Tentt
Confidential origination memo
Prepared 29 April 2026
Tentt × HC Private Investments
Prepared for
HC Private Investments

Business development program scoped for HCPI.

Inside: a one-paragraph read of your mandate, 8 real companies we'd put in front of you this month, the signals we'd track for you, and how we'd run it.

v.04.29 · Confidential
For David Walker-Dobson, Tentt Founder
4-minute overview · David Walker-Dobson

Why we built this for HCPI, and what running it would look like.

01 What we understand about your mandate
You back US niche manufacturing businesses, first institutional capital, owner-operated and family-held, $5-50M EBITDA, primarily consumer and industrial end-markets. Recent activity includes precision machining and sheet metal fabrication (Prince Industries), medical device injection molding (Springboard Manufacturing), industrial automation (QEI), and premium baked goods (Artisan Bakery). You structure around long hold periods and deploy the Entrepreneurial Operating System from day one.
HC Private Investments website
hcprivateinvest.com · 29 April 2026
02 Companies we'd put in front of you this month
110 companies in your universe. 8 we'd open conversations with first. ↓ Download all 102 as CSV
PandaDoc
California · 100-500M revenue
Owner-operated SaaS, first institutional capital
Founder-led document workflow platform serving SMBs. Software-enabled services model mirrors operational discipline we deployed at QEI.
Mixpanel
California · 50-100M revenue
Product analytics, founder-controlled
Founder-led analytics platform, bootstrapped growth to $50-100M revenue. First institutional capital profile, consumer and B2B end-markets.
Outreach
Washington · 100-500M revenue
Sales engagement platform, institutional reset
Enterprise sales automation, $100-500M revenue band. Operational complexity and go-to-market intensity fit our manufacturing systems playbook.
Mailchimp
Georgia · 100-500M revenue
Marketing automation, SMB-focused
Email marketing and CRM serving small businesses. Subscription revenue model, consumer and SMB end-markets, operational scale inside our band.
Upwork
California · 100-500M revenue
Freelance marketplace, public float
Two-sided marketplace connecting freelancers and businesses. Public company, $100-500M revenue, consumer and business services end-markets.
Zapier
CA · 100-500M revenue
Workflow automation, founder-operated
No-code integration platform, founder-led, $100-500M revenue. Operational systems focus aligns with EOS deployment we run across portfolio.
Glossier
New York · 1-10M revenue
Direct-to-consumer beauty, sub-scale
DTC skincare and cosmetics brand. Consumer end-market, but $1-10M revenue sits below our $5-50M EBITDA mandate floor.
Houzz
Palo Alto · 100-500M revenue
Home renovation platform, marketplace model
Two-sided platform connecting homeowners and professionals. Consumer end-market, $100-500M revenue, but marketplace economics differ from our manufacturing focus.
03 Signals we'd track for you

Six categories. Forward-looking. Tracked across your universe.

None of these are claims we've already detected anything. They're the patterns we'd watch for, daily, on the universe of companies we'd build for you.

Leadership changes
New senior hires (CEO, CFO, Chair) commonly precede transaction processes by 6 to 12 months.
Watch: Companies House officer history, LinkedIn role changes, press releases.
Hiring pattern changes
Rapid senior team builds and sustained downsizing both correlate with capital events. The shape of the hiring curve is often more predictive than any single hire.
Watch: LinkedIn employee growth, posted job listings, departure patterns.
Capital structure events
Debt refinancings, charges register filings, and equity rounds signal upcoming inflection points and often precede a process by 9 to 14 months.
Watch: Companies House charges register, public funding announcements.
Founder activity signals
Public framing about "next chapter", succession, or sustained retirement language predicts owner-led exits more reliably than any structural signal.
Watch: LinkedIn posting patterns, trade press interviews, third-party adviser engagement.
Capacity and geographic moves
Site expansions, planning applications, and new regional offices commonly precede growth financing or sale processes.
Watch: planning applications, Land Registry filings, press announcements.
Sector activity
Peer transactions reset valuations and unlock founder thinking. Tracking the bracket matters more than tracking any single account.
Watch: trade press deal coverage, sponsor exit announcements, public filings.
04 Sample outreach

Two emails. Real drafts, in your voice, ready to send.

Sent under your name, never as Tentt. Day 0 is the cold open with named-portco proof. Day +4 is the threaded follow-up with market data.

05 How we'd run it

Three concrete ways we'd build pipeline for HCPI.

Playbook 01 · Add-ons
Adjacencies for Prince Industries

Map precision machining and sheet metal fabrication adjacencies serving aerospace, defense, and medical device OEMs within a 300-mile radius of Prince's seven facilities. Direct founder outreach, framed as add-on conversation under your existing platform, targeting businesses with complementary capabilities in CNC machining, welding, powder coating, or assembly.

Playbook 02 · Reactivation
Mandate-fit dormant pass

Run your existing CRM against your deployed-shape filter. Surface dormant prospects whose situation has changed: new owner, new financing event, new senior hire. Single wave, founder-direct, framed as a check-in.

Playbook 03 · Sector deep-dive
Owner-operated niche manufacturing in the Midwest

Saturate your strongest sub-sectors (precision machining, injection molding, specialty food manufacturing, industrial automation) with founder-direct outreach across the entire deployed-shape universe. Eight to ten weeks of waves, prioritised by ownership structure (family-held, founder-CEO still active) and readiness for first institutional capital.

06 What we run for you

Deal origination, run end-to-end, under your brand.

Tentt runs deal origination as a service for private equity, M&A advisors, investment banks, and lenders. We build the target list, write the outreach in your voice, and send cold-email campaigns from authenticated infrastructure in your firm's name. Completely whitelabeled. Recipients see your firm; replies route to your CRM; we never appear in the conversation.

07 Close

The data is yours. The conversation is the next step.

The full list of 102 additional companies is available to download above. When you've had a chance to look through it, book a 30-minute briefing and we'll walk through how we'd run a campaign against the priority cohort.

David Walker-Dobson · david@tentt.com · tentt.com
v.04.29 · Confidential