Lacis Partners

Small Business Buyers & Operators

Robert was born and raised in Vancouver, British Columbia. He's a first-generation Canadian on his father’s side. His paternal grandfather emigrated from Latvia, via Sweden, in the 1950s, arriving in Canada with $60 to his name. He worked hard at many entrepreneurial ventures, from owning a fishing boat to running a butcher shop. Robert's maternal grandparents are from New Brunswick, with his grandfather getting his start delivering potatoes for the wildly successful Harrison McCain. They almost bought the Fanny Bay Inn on Vancouver Island before buying the Irvin Hotel in Rossland, BC, in 1969. One might say that small business ownership is in Robert's DNA.

Suzi grew up in a family that owned restaurants and catering businesses in California’s Bay Area. She loves to cook, entertain, and teach our children the “ropes” of a kitchen. Her stepfather owned businesses and real estate in and around Sunnyvale.

Family

Robert met his wife, Suzi, when he moved to California in 2002. Our three children are fortunate to hold dual American and Canadian citizenship. We’re proud that our middle child will start UBC soon. Suzi and Robert have worked together for most of the past 25 years.We lead simple lives. One of our core values is community involvement and contribution. Suzi and Robert will retire to the Parksville or Qualicum Beach area. But, we have another 10 years of gas in our tank.We are mentally, physically, emotionally, and financially ready to buy an enduringly profitable business.

Experience

When it comes to building companies, Robert has gone from zero to one (and back to zero) three times. In addition to his MBA (UBC), these entrepreneurial learning experiences taught him a bunch about building, growing, and running small businesses.Suzi’s first job was in customer service at Nordstrom. This laid the foundation for her obsession with great customer experiences. Suzi attended Ice Cream School at Penn State University. At one point, we considered building a high-end craft ice cream operation.Our most recent venture was a functional fitness community gym located in Portland, Oregon. This experience is particularly relevant to buying a small, community-focused business, having taught us the importance of customer experience and member empathy during the challenges of COVID.Robert and Suzi both worked in the US high-tech sector for the past 25 years, focused on sales operations, marketing operations, and business analytics. Our experiences include Cisco (networking), Maxim Integrated (semiconductors), Marvell (semiconductors), Amazon Web Services (SaaS), and Autodesk (design and build software).

Expertise

Making the complex simple. I do this through teaching and mentoring.Leading and motivating small teams. I’m not afraid to roll up my sleeves to get the work done.Problem solving. I thrive on the challenge of the unknown and make decisions to provide optionality.Sales operations. Implementing customer relationship management (CRM) systems to manage and grow revenue.Marketing operations. I’m pretty good at graphic design and video production, too!Customer success. Obsessing over creating customers for life.Product management. Turning ideas into useful products and services.Designing, modeling, and building. Anything from spreadsheets, software systems, business processes, 3D structures, gingerbread houses, and parade floats.I do all these things with energy, zeal, humor, and a curiosity to learn.

Core Values

Our Search

As self-funded searchers, we’re looking to buy a wonderful small business within a 30-minute drive of Parksville, British Columbia. We will be engaged and energetic owners. Slow and steady growth is important to us. Ideally, this business will have been an upstanding contributor to the local community for over 20 years.Our broad areas of interest are lifestyle migration services and wood products.Lifestyle migration services include home services, health & wellness, transportation & convenience, and professional services. These make retirement in the area comfortable and frictionless. See below for detailed examples.Wood products of interest are smaller value‑added shops and craft or furniture businesses.Business size: $2.0M to $3.5M enterprise value (EV), representing 3 to 4 times EBITDAWe are motivated to find a close on a purchase by August 2027!

Our geographic buy-box is Fanny Bay to the north and Nanaimo to the south.

Home Services

Health and Wellness

Transportation and Convenience

Professional Services

But, if the right opportunity comes along we are open to expanding our buy-box to other industries and nearby geographies.

Interested? Let’s Chat

[email protected]
408-621-7833

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[email protected]
408-888-6181

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