This Billionaire Bought Over A Thousand Small Businesses And Never Lost A Dime

Staying small is working out big time for Shore Capital. Their average internal rate of return on its 14 exits, all in health care, is 53%, net of fees. That’s nearly triple the average net IRR of U.S. buyout funds raised since 2009, according to data from Cambridge Associates. After Shore took its 20% to 30% cut of profits, its exits multiplied investors’ money by 5.5 times on average, also nearly triple the average total value to paid-in capital multiple of U.S. buyout funds raised during that period. Shore has never unloaded a company for less than three times cost before fees, nor, it says, has it ever suffered a loss. “Those are top 1% returns in private equity,” marvels one investor who asked not to be identified, citing his organization’s press policy. “That’s rarefied air, right? That’s more like venture capital than a traditional buyout firm.”

Justin Ishbia and his team have acquired more than 1,000 mom-and-pop shops across the country (average cost: $15 million) since Shore’s 2009 founding and rolled them up into 61 larger chains of things inclu­ding autism treatment clinics, bakeries and exterminators. “We’re buying businesses in Akron, Ohio, and Pittsburgh, and Birmingham, Alabama,” Ishbia says. “There’s more low-hanging fruit for me. It’s Joe Schmo on Main Street.”

Shore then invests in computer systems and equipment, stacks the businesses’ boards with industry veterans and hunts for complementary companies in adjacent markets. “We’re just buying and buying and buying,” says Ishbia, who insists Shore doesn’t take on as much debt as other private equity firms and doesn’t cut servi­ces or head count. “The private equity world gets a bad rap for ‘buy this, slash that.’ We are growth—we have almost 35,000 employees and hire thousands per year.”

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