About Cory
A graduate of Miami University, I started my career in policy and politics, both in Washington, D.C. and my home state of Ohio. In 2016, I left the public sector to attend business school at Notre Dame. Shortly after starting the MBA program, I co-founded a startup called SecurSpace, an online marketplace for parking and storing trucks, trailers, and shipping containers. We raised seed capital, built the team, and scaled the platform from an idea to more than $100 million in annual transaction volume in less than five years. We would exit twice, first to a private equity backed software company and then to a publicly traded multinational.
Building enterprise software for supply chain centric businesses taught me the challenges in implementing technology effectively and the opportunities that exist for those that do it well. Logistics, freight, and manufacturing are all inundated with software products. My thesis is built on the idea that mastering the application of that technology, combined with operational excellence, will be the driving force behind the next wave of value creation. It’s this vision that has led me to pursue a search.
ContactMY SEARCH
I’m actively searching to acquire an SME in the logistics, warehousing, light manufacturing, or industrial service sectors located in the Midwest or Southeast U.S. My target is a founder-led firm with $2–5 million in EBITDA, enterprise value between $10-30 million, stable contractual or recurring revenue, and low customer concentration. I’m focused on sub-sectors where labor coordination, workflow execution, and customer responsiveness drive value.
Market segments include
- Logistics
- Manufacturing
- Industrial Services
My contribution
Building a startup requires you to go from zero to one, which can be a messy process, and then establish the structure necessary for scale. I’ve lived through both, developing the kind of scrappy, problem solver mentality needed to build a great product from scratch along with the systems-based thinking needed to create a winning team that operates with focus and discipline. I’ll lean heavily on that experience, and the skills I cultivated along the way, to take the business I acquire to the next level.
Leadership
Systems Thinking
Communication
Problem Solving
Decision Making
NCA Searchers
Novastone Capital Advisors (NCA) is a global firm that solves succession challenges faced by small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) through our Operator-Led Search Fund Program.
