Microcap Moments

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, Marc Insul, president and chief operating officer of Commercial Asset Preservation (CAP), and Pat Bowe, head of corporate development and strategy at Maintera, share how a founder who had already sold one company chose a partner the second time around. Marc explains how driving past vacant buildings in Cleveland during the 2008 downturn led him to found CAP, and why he and his business partner came to see that their own capital could only take the business so far. Together with TCG Services, CAP now forms Maintera, a facility services platform serving operating and vacant commercial properties across the United States and Canada. Marc and Pat talk candidly about what founders worry about when they consider private equity, why no two firms operate alike, and what trust and transparency look like after the close. Marc also reflects on the value of fresh eyes on a business he ran for years and why, for him, the best part of selling is the ride that comes after.

• Decide what you want after the close before you weigh offers, because the role you want, whether that's stepping back or staying on to keep growing, changes which partner is right for you
• Treat fresh eyes as the return on giving up control, since outsiders can spot what years inside the business have made hard to see
• Judge a partner by its conduct and its references, and talk to founders who have already made the move, because no two firms operate alike
• Get comfortable with someone else in your business first, because readiness is a mindset before it is a milestone

1. 00:00 – Introduction
2. 02:34 – What a Founder Sees in an Empty Building
3. 06:59 – Giving Up Control, Gaining Fresh Eyes
4. 12:35 – The Ride After the Sale
5. 14:40 – One Plus One Equals Three
6. 18:16 – Are You Ready to Partner?
7. 21:35 – Eight Suitors and What Comes 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, I talk with Jamie Cusack, CEO of Keystone Access Partners, Shore Capital's entrance and access control platform built on Dillard Companies and The Ritchie Group, with operations across Memphis, Tupelo, the Florida Gulf Coast, Northern Kentucky, and Indiana. Jamie came to the CEO seat in an unusual way: he watched the Shore model work from the inside as a board member of another Shore company before betting his own career on it. He walks through what a growth-based partnership actually looks like for a founder, including the conscious leadership training his teams had never had access to before, and the open conversation every owner needs to have about what role they want next. Jamie also explains why so many owners are more ready to sell than they think, even if the business still runs on pen and paper. And he is direct about what Keystone looks for in a partner: a good business isn't enough, because the people have to be good too.

Key Takeaways:

• Decide what you actually want before the offer conversation, because the right partnership builds a role around your answer, whether that is running the day-to-day, leading M&A, or stepping back
• Recognize that pen and paper is not a readiness problem, because the systems, data, and technology gaps that make owners hesitate are exactly what a platform partner is built to close
• Choose partners for capability and character, not just geography, because a business that treats its customers poorly is a non-starter no matter how good the numbers look
• Learn from the operators you bring on instead of standardizing them, because a process that works in the field is a best practice to spread, not a variance to fix

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, 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.