Maine Succession Partners

The opportunity

56.6%

of Maine business owners are 55 or older.

It's time they start enjoying the way life should be.

Maine is the oldest state in the country, and its business owners run older still: the average Maine owner is about 55, and more than one in four is 65 or older. Nowhere else are more good businesses reaching retirement all at once. And here is the good news for you: a new generation of outstanding entrepreneurs, backed by Boston and New York finance and search funds, is competing to buy exactly what you have already built.

We make the introduction, help you form the pine cone, and make sure it lands in the right soil. And you get paid for the tree you grew.

Find out what your tree is worth

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2023 Annual Business Survey (owners of Maine employer businesses).

What we do

Everything we do answers one question: what puts the most in your pocket?

Your timeline. Your terms. Your name still worth something in town when it's done.

Know your number

Before you decide anything, you deserve a straight answer: what your business is worth today, what is quietly holding its value down, and a 12-month plan to fix it. Most owners are surprised, usually in a good way.

Free of charge, no strings attached.

Become the business buyers fight over

We bolster your performance, your balance sheet, and your business processes. Then we connect enhanced data transparency systems that give buyers a looking glass into your performance. When buyers see clearly, they bid confidently, and confidence pays premiums.

Offered standalone or as part of your exit plan.

The right buyer, not the first buyer

We run a confidential process and bring curated buyers to your table: Boston- and NYC-based search funds, SBA-backed operators, strategic acquirers, private equity. You keep running the business; we negotiate like it's our own retirement on the line.

Success fee paid at closing from seller proceeds. We only win when you do.

Stronger together: mergers

Sometimes the smartest exit is joining forces with the shop across the county. We structure the whole combination: valuation of each side, rolled equity, assumed debt, bank financing, and a clean capitalization at close.

See a real deal structure below.

Merger facilitation

What a facilitated merger actually looks like

Two owners, one stronger company. Below is the sources-and-uses structure of a merger we model for clients: two Aroostook County septic businesses combined into a single platform, with one family fully bought out, the other rolling equity into the new company, and bank financing sized to close.

Presque Isle Septic and Fort Kent Pumping are combined into Pine Tree Sanitation Group

Aroostook County, Maine · Sources & uses at close · $ in millions

Thibodeau Family:

$1.42mm

Boulder Ridge Cap.:

$0.28mm

Katahdin Ave Ptrs:

$0.15mm

Presque Isle proceeds

Total to holders$1.85mm

Presque Isle Septic Service

Cash Consideration$1.85mm

Assumed Debt$0.25mm

Less Current Assets$0.12mm

Plus Trans. Costs$0.09mm

BS Basis of FA$2.07mm

Owned by: Thibodeau family and Boulder Ridge Capital (being bought out pursuant to the Presque Isle MIPA), and principals Dale and Renée Thibodeau

Fort Kent Pumping & Septic

Cash Consideration$0.95mm

Assumed Debt$0.18mm

Rolled Equity$0.40mm

Less Current Assets$0.07mm

Plus Trans. Costs$0.05mm

BS Basis of FA$1.51mm

Owned by: Cyr Brothers Holdings, and principals Marc Cyr and Luc Cyr (rolling 30% of proceeds)

Asset Project Companies

Presque Isle FA$2.07mm

Fort Kent FA$1.51mm

Total Fixed Assets$3.58mm

Current Assets

Cash$0.11mm

Net AR/AP$0.08mm

Total Current Assets$0.19mm

Cyr Converted Equity

Total Converted Equity$0.40mm

Aroostook Sanitation Borrower*

All assets of Presque Isle Septic and Fort Kent Pumping

Cash$0.30mm

Net AR/AP$0.08mm

Fixed Assets$3.58mm

Total Assets$3.96mm

Katahdin Trust Term Loan$1.98mm

Deere Equipment Loan$0.68mm

Equity$1.30mm

Total Liabilities & Eq$3.96mm

New Cash Contributions

Boulder Ridge Cash$0.85mm

Management Cash$0.05mm

Katahdin Term Loan$1.98mm

Deere New Draw$0.25mm

Total New Cash$3.13mm

Rolled Contributions

Cyr Rolled Equity$0.40mm

Assumed Equipment Debt$0.43mm

Total Rolled / Assumed$0.83mm

Pine Tree Sanitation Group

Katahdin Trust Term Loan$1.98mm

Deere Equipment Loan$0.68mm

Boulder Ridge Equity$0.85mm

Management Equity$0.05mm

Cyr Rolled Equity$0.40mm

Total Capitalization$3.96mm

*Debt $2.66mm / Equity $1.30mm

Katahdin Trust:

$1.98mm

Deere Financial:

$0.68mm

Boulder Ridge:

$0.85mm

Management:

$0.05mm

$0.12mm

$0.07mm

$3.58mm

$0.19mm

$0.40mm

Aroostook Sanitation

*Borrower cash of $0.30mm = $0.11mm delivered by the two targets plus $0.19mm funded by Pine Tree Sanitation Group. Cash uses of $3.13mm (Presque Isle $1.85mm, Fort Kent $0.95mm, transaction costs $0.14mm, cash to balance sheet $0.19mm) are funded by the $3.13mm of new cash shown. Total capitalization of $3.96mm = debt of $2.66mm (Katahdin Trust term loan $1.98mm; Deere equipment loan $0.68mm, incl. $0.43mm of assumed debt) and equity of $1.30mm (Boulder Ridge $0.85mm, Cyr rolled $0.40mm, management $0.05mm). Consideration reflects 4 pump trucks, 2 vac tankers and the Caribou yard at Presque Isle, and 2 pump trucks plus the Fort Kent transfer site.

Scroll sideways to see the full structure. Every dollar is accounted for; that's the point.

Track record

Entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs.

Maine Succession is run by Justin Bristol, an entrepreneur who has spent his career doing exactly what we will do for you: finding overlooked value, building the systems that prove it, and turning it into real money.

From borrowed power tools

$250K

Started his first company in college in his backyard with borrowed power tools, building solar-powered food carts. Scaled it to $250K in sales, serving JetBlue at the Boston Marathon, MetLife, and MullenLowe.

Hydropower platform growth

$5MM → $100MM

Second employee at a hydropower firm that grew from $5MM to $100MM in valuation. Built the board-level financial reporting and performance transparency systems that institutional investors relied on.

Distressed mill, reborn

QOZ Engine

Found a significantly asymmetrical, distressed, abandoned mill property, 30 acres in the Providence, RI metro area, and purchased it for $5K. Turned it into a Qualified Opportunity Zone Fund engine that harbors capital gains tax and appreciation. Today it houses an industrial art studio and an industrial outdoor storage operation, fully leased.

Abandoned hydro, revived

$4.5–6MM

Identified and secured an abandoned hydroelectric power station in the Providence, RI metro area and raised over $250K of equity for its licensing costs, in anticipation of it becoming a $4.5MM to $6MM asset.

We work with seasoned professionals with backgrounds in commercial lending and senior bank management, financial and business advisory, private and public equity research, start-ups, business leadership, and most importantly, successfully managing business sales from start to finish. We have the ability to work with your tax, estate, and accounting team, or stand one up on your behalf.

Put that experience to work for you

How it works

Three steps from "someday" to sold

Talk, confidentially

A no-obligation valuation conversation. We learn your business (crews, trucks, backlog, licensing) and give you a straight read on what it's worth and what would make it worth more.

Get exit-ready

We find the deal-killers before a buyer does, strengthen your numbers and processes, and plumb in the data transparency that makes buyers comfortable paying full price. You stay in control of the timeline.

Go to market & close

We run a confidential process with curated buyers, negotiate on your behalf, and manage the deal to financial close, exploring every financing road until the money is in your hands.

Linking retiring business owners in Maine to Boston and NYC finance.