Stewarding great Arizona businesses forward.

Who We Are

We aim to build the next chapter for Arizona businesses, upholding the pillars established by current owners, while focusing on future growth and modernization.

We acquire profitable businesses in stable industries with durable operating histories. We believe in working alongside the owner first, learning the business while helping it grow. This approach allows both you and us to assess whether we're the right fit for a successful acquisition and transition.

Attorney in action

Our Background

From building and selling an offline business to leading tech & marketing at Tuft & Needle, we’ll use this experience to grow the business you're transitioning.

Broad Expertise

Having sold a business ourselves, we understand the importance of ensuring a buyer’s experience and skillset is a good fit for the company going forward.

Here's where we can help:

Technology & Software Integration

With Sean's background in software engineering and leading the software team at Tuft & Needle, we take a pragmatic approach to implementing tech solutions that fit seamlessly with a business’s existing operations. Rather than forcing disruptive changes, we focus on aligning technology with current processes to drive improvements.

Online Performance Marketing

With Tim's expertise in digital marketing, he grew his previous offline "traditional" business using entirely SEO and PPC strategies. He also helped scale Tuft & Needle by building and leading the marketing team. Through consulting with local businesses, we've seen firsthand how powerful targeted, data-driven performance marketing can drive significant growth.

Customer Experience
Optimization

We believe building a great customer experience starts with measuring success using frameworks like NPS (Net Promoter Score). From there, we focus on making improvements through qualitative insights and leveraging the right tools to optimize the entire customer journey and grow raving fans.

Actionable Data-Driven Insights

Through our consulting with companies like The Estate Watch & Jewelry Co. and E.D. Marshall, we helped overcome limited data visibility across finance, supply chain, and operations. Staying pragmatic, we built solutions to surface key metrics, enabling smarter decisions and improving performance.

Our Experience

From startups to main street businesses, here are a few companies we've worked with and what their founders have to say.

Daehee Park - Co-Founder, Tuft & Needle

"Tim and Sean played key roles in scaling Tuft & Needle from a bootstrapped startup to its acquisition by Serta-Simmons. They were with us from the beginning and were instrumental in building the company into what it became."

Jill Edwards - Owner, The Estate Watch & Jewelry Co and E.D. Marshall Jewelers

"We have completely different businesses now thanks to Sean and Tim. They roll up their sleeves, get to work, and have dramatically grown our business and solved many of our operational problems with automation. We view them as outside business partners."

David Paul - DWP Capital

"Our firm has made numerous portfolio investments across industries, from software to e-commerce, and Sean and Tim have been invaluable. You want these guys on your team, and we'll definitely work with them as they expand through their own acquisitions."

Builder's Mindset

From woodworking to software, we're Arizona builders at heart.

We were both born, raised, and still live in Arizona, with deep ties to the local startup community. Tim started and sold an Arizona-based business in his 20s and was a member of the Entrepreneur’s Organization (EO) in Arizona. Sean has been actively involved with various Arizona companies and teaches entrepreneurship on an adjunct basis at ASU. After successfully building and scaling Phoenix-based businesses, we decided to take a new path—acquiring and growing existing companies instead of starting from scratch.

Outside of business, we share a love for woodworking, especially building high-end modern furniture (you'll see us in the wood shop every Friday morning), and we’re both really into craft coffee. We also have this totally random and unusual passion for premium domain names—it's one of those weird loves that keeps us hooked for no good reason.

Extended Expertise

Our Approach

With a background in growing startups and minority investments, we’re now focused on acquiring and operating businesses for long-term growth. Here's our thoughts on the type of companies we seek and our approach to ownership transition.

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What makes you different from other buyers?

We’re driven, locally rooted entrepreneurs—not a distant investment firm focused on short-term gains. With deep ties to Arizona, we’re committed to investing in and supporting our local community. We’re also willing to work alongside you to learn the business before a potential acquisition, giving both of us the time to determine if we’re the right fit to take the business forward. This collaborative approach ensures we can assess together whether this is the right next step for the business and its future.
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Additionally, we’re committed to offering a fair, market-driven price, ensuring you’re compensated for the value you’ve built while also facilitating a smooth transition. We’re open to exploring different deal structures to find the approach that works best for you and aligns with your goals.

Why collaborate with the owner pre-acquisition?

We think this is the best way to ensure a successful transition and long-term growth for the business. Tim has sold a company, and we’ve also seen the Tuft & Needle acquisition up close, so we have a good understanding (and belief) of what works well—and what to watch out for—when new ownership takes over a business. In addition, through our experience investing in other companies, as well as in acquisitions (as purely outside investors), we’ve learned how important it is to align on both the financial terms and the broader fit—such as cultural compatibility and operational expertise.
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While the financial deal components are crucial, we believe working closely with the current owner before the acquisition gives us the best opportunity to assess whether we’re the right fit for the business. It’s not just about striking a deal; it’s about ensuring a smooth transition and setting the business up for continued success under new leadership.

What does "working together" actually look like?

We don’t believe in just “high-level” consulting where we sit at a whiteboard tossing around buzzwords or building fancy spreadsheets. What this looks like for each business is different, but we’re all about rolling up our sleeves and getting to work with you. This means actually building and implementing solutions to real-world small business problems, not just showing up once a month and offering vague advice.

Whether that’s launching ad campaigns or coding creative software tools to streamline operational tasks, we’ll work alongside you, pragmatically tackling opportunities and challenges. We’re used to being part of small teams where we wear many hats—whether it’s something as “simple” as building online review generation systems to improve online reputation and visibility, or managing a complex CRM migration with tens of thousands of customers. These are just a few examples of the hands-on work we’ve done with the companies we’ve partnered with, and we’ll focus on whatever is most helpful during this phase. We believe this hands-on, practical approach is the best way to determine if we’re a good fit to acquire your business and demonstrate our commitment to driving it forward.

What size/type of businesses are you most interested in?

We’re primarily interested in businesses that have been operating for an extended period of time with stable operating histories and are in durable industries. Ideally, we're looking for companies that generate between $500k and $2M in owner earnings, have strong margin profiles, and are well-established with a loyal customer base. We’re agnostic on industry, so whether you're in retail, B2B services, specialized manufacturing, or other stable sectors, if your business competes in a regional geographic area or operates in a niche market, and has a unique competitive advantage, we’d love to chat.
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We're especially interested in businesses where there’s an opportunity to improve efficiency, leverage software or technology to streamline operations, and use digital marketing to accelerate growth. We do avoid industries that are highly speculative or volatile in nature.

Do you work with owners not yet ready to sell?

Our focus with Zags is on working with owners looking to sell their company, but we do take on a small number of paid consulting opportunities based on current bandwidth and availability. If you think our expertise could help you and your business, feel free to reach out! Our consulting projects start at $20k per month.