Acquiring and operating Georgia industrial services companies.
We’re acquiring one Georgia industrial services company in the $3–10M revenue range using SBA-backed capital and a disciplined operational improvement plan.
Target sectors: fire protection, HVAC, and other regulation-driven services with recurring compliance revenue.
View the investor deckThree forcing functions are colliding in American industrial services right now.
Each alone is an opportunity. Together they define the moment.
Demographic Succession
Ten thousand baby boomers turn 65 every day. The owners of fire protection companies, environmental testing firms, and HVAC operations are aging out with no succession plan. Their children became accountants and software engineers. The apprentice pipeline dried up a decade ago. These owners want to sell — not to private equity shops that will strip the business, but to someone who understands what they built.
Willing sellers at 4–5.5x SDE represent a window, not a permanent condition. Private equity interest in industrial services is growing. Multiples will compress this opportunity. The window is years, not decades.
AI Operations Leverage
The unit cost of cognitive work — scheduling, compliance tracking, dispatch, invoicing, reporting, customer communication — has fallen dramatically since 2024 and continues falling. A $3–5M industrial services company running on spreadsheets, phone calls, and one overworked office manager is a meaningful SDE expansion opportunity we’ve modeled and priced. Not through layoffs. Through compression: an AI operations stack running 24/7 does the same work faster, with fewer errors.
The gap between "plans to deploy AI" and "has deployed AI" is where the edge lives. We have deployed it.
Regulatory Complexity as Moat
Every compliance requirement — EPA filings, state contractor licensing, fire marshal inspections, customer audit documentation — is a barrier to entry that protects margins. Regulation only increases. It never simplifies. The company that automates compliance in a regulated industrial vertical does not just save money. It builds a defensible position that gets stronger every year the regulatory environment gets more complex.
The thesis is not "buy a small business." The thesis is: acquire a cash-flowing industrial services company at 4–5.5x SDE, deploy a proprietary AI operations platform from Day 1 to improve margins through operational excellence, and build the foundation for a platform business — starting with one acquisition that proves the model.
Mandated by code. Required by insurance. Resistant to recession.
Fire suppression inspection, mechanical insulation, industrial coating, environmental compliance — these aren't trendy businesses. They are mandated by building codes, required by insurance carriers, and enforced by OSHA. You cannot defer a fire inspection. You cannot skip a required coating job. The customers don't stay because of marketing. They stay because regulation requires it.
Atlanta is one of the fastest-growing major metros in the country. Data centers, logistics hubs, and film production facilities are driving a construction and industrial boom. The commercial building stock is massive and aging — generating steady demand for inspection, maintenance, and compliance services.
The market is deeply fragmented. Dozens of $1–5M revenue operators, most run on paper invoices and institutional knowledge that lives in one person's head. No one has consolidated these businesses because the deals are too small for private equity and too boring for venture capital. That fragmentation is the opportunity.
Industry Ranking
We evaluated 40 industries across AI durability, recurring revenue, systems-driven operations, margin quality, roll-up fragmentation, Atlanta market fit, SBA financeability, and defensibility.
| Rank | Industry | Score |
|---|---|---|
| #1 | Fire Protection & Life Safety | 94 |
| #2 | Commercial HVAC / Mechanical | 91 |
| #3 | Environmental Testing & Compliance | 88 |
| #4 | Pest Control / Wildlife Management | 86 |
| #5 | Industrial Inspection & NDT | 84 |
Why fire protection ranks #1
Code-mandated inspections create non-discretionary recurring revenue. Georgia has 150+ operators, most under $5M revenue. Margins of 20–28% are structurally protected by regulatory complexity. The compliance burden that frustrates operators becomes our software moat.
We are pursuing the first platform deal that meets our criteria in any of these five verticals. The first strong deal wins — we are not waiting for a perfect industry match when the operational playbook applies across all five.
One company. The right company.
Target Profile
One Georgia industrial services company. $3–10M revenue, $800K–$2M SDE, 4–5.5x entry multiple. Fire protection is our preferred entry vertical — recurring inspections, meaningful regulatory complexity, and a fragmented market of owner-operators approaching retirement. We will also consider adjacent Georgia industrial service businesses where the same underwriting and operating model applies, including HVAC and select environmental services.
Capital Structure
~78% SBA 7(a) debt, $100–300K from co-investors (each under 20%), $100–300K founder equity. Debt service is real — this is personally guaranteed. The math only works if the operational deployment performs.
What Makes This Buyer Different
Five years of McKinsey industrial operations — operating model design, workflow optimization, process improvement, and operational excellence across mining, energy, and manufacturing
Pattern recognition earned in the plants, not on a spreadsheet — eliminates a class of diligence failure that kills most first-time acquirers
Proprietary workflow automation tools built for scheduling, compliance tracking, invoicing, and customer communication — cutting administrative work and tightening execution from Day 1
The combination of industrial pattern recognition and pre-built operational tooling gives this acquisition a faster path to margin improvement than most buyers in the Georgia SMB market
Terms & Structure
8% preferred return to co-investors, 70/30 split after. Target returns: 25–35% IRR base case, 45–55% upside. Exit at 7–10x on improved SDE in years 5–7.
Most ETA operators spend the first 12–18 months learning how to run the business.
We deploy systems on Day 1.
We’ve built a proprietary workflow automation platform covering compliance calendar management, customer communication routing, dispatch scheduling, invoice generation, and reporting. It deploys on Day 1. Greg’s role post-close is exception handling, client relationships, regulatory judgment, and strategic decisions.
Day 1 deployment means every automatable workflow is live before the previous owner's transition period ends — eliminating the 12–18 month learning curve most first-time acquirers face. The 90-day SDE review measures whether the deployment is performing as expected.
Most operators build operational systems reactively, months after close. We build them before. Most buyers spend the first year learning the business. We spend it improving it.
What the Platform Handles
Deployment Timeline
Built for alignment. Structured for downside protection.
Structure at a Glance
What co-investors are NOT exposed to:
No personal guarantee on SBA debt (investors under 20% ownership are exempt)
No operational obligations (Greg runs the business full-time; co-investors are passive)
No capital calls beyond initial investment
Maximum loss is limited to the invested amount ($50–200K per investor)
The <20% ownership threshold is critical. SBA personal guarantee requirements apply only to owners holding 20% or more. Each co-investor holds less than 20% by design — protecting them from the personal guarantee that applies to Greg.
Three cases. Honest numbers.
Downside
Slow growth, market headwinds
Base Case
AI ops deployed, steady execution
Upside
Strong ops + multiple expansion
Post-Tax Structural Advantage
ETA exit gains are taxed at 29.5% vs. W-2 income at 42–45%.* On equivalent gross earnings, an ETA operator retains 25–30% more capital after tax than a comparable W-2 earner. The gap compounds over 20 years.
*Federal LTCG (20%) + NIIT (3.8%) + Georgia state tax (~5.75%). W-2 comparison at top federal bracket. Individual tax situations vary.
Downside Protection
SBA debt paydown over 5 years builds equity in scenarios where the business survives and underperforms. In a total loss scenario, co-investors are exposed to their initial investment — no more, no less. The preferred return structure ensures co-investors are paid before Greg in any distribution.
Illustrative scenarios only. Returns are highly sensitive to entry multiple, leverage terms, transition quality, and post-close execution. These ranges are not a guarantee and do not represent a complete probability distribution.
The operator behind Kholin Capital.
Greg F.
Founder & CEO, Kholin Capital
Based in Atlanta, Georgia. Married, three children.
5+ years. Led industrial operations engagements across mining, energy, and manufacturing. Clients included Fortune 500 industrials and mid-market operators. Focused on operating model design, workflow improvement, and operational excellence — diagnosing margin leakage and building the systems to close it.
MBA, concentrated in operations and entrepreneurship.
What investors ask us.
Where we are. What comes next.
We are in active search. Co-investor commitments are non-binding until a specific deal is identified and a formal subscription agreement is executed.
Ready to talk?
This site is for informational and discussion purposes only and does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any securities. Any investment in Kholin Capital or its affiliates will be made only pursuant to a formal offering document, subscription agreement, and LLC operating agreement provided to qualified, accredited investors. Past performance of search funds or comparable strategies is not indicative of future results. All projections are illustrative estimates based on market benchmarks and are not guarantees of future performance. Investing in small business acquisitions involves significant risk, including the potential loss of the entire invested amount. Prospective investors should consult their own legal, tax, and financial advisors before making any investment decision.