortening shuttle.

Andres Sandate: 00:57:11

Okay, so I got to stop you there because when you said shortening shuttle to me, I thought this is a quicker bus from Logan to the terminal to get out of the, you know, to get out of the airport, right? What you're talking about, you got to set the stable and zoom out. What is the industry? Why, you know, why is this niche?

I mean, I say that tongue in cheek, but I think this speaks to some of the niche manufacturing and some of the businesses that are very esoteric that just on the surface an investor might just overlook and miss, but yet it's, it's critical to the functioning of an everyday business that almost anybody could relate to. So I'm just asking this pause and sort of zoom up a little bit.

Steve Trotta: 00:57:54

Yeah, sure. No, I appreciate that. So the shortening shuttle business, it's, it's a waste oil carrier, right.

Every single restaurant in the world that owns a fry later that is cooking french fries or chicken tenders can use.

Andres Sandate: 00:58:10

Got it.

Steve Trotta: 00:58:11

It's a way for the back of the house restaurant staff to safely drain and remove used cooking oil out of the restaurant that subsequently gets picked up. So.

Andres Sandate: 00:58:23

Got it.

Steve Trotta: 00:58:24

Small business based out of Worcester, Massachusetts that we acquired. We forward vertically integrated it into our manufacturing facility.

You know, we've recently developed a new product that we're launching to market that's battery operated filtration system which will be the first of its kind on the market. So loving that innovation from our team. Our CEO just got back from a European tour.

We were introduced to a contract manufacturer that will be making shortening shuttles for us in the European market. Believe it or not, Europeans eat a lot of fried food as well.

Andres Sandate: 00:59:05

They do. And I lived in Europe and you know, they, they, they're getting introduced to, you know, good, better and different. Right.

That the Italians do not, contrary to Hollywood, they do not just eat pizza and pasta. They do like their french fries, you know, they do like their hamburgers. So much of it is, is becoming.

You know, maybe you start in Germany, maybe you start in the uk but these markets are, they're certainly not monolithic, but they are substantial. Right. And there's, there's restaurants all over, all over the place, all over the world, literally. So, so interesting.

Can you provide maybe on, on an outlook like when you buy A company like the Shortening Shuttle, you start doing some innovation, you start looking at new markets. Is this a ten year plan? Is this, is this a five year plan? Like, how do you even think about, you know, cause you got LPs and you got a fund.

Like, how do you think about the, the context of like how far can you go with it?

Steve Trotta: 01:00:07

So this will be our first exit, right? I mean we acquired the company at a fantastic and low multiple. They were already profitable.

it this company by the end of: 2026

It was the equity that we did put into it was, you know, from the cash flow of our existing companies that we already owned. And you know, just this one, it will be the first exit for us.

It's a likely, a more, you know, a shorter time horizon than the rest of our portfolio companies. But it just makes a lot of sense where, where it is in the life cycle.

And there are a number of potential exit partners that are in the food equipment space. There are a lot of aggregators who, who pick up companies like this on the exit side.

So we're really excited about, we have a great leader that is running the company for us. He's done a, an outstanding job in the past year, year and a half almost, you know, executing on the strategic plan and yeah, we, we're loving it.

Andres Sandate: 01:01:40

Rich, I want to ask you.

That was a really great example that Steve gave on the shortening shuttle and I appreciate all of your, you know, detailed answers today and I, I know we've, we've certainly maxed out probably your time, you're busy, but I would love for you to maybe give a short version of space age electronics mentioned. I think Stu mentioned this in the life safety business, fire and life safety business. So obviously a mission critical manufacturer.

Can you give some highlights of that particular deal and kind of the company and why it's an exciting portfolio addition?

Richard Gibble: 01:02:20

Yeah, I mean there's a lot, I can only touch on a few probably. First of all, it was introduced to us off market.

So the negotiation phase was pretty straightforward, pretty easy and we didn't have to liaise through a banker or a broker.

And we got to know the sellers and the management team really well right off the bat because, because you start doing diligence with them immediately. It's a really excellent company. Founded in the 60s, it's a second generation family business.

The eldest brother is kind of the driving force behind the sale. But I think as Steve mentioned earlier, we have the kind of the middle brother as the head of engineering. Two sons still work in.

Stu mentioned key roles at the firm and you know it's just, it's a very well run business and they have fully adopted hook, line and sinker eos.

I mean and this is the type of business that EOS was really designed for because they had a lot of really good sort of middle managerial people already in place but now giving them a framework to execute against. Just, you know, you can see the excitement and energy at the first off site and planning meeting.

You know, on top of that we just think that the business itself is really primed for growth. You know it's the, they've really embraced automation and so they have a sheet metal fab and the automation side of it is, it's really incredible.

It's beyond what you would think you'd see in a $20 million business.

You know they're in fact they work, we work very closely with a, you know, a global, very large manufacturer of equipment that is headquartered in Asia and has American headquarters in, on the west coast and in central, the center Midwest. But on the east coast they don't have a huge commercial presence.

So we're actually there eastern showroom because of the level of automation that we've acquired from them and implemented into our operations and just the scale and repeatability that the automation provides us there is, it's beyond what I would have expected.

And the management there, all the way down to the people on the floor, they're just really engaged and I really just can't say enough about the people there. That's really what drives this business. We have an excellent sales force and you know it.

The other part of it is it's very code driven business and you know, good luck building or renovating a building without some space age parts in it.

Andres Sandate: 01:05:17

Yeah, yeah, for sure.

So Stu, I'm going to come to you before we wrap up and I'm going to give Steve the, the final comment because you, you know, Stu, Steve, your, your name's on the quarterly letters and those things which doesn't take away from the importance of Rich and Stu's role.

But I'm going to give you a final chance to maybe provide a highlight or two or some perspective of how you're actually giving investors a way to participate.

So Stu, you come at this from the standpoint of obviously a deep career in markets, having spent a long period of time at Fidelity, which is well respected in a well known institution globally.

You know, some would say, oh, they're very conservative, family run company, you know, they're behind, they're just starting to do digital assets, however, been around for generations. Very safe place arguably for, for people to, you know, to, to invest their capital, to have their capital custodied, etc.

I don't want to put words in your mouth, but maybe talk about that and how that's infused into the business, into the platform and, or share a perspective on, you know, what's exciting about what you guys are doing at Dell Cam now that you're into deploying out of fund two.

Stuart Chanin: 01:06:35

Yeah. Andres, as you said, Fidelity is a very conservative place. Family owned, private, protect your capital. Right.

And we do sort of bring that mindset to the table here. So when, when we're trying to pitch this to investors, I mean, what we say is, first of all, look at the cash flow component of our investment. Right?

You're getting an average of 15 annual cash distributions as a limited partner. Right back to you. So if you look at, you know, the typical conundrum with locking up capital for a long holding period, right.

Seven, seven years or so, you know, what's it going to be at the end? Well, at least you're, you know, you're getting your 15 a year, so you're really de. Risking the investment as you go, right?

You're, you're getting that capital back and that's improving your irr, Right, because then you have that capital to deploy other. So that approach and, and us approaching, you know, making these distributions, that's a very conservative thing for us to do.

Would we be a little more comfortable and less on edge sometimes if we were retaining that capital within the businesses to give us more of a buffer? Yeah, sure. But I think for investors, hey, you have to, you have to give them incentive to want to do it. Right.

So, yes, we would love to tell you our story. We would love you to buy into all the value we can create at these companies and we really think we can right now.

But hey, also, how about 15 a year, right?

Andres Sandate: 01:08:10

Yeah, right. That helps. Well, people are looking for, yeah, people are looking for income. Sure. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. This has been terrific.

Stuart Chanin: 01:08:20

Absolutely.

Andres Sandate: 01:08:21

For the sake of time, I'd love Steve, maybe give you the final chance to share a thought about Dell Cam. You know, bring us up to speed about where you're at, in, in the evolution of the platform.

I believe you're on fund two at this point and deploying and, and giving capital back as Stu mentioned.

But share, share with us the evolution of the platform if you, if you could and kind of where you guys are in, in your, in the stage of, of building your private equity business.

Steve Trotta: 01:08:52

Yeah, so, so thanks for that, Andres again, appreciate the time today. It's been great. So yeah, as far as Del Cam goes, you know, first fund is four years in. Right.

r that early on in January of: 2023

We deployed 55% of the equity capital that we're looking to deploy in total at a minimum. So at this point, you know, we're Space Age is, is off and running. You know, it's doing really well. It's growing.

We have a solid plan for next year, you know, 14 projection for revenue growth, growing our EBITDA by 30% next year. Things are looking great.

You know, we're in the process now I mentioned we were in North Carolina this week looking at a target company that's a possibility for us to move forward on a letter of intent that could be our next acquisition.

We actually have a talk this afternoon to chat through it a little bit in our investment committee and we're full speed ahead raising the rest of the capital for our fund. We have a couple of placement agents that are working on our behalf.

We have the buy side agency that's sourcing deals for us, which that North Carolina company came through that channel. So we're looking to, for things to dovetail toward the end of the first quarter, early second quarter on closing out Fund 2.

of next year, possibly early: 2026

You know, assuming all goes well with the execution with Fund 2 here and closing that out and things are on track. So, you know, we're excited about that trajectory. We have a lot going on. There's no shortage of, of things to do.

But it's exciting and you know, we're, we're growing and you know, learning every day and you know, as long as our LPs and our employees are happy, you know, we're happy and kind of where we are right now.

Andres Sandate: 01:11:20

Yeah, that's great. Well, I want to give you a chance to, to tell us how people can learn more. How do they get in touch with, with with you guys at Del Cam Capital?

Steve Trotta: 01:11:30

Yeah, so anybody can reach out to us at any time. Email or you know, we're happy to provide even phone numbers, text phone calls, you know, whatever. All, all forms of communication are open.

So you know, we're not this big firm where an admin's going to answer the phone and you know, gatekeep our investors have direct access to us at any time. So yeah, we expect to be able to be responsive when, when anyone wants to chat with us and that's perfectly.

Andres Sandate: 01:12:04

Well, I, I'll, I'll put a plug in for folks. If you want to learn more about Del Cam Capital you can certainly check them out on their website which is www.del dell cam capital.

That's D L C A M Del Cam capital dot com. Obviously all these gentlemen as they said are are out there accessible. Please reach out if you'd like to learn more with that.

You know we today we talked about private equity redefined, you know, the transparent investing in American manufacturing with, with the three founders of, of Del Cam Capital. Thank you guys for joining me and Brian Cody on ATL Alts on behalf of our team.

You know, we want to wish you and your families happy holidays ahead and in a great season.

And I look forward to having you guys back on, you know, perhaps next year to get an update on, you know, what's going on with the short shuttle and space age manufacturing and some of the other companies that I know you're in due diligence with. But with that, thank you guys for joining us today.

Steve Trotta: 01:13:11

Hey, thank you. Andres and Brian, thanks for having us and happy Thanksgiving and we'll connect soon.

Andres Sandate: 01:13:17

Yeah, thanks. Thanks guys.

Stuart Chanin: 01:13:19

Happy holidays.

Steve Trotta: 01:13:20

Thank you.

Stuart Chanin: 01:13:21

Thank you both.