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Wrench Group is what happens when private equity finally understands that in consumer services, the real asset isn’t the fleet, it’s the funnel. It started in 2016, when Investcorp rolled four strong regional HVAC and plumbing players into a single platform across Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, and Phoenix. A
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In the late 2010s, SmileDirectClub looked unstoppable. A direct-to-consumer revolution in orthodontics—cutting out the middleman, slashing prices, and promising a perfect smile from the comfort of your sofa. It was Silicon Valley swagger meets medical device economics, wrapped in pastel branding and influencer smiles. Founded in 2014, the company
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By 2009, it was a $4.5B punchline. Overstocked. Overhyped. Over. The plastic clogs that took over every beach, hospital, and kid’s birthday party in the mid-2000s had fallen out of fashion hard. The stock dropped 75%. Retailers dumped inventory. Analysts declared the brand dead. Then something hideous happened…
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Recurring demand. Predictable cash flow. Memberships that feel like SaaS. And with tunnel washes, a low-labor, high-throughput model that looks engineered for scale. But most investors are still underwriting these deals like it’s 1998: “Find the best corner lot, count the cars, and wait for the money.” That’s
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Spirit Halloween isn’t just a pop-up store, it’s a seasonal private equity case study wrapped in polyester. Spirit Halloween is a masterclass in business model design. They sell plastic swords and polyester capes, but the real magic trick is how they run the business: • A billion‑dollar sprint
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While most of the industry was busy chasing AI and SaaS, three private equity firms quietly turned a roofing supply business into a $10B+ revenue juggernaut, then exited for $18.25B. No hype. No headlines. Just a masterclass in disciplined execution. Here’s how it went down: 2008: AEA Investors
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If I were building a PE firm from scratch today, I wouldn’t start with capital, I’d start with the platform. The traditional model, raise a fund, source deals, optimize EBITDA, exit in 5 years, feels increasingly outdated. With elevated entry multiples and a higher cost of capital, financial