01
Mandate
1991–
We buy one kind of business, and we have never stopped.
When Andrew Whitmore and Charles Aldridge opened this firm in 1991, private equity was a smaller and less crowded business. The firms that lasted were the ones willing to say no to the broad mandate and yes to the specific one. That has not aged. We have looked for the same thing for thirty-five years: a control position in an established company with recurring revenue, durable client relationships, and a reason it is hard to displace.
We are not a volume buyer. We close fewer transactions than most of our peers, on purpose. Each investment gets the attention of the whole partnership, and we expect to hold long enough to see the thesis through completely. Our record reflects businesses improved, not businesses re-priced.
The sectors we underwrite — financial services, specialty insurance, business media and information — are not glamorous categories. They are categories defined by switching costs, regulatory familiarity, and revenue that arrives again next year. Those are the building blocks of compounding value, and they reward patience more reliably than they reward cleverness.
“The surest way to destroy returns is to pretend you have an edge everywhere.”Andrew Whitmore, Founding Partner
Every transaction is screened against the same published criteria, in the same order, before we take a meeting.
Criteria
Published
What we look for.
We apply these consistently and publish them so that a seller or an intermediary can disqualify us in ninety seconds. Transactions outside these parameters are declined promptly and respectfully.
The figures are drawn to scale. The criteria below are the whole reason.
| Revenue | $30M – $300MTrailing twelve months, recurring or contracted preferred |
|---|---|
| EBITDA | $8M – $60MAdjusted, with a normalised owner-compensation line |
| Equity per transaction | $50M – $400MSole sponsor; we do not syndicate control |
| Sectors | Financial services · Professional services · Specialty insurance · Business mediaWe underwrite nothing outside these four |
| Transaction types | Control buyouts · Founder transitions · Corporate divestituresMinority positions only alongside an existing control stake |
| Geography | North AmericaHeadquarters in the United States or Canada |
| Hold period | Seven to twelve yearsLonger than the fund convention, deliberately |
Portfolio
1991–
Companies we have held.
Six of thirty-one. Median hold, eight and a half years.
Harrow Bay Specialty
Excess & surplus lines underwriting
Sterling Ridge Administrators
Third-party benefits administration
Meridian Trade Press
B2B media & subscription data
Calloway Fiduciary Services
Retirement plan recordkeeping
Bracken & Vale
Commercial insurance brokerage
Aldwyn Credit Reporting
Commercial credit information
A complete schedule of current and prior investments, including those that did not perform, is provided to prospective limited partners on request. Every company named above is invented for this sample.
We would rather be genuinely excellent in a narrow band than passably competent across a wide one.
After close
Every time
How we work after close.
Four things we do in every company. Nothing here is unusual. Doing all four, in order, every time, is the part most owners tell us they had not seen before.
We leave the operator in place.
In thirty-five years we have replaced a chief executive at close three times. We buy companies because of the people running them, and a transition plan written by the seller is almost always better than one written by us.
We fix the reporting before we touch the strategy.
The first ninety days are spent building a monthly close the management team trusts. No initiative survives contact with a set of numbers nobody believes.
We underwrite one thesis, not five.
Each investment has a single stated reason it should be worth more in a decade. It is written down at close, reviewed every quarter, and it does not change because the market did.
We hold longer than the fund convention.
Seven to twelve years. A compounding business is rarely finished compounding at year five, and selling it then is a decision about our calendar rather than about the company.
Partnership
Six
A small partnership.
Six partners. Everyone on this list has been here more than a decade, and every one of them sits in every investment committee.
Andrew Whitmore
Charles Aldridge
Marguerite Deveaux
Terence Oyelaran
Ruth Kestenbaum
Daniel Fairweather
Biographies, prior institutions and board seats are provided in the firm profile supplied to prospective limited partners and to sellers under confidentiality. All names above are invented for this sample.
Contact
Direct
Working with us.
Two different conversations. Both start with a short note rather than a form.
If you own the business
You will speak to a partner on the first call, not an associate, and you will get a straight answer about fit inside a week. If we are not the right buyer we will say so and tell you who is. We sign a confidentiality agreement before we ask for anything beyond a revenue figure and a sector.
We understand that most owners we speak to are not selling this year. That is a normal way for this to start, and we are content to know each other for several years first.
- Telephone
- +1 212 555 0148
- Response
- Within five business days
If you are an intermediary
Send the teaser. We will tell you inside two business days whether it clears our criteria, and we will tell you why if it does not. We do not ask for exclusivity to look, and we do not re-trade after diligence absent a material misstatement.
- Deal team
- deals@whitmorealdridge.example
- Screen
- Two business days
- Fees
- Sell-side fees paid at close
07
Notes
Since 1994
We publish when we have something to say.
- Aug 2026
The founder transition nobody plans for
What happens to a specialty underwriter when the person who wrote the appetite retires, and why the answer is usually visible three years early.
- Apr 2026
Recurring revenue is not the same as contracted revenue
A note on the three renewal curves we see in business information, and which one we will pay for.
- Nov 2025
On holding longer than the fund
Why our continuation structures exist, and what we tell limited partners who would rather have the distribution.
