Bigger. Stronger. Faster.

In this episode, Dr. Brian McClain, founder and managing partner of Pinnacle Care Providers in Ohio, and Emily Rafferty, CEO of the new platform bringing Pinnacle together with Preferred Podiatry Group, share how a model of post-acute care built over decades became the foundation for a multi-state platform. Dr. McClain explains why staying the same was the bigger risk for a practice that had always improved, and how unscripted conversations with chief clinical officers across the Shore portfolio answered his concerns before he said yes. Emily describes why the work is personal for her and for most of the team, and how the platform plans to multiply the clinical model's impact through provider recruiting, technology, and relationships with the communities it serves. They also explain how physicians keep leading the clinical model through a clinical advisory board, and why growth in this business means more time with patients, not less. Finally, they look five years out, to a day when coordinated care delivered where people live is the standard rather than the exception.

Key Takeaways:

• Weigh the risk of staying the same against the risk of changing, because with an aging population and fast-moving technology, a practice that improves slowly gets left behind
• Vet a partner by talking unscripted with leaders already inside the portfolio and asking them anything, because trust built that way is what lets a mission-driven practice say yes
• Keep physicians leading the clinical model and give them a clinical advisory board, so practices in different markets learn from each other instead of being standardized from above
• Buy time for patients by stripping out work that adds no value, because proactive care drives both quality outcomes and financial results

Chapters:

1. 00:00 – Introduction
2. 02:15 – Why Post-Acute Care Is Personal
3. 07:37 – Bringing Pinnacle and PPG Together
4. 10:21 – Why Partner, and Ask Them Anything
5. 12:52 – Staying the Same Was the Bigger Risk
6. 16:17 – Doctors Lead the Doctors
7. 20:03 – Growth, Communities, and More Time With Patients

Listen to our podcasts at:

https://www.shorecp.university/podcasts

You'll also find other Microcap Moments episodes, alongside our series Everyday Heroes and Bigger. Stronger. Faster., highlighting the people and stories that make the microcap space unique.

Other ways to connect:

Blog: https://www.shorecp.university/blog

Shore University: https://www.shorecp.university/

Shore Capital Partners: https://www.shorecp.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/shore-university

This podcast is the property of Shore Capital Partners LLC. None of the content herein is investment advice, an offer of investment advisory services, or a recommendation or offer relating to any security. See the “Terms of Use” page on the Shore Capital website for other important information.

In this episode, Jimmy St. Louis, CEO of Agentis Longevity, a national brand of longevity centers, returns for the third conversation in an annual series that began in the platform's first year. Year one was about vision and year two about lessons learned; year three, in Jimmy's words, is about driving the standard in a corner of healthcare that does not yet have one. He walks through the work behind that goal, from a world-class physician advisory board and appearances before Congress and the FDA to the Longevity Quotient, a fifteen-minute assessment that distills five clinical tests and sixty-five blood markers into a single health score tied to treatment protocols in every clinic. He also reflects on why the company's vision statement hinges on the word drive rather than set, how a team doing many things at once stays focused on four big rocks, and what makes sellers want to join the platform. He closes with three questions any consumer should ask before trusting a longevity clinic.

Key Takeaways:

• Choose the words of your vision deliberately, because a single word like drive instead of set tells the team whether the organization is finished or in constant motion
• Build trust before scale by giving every stakeholder, from regulators to sellers to patients, a framework they can point to for what high-quality care looks like
• Standardize the core and let the edges vary: run the four core services exactly the same way in every clinic, and allow adjacent modalities to differ by market and customer base
• Prioritize visibly, so that every person in the company can name the quarter's four big rocks even when the organization is doing many things at once

Chapters:

1. 00:00 – Introduction
2. 03:03 – What Longevity Care Looks Like
3. 06:40 – Set vs. Drive
4. 11:58 – A Scoreboard for Your Health
5. 15:58 – The Blueprint for the Ideal Clinic
6. 19:21 – The Next Three Years
7. 21:59 – Three Questions to Ask Any Longevity Clinic

Listen to our podcasts at:

https://www.shorecp.university/podcasts

You'll also find other Microcap Moments episodes, alongside our series Everyday Heroes and Bigger. Stronger. Faster., highlighting the people and stories that make the microcap space unique.

Other ways to connect:

Blog: https://www.shorecp.university/blog

Shore University: https://www.shorecp.university/

Shore Capital Partners: https://www.shorecp.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/shore-university

This podcast is the property of Shore Capital Partners LLC. None of the content herein is investment advice, an offer of investment advisory services, or a recommendation or offer relating to any security. See the “Terms of Use” page on the Shore Capital website for other important information.

In this episode, I talk with Brad Morehead, Partner and Head of the Business Services Fund at Shore Capital Partners, who has also been a CEO, a CFO, a business professor, and a founder who built and sold his own company. We talk about business models: why the way a company acquires and keeps customers tells you more about how to build it than the industry it sits in, and what that means when you can group companies across a portfolio of nearly 70 by model rather than by end market. Brad walks through how models evolve, from founder-led selling to professionalized sales and from break/fix work to recurring revenue, and how a future-state org chart, the right board member, and a new set of KPIs carry a company through that shift. He also shares the lesson from a mentor that he now teaches younger investors: when someone tells you an idea didn't work, ask why, because you cannot be wrong when you are asking a question. We close with his own experience being acquired by a buyer in the exact same industry with a completely different model, which he compares to trying to build something with Legos and an Erector Set.

Strategic Themes:

• Group companies by business model, not by industry, because a pest control business and a veterinary practice that both sell direct to consumers have more to teach each other than two companies that merely share an end market
• Draw the future-state org chart before you change the model, then design the transition structure, systems, and KPIs (attach rate, cross-sell, recurring revenue) that get you there
• Ask why when a founder says "we tried that and it didn't work," because the question gets you to the root cause, validates the person in front of you, and cannot be wrong
• Recognize the watch-outs that come with a model alongside its upside, because negative working capital or a subsidized customer acquisition model can let a company grow itself out of cash

Chapters:

1. 00:00 – Introduction
2. 02:00 – What a Business Model Actually Is
3. 05:29 – From Break/Fix to Recurring Revenue
4. 11:43 – The Power of Why
5. 14:40 – If I Gave You an Extra Million Dollars
6. 17:52 – Negative Working Capital Is a Good Thing, Until It Isn't
7. 19:40 – Legos and an Erector Set

In this episode, I talk with Owen Miller, CEO of 360Pack, a food and beverage packaging distribution business headquartered in Denver, Colorado. Owen joined 360Pack in its first year of operations through the Shore Capital CXO Fellows Program and, in less than five years, moved from CXO to VP of Supply Chain and Operations to COO and now to the CEO seat. He shares what it took to grow into each of those roles, including learning alongside founders with decades of industry experience and what the CEO seat has taught him that he couldn't have learned anywhere else. Owen also explains why the ambiguity of the CXO role is exactly the point: it demands intellectual curiosity, humility, and a willingness to run toward the messiest parts of the business while building influence without formal authority. Finally, he offers some straight talk for anyone considering the program: if you're looking for a cushy, kick-your-feet-up kind of role, this is not for you; if you're looking to be pushed and to grow like never before, there is no better place to be.

Key Takeaways:

• Run toward the messiest parts of the business, because intellectual curiosity and a bias for the hardest problems are what turn an ambiguous role into an indispensable one
• Own your lane as the least experienced person in the room by speaking as the expert on what only you know, whether that's the data, the systems, or what the market is telling you, and cover the rest with preparation and hard work
• Build credibility stakeholder by stakeholder: for the board, know your numbers and deliver what you said you would; for your team, show them you care about their future and convert what they tell you into action
• Set the plan and get people behind it without formal authority, then own the results, because leading through influence is the skill the CEO seat demands most

Chapters:

1. 00:00 – Introduction
2. 02:20 – From CXO to CEO in Five Years
3. 06:15 – Why the CXO Program
4. 11:50 – The Least Experienced in the Room
5. 13:55 – What Makes a Good CXO
6. 18:15 – Do You Hate Losing or Love Winning More?
7. 21:25 – Advice for Future CXOs

Listen to our podcasts at:

https://www.shorecp.university/podcasts

You’ll also find other Bigger. Stronger. Faster. episodes, alongside our Microcap Moments and Everyday Heroes series—highlighting the people and stories that make the microcap space unique.

Other ways to connect:

Blog: https://www.shorecp.university/blog

Shore University: https://www.shorecp.university/

Shore Capital Partners: https://www.shorecp.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/shore-university

This podcast is the property of Shore Capital Partners LLC. None of the content herein is investment advice, an offer of investment advisory services, or a recommendation or offer relating to any security. See the “Terms of Use” page on the Shore Capital website for other important information.

In this episode, Josh Allen, founder of Companion Baking in St. Louis, Missouri, shares how he turned a love of baking discovered in the Bay Area into a frozen artisan bread manufacturer shipping custom products across all 48 contiguous states. Guided by his grandfather's advice to listen to his customers, Josh built the business one customer and one product at a time, pivoted from wholesale to frozen manufacturing, and made helping customers tell their stories through bread the heart of what Companion does. He also reflects on why he always took the private equity calls out of curiosity, what made Shore different, and why partnering now rather than later lets him stay part of the journey as Companion builds its platform.

Key Takeaways:

• Listen to your customers and they'll tell you how to grow. One customer, one product, one SKU at a time built a 33-year business.
• Say yes first and figure it out later. The willingness to solve a customer's problem tomorrow, like renting a van to deliver bread two hours away, opened the pivot to frozen that transformed the company.
• Sell the story, not the SKU. When customers help design their own bread, price fades and the relationship becomes sticky.
• Partner while you still have runway. Choosing partnership now instead of an exit later keeps a founder part of the next chapter, with a board, new leaders, and resources a small business could never afford alone.

Chapters:

1. 00:00 – Introduction
2. 02:25 – From the Bay Area Back to St. Louis
3. 08:45 – One Customer, One Product at a Time
4. 12:18 – Telling Stories Through Bread
5. 17:16 – Why Partner, and Why Shore
6. 24:43 – Building the Platform

Listen to our podcasts at:

https://www.shorecp.university/podcasts

You'll also find other Microcap Moments episodes, alongside our series Everyday Heroes and Bigger. Stronger. Faster., highlighting the people and stories that make the microcap space unique.

Other ways to connect:

Blog: https://www.shorecp.university/blog

Shore University: https://www.shorecp.university/

Shore Capital Partners: https://www.shorecp.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/shore-university

This podcast is the property of Shore Capital Partners LLC. None of the content herein is investment advice, an offer of investment advisory services, or a recommendation or offer relating to any security. See the “Terms of Use” page on the Shore Capital website for other important information.

In this episode, I talk with Nick Sherrard, Chief of Staff at Thermal Shipping Solutions and a member of the CXO Fellows Program. Nick shares how an internship at a Shore portfolio company showed him just how quickly he could make a measurable difference in a microcap business, and what it means to be Chief of Staff in a fast-growing, family-founded company. An engineer by training, he reflects on thinking in inputs, outputs, and bottlenecks, finding the root causes behind recurring fire drills, and driving change without authority by making every solution a win-win-win. Nick also describes the role of the CXO cohort, part joint therapy and part best practice sharing, and shares the best advice he's ever gotten: don't confuse urgency with importance.

Key Takeaways:

• In a microcap business, you can make a measurable difference fast, and the impact is clearly yours.
• Nobody else in your company is living the same highs and lows as the CXO. The cohort is part joint therapy and part best practice sharing.
• Thinking in inputs, outputs, and bottlenecks turns recurring fire drills into root causes you can actually fix.
• When you can't mandate anything, change happens by making every solution a win-win-win. If you can't make that case, you're probably solving the wrong problem.
• Don't confuse urgency with importance. This job is a marathon, not a sprint.

Chapters:

1. 00:00 – Introduction
2. 05:41 – The Cohort and the Operator Path
3. 17:00 – An Engineer's Mindset
4. 22:20 – Playing the Libero
5. 30:02 – Urgency vs. Importance

Listen to our podcasts at:

https://www.shorecp.university/podcasts

You’ll also find other Bigger. Stronger. Faster. episodes, alongside our Microcap Moments and Everyday Heroes series—highlighting the people and stories that make the microcap space unique.

Other ways to connect:

Blog: https://www.shorecp.university/blog

Shore University: https://www.shorecp.university/

Shore Capital Partners: https://www.shorecp.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/shore-university

This podcast is the property of Shore Capital Partners LLC. None of the content herein is investment advice, an offer of investment advisory services, or a recommendation or offer relating to any security. See the “Terms of Use” page on the Shore Capital website for other important information.

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.

Key Takeaways:

• Great partnerships start with people. Keeping the local name, the team, and the reputation intact is what makes strong family businesses open to joining a platform.
• The network effect is real. Every new partner brings a superpower that can be captured in playbooks and shared so the whole platform gets better.
• Scaling doesn't have to cost you culture. Centralize what lifts everyone, like marketing, finance, and technology, and keep brands, community ties, and daily decisions local.
• The right partner comes down to mindset: teams and customers first, a strong reputation in the industry, and a genuine desire to grow.

Chapters:

1. 00:00 – Introduction
2. 02:57 – The Origin of H2O Care Partners
3. 07:54 – The Network Effect
4. 11:04 – Scaling Culture, Not Just Operations
5. 14:16 – Finding the Right Partners
6. 18:01 – Driving Organic Growth
7. 25:44 – What's Next

Listen to our podcasts at:

https://www.shorecp.university/podcasts

You'll also find other Microcap Moments episodes, alongside our series Everyday Heroes and Bigger. Stronger. Faster., highlighting the people and stories that make the microcap space unique.

Other ways to connect:

Blog: https://www.shorecp.university/blog

Shore University: https://www.shorecp.university/

Shore Capital Partners: https://www.shorecp.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/shore-university

This podcast is the property of Shore Capital Partners LLC. None of the content herein is investment advice, an offer of investment advisory services, or a recommendation or offer relating to any security. See the “Terms of Use” page on the Shore Capital website for other important information.

In this episode, Jackson Sprayberry, Anderson Williams, and Cynthia Hiskes close out Season 2 with the widest lens of the series: why acquisitions fail on the people side and what to do about it. They explore how a lack of early communication creates anxiety that turns into headwinds before integration even begins, why clarifying the founder's role is critical to the entire organization's stability, and the difference between change (what happens externally) and transition (what happens internally). The conversation shifts to how talent strategies need to evolve over the hold period, from hiring athletes early on to developing specialists and frontline managers at scale. The episode wraps with a direct call to action: don't let another 5% of the hold period go by without having the conversations that matter.

Key Takeaways:

• The biggest integration failures start with silence. Communicating what you know and what you don't know early prevents months of unnecessary anxiety.
• Clarifying the founder's role isn't just about the founder. It cascades through every team member who used to look to that person for answers.
• Change is the event. Transition is the emotional and psychological recalibration that follows. If you don't manage the transition, resistance will stall the integration.
• Talent strategies have to evolve with the business. What you need at launch (athletes and generalists) is different from what you need at scale (specialists and skilled frontline managers).

Chapters:

1. 00:00 - Introduction
2. 01:47 - What Makes Integration Succeed or Fail
3. 06:45 - Change vs. Transition
4. 10:58 - When Your Talent Strategy No Longer Fits
5. 17:19 - Why Talent Strategy Is Business Strategy

Listen to our podcasts at:

https://www.shorecp.university/podcasts

You'll also find other Raw Talent episodes, alongside our Bigger. Stronger. Faster., Microcap Moments, and Everyday Heroes series, highlighting the people and stories that make the microcap space unique.

Other ways to connect:

Blog: https://www.shorecp.university/blog

Shore University: https://www.shorecp.university/

Shore Capital Partners: https://www.shorecp.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/shore-university

This podcast is the property of Shore Capital Partners LLC. None of the content herein is investment advice, an offer of investment advisory services, or a recommendation or offer relating to any security. See the “Terms of Use” page on the Shore Capital website for other important information.

In this episode, Jackson Sprayberry, Anderson Williams, and Cynthia Hiskes step back from individual people decisions and ask whether the organization has a talent strategy at all. Without one, every hiring decision feels urgent, personal, and reactive. The conversation covers what a real talent strategy includes, the unique challenge of working with both selected and inherited talent in an acquisition-driven environment, and why someone has to own the strategy even if there's no HR leader in seat yet. They explore how org design should match the stage of the business, why not every role needs a top-of-the-nine-box performer, and how ongoing career conversations give leaders better information than annual reviews ever could. The episode makes the case that talent strategy is not a hiring plan. It's how you attract, retain, and engage the people who will build the business.

Key Takeaways:

• If you don't have a talent strategy, every hiring decision will feel reactive. A clear direction helps you know when you're veering off course.
• In acquisition-driven growth, you're working with both the people you select and the people you inherit. Your strategy has to address both.
• Someone has to own the talent strategy. If ownership is assumed to live everywhere, it will live nowhere. You don't need an HR leader to get started.
• Not every role needs a top performer. What matters is having the right talent profile in the right seat at the right stage of the business.

Chapters:

1. 00:00 - Introduction
2. 01:33 - What a Talent Strategy Actually Looks Like
3. 05:02 - Building a Strategy in an Acquisition Model
4. 12:46 - Who Owns the Talent Strategy
5. 16:27 - Org Design and Stage Relevance
6. 19:54 - When to Look Outward vs. Build From Within

Listen to our podcasts at:

https://www.shorecp.university/podcasts

You'll also find other Raw Talent episodes, alongside our Bigger. Stronger. Faster., Microcap Moments, and Everyday Heroes series, highlighting the people and stories that make the microcap space unique.

Other ways to connect:

Blog: https://www.shorecp.university/blog

Shore University: https://www.shorecp.university/

Shore Capital Partners: https://www.shorecp.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/shore-university

This podcast is the property of Shore Capital Partners LLC. None of the content herein is investment advice, an offer of investment advisory services, or a recommendation or offer relating to any security. See the “Terms of Use” page on the Shore Capital website for other important information.

In this episode, Jackson Sprayberry, Anderson Williams, and Cynthia Hiskes tackle what performance management systems actually measure and what they miss. They make the case that an output-only mindset is dangerous, especially in a fast-moving environment where how someone delivers results matters just as much as whether they hit the number. The conversation covers how to embed values into performance reviews, why human capital metrics belong on the same dashboard as financial data, and the real cost of turnover that most companies never calculate. The episode closes with a direct challenge: if leaders say their people are the most important part of the business, the dashboard should reflect that.

Key Takeaways:

• Measuring only what someone delivered without evaluating how they delivered it creates blind spots that erode culture and team performance.
• Performance management systems should be treated as a database for future action, not just a backward-looking scorecard.
• Human capital metrics like engagement, turnover, and promotion rates belong on the business dashboard alongside financial results.
• Manager consistency matters. If one manager's reviews all look green but performance is slipping, the system isn't telling the truth.

Chapters:

1. 00:00 - Introduction
2. 03:55 - Embedding Values Into Performance Management
3. 08:27 - Metrics Beyond the Scorecard
4. 13:23 - People Metrics on the Business Dashboard
5. 19:23 - Connecting the Dots to Talent Strategy

Listen to our podcasts at:

https://www.shorecp.university/podcasts

You'll also find other Raw Talent episodes, alongside our Bigger. Stronger. Faster., Microcap Moments, and Everyday Heroes series, highlighting the people and stories that make the microcap space unique.

Other ways to connect:

Blog: https://www.shorecp.university/blog

Shore University: https://www.shorecp.university/

Shore Capital Partners: https://www.shorecp.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/shore-university

This podcast is the property of Shore Capital Partners LLC. None of the content herein is investment advice, an offer of investment advisory services, or a recommendation or offer relating to any security. See the “Terms of Use” page on the Shore Capital website for other important information.